Adler recorded four tunes, two takes each, with Django and the
Quintette of the Hot Club of France in 1938 (Stéphane Grappelli
played piano as it was felt violin would clash with the harmonica -
same range, similar vibrato, sustain, etc.)
The tunes:
BODY AND SOUL
LOVER, COME BACK TO ME (TAKE 1)
LOVER, COME BACK TO ME (TAKE 2)
MY MELANCHOLY BABY - I GOT RHYTHM (TAKE 1)
I GOT RHYTHM (TAKE 2)
Note that both takes for all tunes did not survive - or
were "privatized" into someone's collection.
The entire surviving session is available from Frémeaux Associates on
their Intégrale (complete works) Django Reinhardt Vol. 8, a 2-CD set.
http://www.fremeaux.fr/pages/catalogue/fiches/pg_Rock'n-Roll-116.htm
This version of Body Soul is in C instead of the original key of Db -
not sure why; Db is a relatively easy key on a C chromatic. I haven't
investigated this thoroughly enough to ascertain which key of
chromtic Adler used, but there is a good chance it's a C-harp. Adler
did use non-C instruments in the 1930s, usually in the key of the
tune being played.
Adler had such a luminescent sound - totally antithetical to jazz,
and he frequently stated "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a jazz
musician." This was by way of defending himself from jazz critics
while playing much of the same then-popular repertoire of the
songwriters of the period that jazz musicians played. But what a
beautiful sound.
Winslow