A few days ago, following the death of Sidney Poitier, I shared a clip from “Paris Blues” (1961), in which Louis Armstong engages in a “battle royal” in a subterranean jazz club with a trombonist played by Paul Newman. Poiter’s character plays tenor sax.

Unsurprisingly, the actors are ghosted on the soundtrack by Murray McEachern (Newman) and Paul Gonsalves (Poitier), both members of Duke Ellington’s band. Ellington also composed the film’s underscore. To refresh your memory, here’s the clip I included with the original post:

Now, only this morning, I was asked about the identity of the guitarist in the scene. The answer turned out to be pretty involved, so to increase the return on my investment, I figured I might as well recycle it as a separate post. I hope you find it interesting:

“This was a tangle that took me a little while to unravel. There are two guitarists credited among the personnel of Ellington’s offscreen band (ghosting for Newman and the rest): Les Spann (who is black) and Jimmy Gourley (who is white, but looks nothing like the character).

“For a minute, I thought maybe it could be Johnny Reinhardt, younger brother of Django Reinhardt (who died in 1953). Johnny was also featured in a film called ‘Paris Blues,’ but I believe this was an entirely different animal, possibly a short. None of these guitarists resembles the musician onscreen.

“Finally, I figured out it was actor Serge Reggiani (photo attached), credited as The Gypsy. A few years after his appearance in ‘Paris Blues,’ Reggiani embarked on a parallel career as a singer of French chansons.

“I was thrown off the scent by TCM, of all things, since they misattribute the part to Roger Blin in the clip below. Blin, who actually played Fausto the Moor, was also a renowned director, especially in connection with the plays of Samuel Beckett. He staged the first performances of ‘Waiting for Godot,’ ‘Happy Days,’ and ‘Endgame’ (the latter of which was dedicated to him).

“Here are a few glimpses of Reggiani the actor, misidentified as Blin:

https://www.tcm.com/video/262385/paris-blues-1961-movie-clip-wheres-the-gypsy?fbclid=IwAR3z5EDnY0Ojvu6Brgz3xU-AexqfFBl4Cb_DPx_erF08UDfX4aWMVX_CgTM ”

Another musical mystery solved. I hope Turner Classic Movies sees this and offers me a job!

BONUS: Reggiani sings “Sarah”