Some opinions are so widely held that for all intents and purposes they might as well be regarded as facts. One is that the gypsy Django Reinhardt was one of the most important guitarists jazz has ever had. Another is that, in the words of Duke Ellington, Reinhardt was “Europe’s pre-eminent jazz instrumentalist of all time.”

Reinhardt (1910-53) was the first major guitar star of 20th-century pop music and jazz, the first to glamorize the instrument and claim the international spotlight, as well as a bandleader and an imposing composer. Besides being one of the most colorful characters in a music filled with them, he was one of its most prolific recording artists – a complete edition of his extant recordings, currently being produced in France, looks to total of more than 40 discs.

Most discussions of Reinhardt consider him primarily as a jazz musician, focusing on his role in the history of that music. Reinhardt’s frequent producer, Charles Delauney, published three different books on him in French and English, and what these writings lack in objectivity, they make up in firsthand knowledge. But now, for the first time, there is an English language biography of the man, Michael Dregni’s “Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend” (Oxford University Press, 326 pages, $35).

Mr. Dregni’s subtitle is well chosen. The great strength of his book is his tireless research into the world of Django’s gypsy roots. He has tracked down and interviewed as many of Reinhardt’s relatives as he can find, as well as with older gypsies who knew and worked with him. The result is a more complete portrait of Reinhardt’s inner life, including his relationships with his parents, his wife and many other women, and two sons. There is even a detailed account of the tragic fire that cost him two fingers. Though he lived most of his life in Paris and is frequently referred to as a French musician, Mr. Dregni insists he should primarily be regarded as a Romany or Gypsy. (His primary language was Romany, and he rarely felt at home in the non-Gypsy world or sleeping in a house.)

Mr. Dregni is also a guitarist, and the technical descriptions of Reinhardt’s playing are welcome. The author is especially good at describing the pomp rhythm that drives Reinhardt’s classic recordings with violinist Stephane Grappelli and the Quintette of the Hot Club of France and in discussing Reinhardt’s gradual conversion to bebop in the postwar period. In fact, one would like to see more of Django’s music discussed – Reinhardt left behind nearly 800 tracks, and I would have been happy to read several dozen pages more of musical analysis.

Reinhardt was one of the most important improvisers of the swing era, on a par with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Art Tatum, and Benny Goodman. Along with Hawkins, with whom he performed and recorded, Reinhardt was responsible for nudging jazz in the direction of harmonic improvisation: Both men were less interested in restating a pre-written melody than in spinning extravagant new tunes on the original chord sequence. And Reinhardt brought a new harmonic sophistication to jazz by opening up its standards with a European harmonic sense.

The strengths of “Django” outnumber its weaknesses, but the number of minor errors Mr. Dregni makes suggest a lack of background regarding American jazz. Bobby Jaspar was a Belgian saxophonist, not an “African American expatriate. ” Few jazz scholars would refer to Roy Eldridge as a “bebopper.” And Duke Ellington was hardly “famous for his strict rehearsals.” The most egregious misunderstanding, however, is the author’s dismissal of the major American, non-gypsy influence on Reinhardt: Eddie Lang.

Lang recorded prolifically as a sideman and left plenty of evidence – in a series of what were then called chamber jazz sessions – that he was the first great and fully formed pure-jazz guitar soloist. Reinhardt and Grappelli’s combination of guitar and violin was not something that came out of Gypsy or French traditions (as Mr. Dregni makes clear); rather, the Hot Club quintette was directly inspired by Lang and his partner Joe Venuti. Indeed, traditional jazz trumpeter Max Kaminsky once dismissed Reinhardt and Grappelli as mere “hillbilly versions of Venuti and Lang.”

Still “Django” is a remarkable book, and its outsider’s perspective is part of the reason. It would also be the perfect thing to read between sets at the Bluenote’s annual Django tribute, which kicks off tonight and runs all week.

For the last four years, producers Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta have been producing Django concerts and festivals not only at Birdland but around the world. Like Mr. Dregni, they emphasize Reinhardt’s role in the gypsy world. This year the leading man is the formidable Dorado Schmitt; the rest of the lineup changes nightly, with a lineup including clarinetist Dan Levinson (November 10), tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm (November 13), and two fierce combatants and showmen in Harry Allen (tonight) and James Carter (November 11).

So listen in – and read up.

Django on Disc

The best way to pick a Django package is by size: For a representative single disc, there’s “The Best of Django Reinhardt” on Blue Note (CDP 7243 8 37138 2 0), which offers 18 of his best Swing label and HMV recordings from 1936-1948. If you’re ready for a bigger bite, Mosaic’s Django package has a title that’s almost as long as the six discs, “The Complete Django Reinhardt and Quintet of the Hot Club of France Swing / HMV Sessions 1936-1948” (Mosaic MD6-190), which will probably satisfy most everybody.

If you want the full Django, however, then only the French “Integrale Django Reinhardt” series will do. This set so far consists of 18 double-disc packages – nearly 750 tracks altogether – containing every surviving scrap of audio on which Reinhardt is present, from early sides with musette accordionists to French pop vocals and dance music from the mid-1930s, the classic quintette sessions, radio airshots, and many wonderful meetings with French and American jazz giants. So far the series takes us up to 1950; it will probably take at least one more double volume to finish off the canon.