Stéphane Grappelli (26 January, 1908 – 1 December, 1997) was a pioneering jazz violinist who founded with Django Reinhardt in 1934 the "Quintette du Hot Club de France", it was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his 80s. For the first three decades of his career, he was billed using a gallicised spelling of his last name, Grappelly, reverting to "Grappelli" in 1969.