also see Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

The Quintet of the Hot Club of France (or Quintette Du Hot Club De France) consisted of Grappelli on violin and Reinhardt on guitar, along with Louis Vola (bass) and Roger Chaput and Joseph Reinhardt (guitars).

There are several versions of how the band was formed. The most likely comes from bassist Louis Vola, who said in an interview that he found the Reinhardt brothers playing on a beach at Toulon. He invited them to jam with his own band, which included Grappelli and guitarist Roger Chaput.

After a series of informal jam sessions at the Hotel Claridge, concert promoters Pierre Nourry and Charles Delauney (leaders of the "Hot Club de France") urged the formation of a full time group. With the addition of Reinhardt's brother Joseph on second rhythm guitar, the quintet popularized the gypsy jazz style. A series of European tours were very successful. Several bassists and rhythm guitarists rotated in and out of the group, with Django and Grapelli remaining the sole constants.

The group disbanded in 1939 due to World War II. Django continued using the Quintette name to for a different group, with Hubert Rostaing as the first of several clarinetists backed by a more conventional rhythm section with drums, bass and a rhythm guitar played by Django's son Lousson Reinhardt, or his brother Joseph.

In 1946, Grappelli and Django reestablished the earlier Quinette lineup, which performed and recorded intermittently until about 1948.

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