If you can find someone to sit in with and play along with it will bring you on in leaps. Try learning the changes and rhythms before picking out the melody lines.
I played in a gypsy jazz trio for a couple of years and rarely took a solo but I certainly had my hands full keeping the rhythm driving along.
If I played every day for the next 50 years I'd never get close to Lagrene or D'jango but it's fantastically uplifting music to play, even if it means taking a few shortcuts, musically!