French Jazz

I just got back from a three week trip to Paris, I was studying with an exchange program- working to improve my French. Of course, when you put a bunch of teenagers in a beautiful famous city with unlimited bars, parks, clubs, museums and restaurants with zero supervision, they're going to do a little more than study in their free time. I went out pretty much every night with my friends from the program, all of them being international and equally as interested in things like art and music. One of my favorite spots was the Caveau de la Huchette, a jazz club which I went to twice over the three weeks. The line goes out the door and around the corner, but it moves fast. When you get in, the celling is concave, like a tunnel. There's a bar with ridiculously expensive drinks, chairs and little velvet benches where people sit and sip on whatever it is they bought. There's a downstairs at the end of the tunnel-room, and that's where it gets really cool. Down the stairs, which are steep and windy in their own separate tunnel space, the air gets like ten times hotter. Then it opens up to high ceilings and a dance floor and TONS of people moving to a live jazz band at the front of the room, on its own little stage that elevates the members like angels. The first time I went it was too crowded to get any good dancing in, but the second time I went, my last night in Paris, I danced for hours with one of my good friends, another student from Vienna. It was bittersweet, and when I had to go I left him a letter which he read on the plane.

Jazz was, for the longest time, and "American style". However in WW1, it was introduced to France, prompting the country to create its own styles of the genre. One of the main European figures who aided this phenomena is Jean Reinhardt, a Romani guitar player. His nickname was Django, which I think is Romani for "I rise" (?) but that's not for certain. He started gypsy jazz, and having had contractions in his left hand, he made up alternative notes and fingering patterns to that of normal guitarists, part of what made him so interesting. 

Ten years before the war, in the 1920s, many artist found stardom in France, specifically artists of color, who's options were limited back in the US. Only in the 1930s, however, did the Hot Club de France come into existence, one of the first ever French jazz clubs that served as a hub of connections and entertainment for upcoming musicians and jazz enjoyers alike.

The Parisian style of jazz that developed over time is, like most things in France, more romantic and moody than the original. If you want an easy example, think Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose. That intro part is largely lyrical, like mouthful after mouthful, and then it diverges into more melody focused and drawn out. It gives a sense of ease and nostalgia, but also bittersweetness that is so prominent in French jazz, made for nights of dancing followed by tearful goodbyes and love letters.

Stay Loud (=