Home Up British Luthiers Dango in USA Django'sEurope UK Pioneers GJ UK Diary

PAUL VERNON CHESTER

Manouche Maestro

Le Jazz Hot!

The French and their tireless
Promotion of Jazz Outside the USA

In the 1920s, Paris rebounded from World War I with frenetic jubilation and artistic creativity. Contributing to the energy were the Americans, including many African Americans, who either served in the armed forces during the war and declined to return home, or who travelled to Paris to experience its cordial racial and artistic climate. Parisians openly encouraged the unique talents these new residents brought with them--especially their music. "The Jazz Age in Paris" tells the story of the American expatriates who so richly contributed to modern culture.

Some Hustling This!:
Taking Jazz to the World, 1914-1929 is a narrative of first encounters, notable events, and significant figures in the internationalization of jazz. The narrative is framed by Louis Mitchell’s career abroad, beginning with his first trip as a drummer with the Southern Symphony Quintette to London in 1914 and concluding with his final attempt as an entrepreneur to operate a nightclub in Paris in 1929. The 15 years of Mitchell’s European sojourn encompassed the Jazz Age, which has been dated from around the time of the end of the First World War in November 1918 to the New York stock market crash of October 1929. Some Hustling This! is the story of the young men and women who took jazz in its formative stages to the world— a story of hope, escape, and wanderlust, success, infamy, and tragedy.

The American saxophonist and writer David Liebman describes Paris as a "bouillabaisse of people and influences, mainly from the former colonies which results in a tremendous hodgepodge of musical cultures". He also says that the French truly respond to jazz and enthusiastically embrace it as a people. Therefore, Liebman says, "Paris is the only logical place to live, beside New York, if your are interested in jazz and its offshoots".

Southern Syncopated Orchestra

While touring Europe many of the band members including Pete Robinson the drummer, Mope Desmond, pianist and Frank Bates a tenor settled quickly in South London.   A number of these black men married white Englishwomen.   By 1921 there were at least 16 mixed raced offspring.  The legendary clarinettist turned soprano saxophone virtuoso Sidney Bechet, came to England with the SSO reportedly on the considerable weekly wage of $60.  Bechet helped put the SSO and Jazz on the musical map.  He is seen as one of the twin pillars along with Louis Armstrong of Modern Jazz.  In fact Bechet only turned to the soprano Saxophone after seeing the strange straight instrument in a shop in Wardour Street, Soho.  After asking for a double octave key to be added he began to dazzle audiences with the extra power this new instrument gave him. The first serious SSO jazz review in Europe was written by the conductor of the L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet.   It talked about the virtuoso performance on clarinet of Bechet.  He said that the SSO played arrangements that were, “Extremely difficult, they are equally admirable for their richness of invention, force of accent, and daring in novelty and the unexpected.”  Ansermet even likened their musical artistry to that of a Bach Concerto.

French Assimilation of American Jazz

Harlem in Montmartre

Ray Ventura

Ray Ventura played a significant role in popularizing jazz in France in the 1930s but fled the Nazi's Jewish persecution in 41 to Brazil.

 
Trumpets : Erik KROLL et Ray BINDER.
Drums : Charlie BARNES.
Timbales : Coco ASLAN.
Sousaphone : Louis PEQUEUX.
Bass : Pierre SIMON.
Banjo : Loulou GASTE.
Guitar : Pierre MINGAND.

Ray Ventura's Collegians - Ray VENTURA  et  ses  Collégiens

The Paris and Django Connection.
It was during his stay in Ostend that Max Geldray - Jazz Harmonica - met Ray Ventura. Ray told him that whenever he would come to Paris he would set him up with a place to live. Ray kept his promise and Max became a full member of the "Ray Ventura Orchestra" until the second world war broke out.  It was early in 1938 when Max met Django Reinhardt at the "Hot Club de France", Django had already heard about Max. There were about six musicians playing some light melodic jazz and after about 15 minutes Max was asked to join in. The friendship with Django lasted till early 1940 when Max fled to England. He was Jewish - Max Leon van Gelder - and didn’t like the idea of falling into the hands of the Nazis. The fact that Holland was a neutral country made it easier for him to leave.  He had to wait until May 1945 to go Amsterdam where he was unable to find his family. Sadly, both his parents and younger sister had been killed by the Nazis.

Ray Binder

http://voila.net/musiciensjazzparis2/page4/index.html

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/ray-binder/index.html

http://jazzsallesconcerts.ifrance.com/

Eddie Barclay was born on Jan. 26, 1921, in Paris, where his father was a waiter who later owned a cafe opposite the Gare de Lyon. His original name was Édouard Ruault. As a teenager, he was thrilled by the American jazz he heard on the radio, and he taught himself to play the piano. He performed in his family's cafe and later in cafes around Paris. After the war, Édouard, who hoped to make a career in jazz, changed his name to the American-sounding Eddie Barclay

Garnet Clarke and his Hot Club’s Four (1935) Garnet was also on the Spanish Tour
 Bill Coleman (trumpet and vocal), George Johnson (clarinet and alto sax), Garnet Clark (piano), Django Reinhardt (rhythm guitar), June Cole (bass)
 Object of my Affection

Garnet Clarke 1917-38 spent the remaining years of his life in a French mental hospital. He was only 24 when he died and had been a professional musician since the age of 16 when he began working in Washington D.C. in a band fronted by drummer Tommy Myles. In 1934 the pianist had headed up the coast to New York City and became a regular at several different clubs. He recorded with Alex Hill and joined up with the Charlie Barnet group during a period when the superb saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter was also greenhorning his way into the same band. Carter liked this pianist just fine: they decided to jump the Barnet ship despite some fine music and head for Europe at the beckoning of Willie Lewis, an early American expatriate jazz ambassador. Backing up Django Reinhardt was one of the career moves made by this circle of musicians that ensured a respectable discography. This collaboration only lasted a brief time, however, with Clark drifting away from both Lewis and Carter, seeming to prefer the discipline of solo piano. In the mid '30s he performed in Switzerland quite a bit, often backing up the vocalist Adelaide Hall. He suffered a mental breakdown in 1937 and never performed again.

Bill Coleman was one of the most important jazz trumpeters of the swing era. Born in Kentucky in 1904, he moved to New York in 1927. Over the next few years he made his name playing with many of the top bandleaders, including Luis Russell and Fats Waller. In 1933 he performed in France with Lucky Millinder. He spent the war years in New York, playing with, among others, Andy Kirk, Mary Lou Williams, Sy Oliver and Billy Kyle, before moving to Paris in 1948 to lead his own band. Bill Coleman toured widely and the book contains fascinating anecdotes about his trips to India, Egypt, the Philippines and Japan. He died in 1981

George Johnson's (Clarinet Alto & Tenor Saxes) actual professional career began with affiliations among three bandleaders: Zack Whyte, Benny Carter, and Freddy Taylor. The latter artist took Johnson on a European tour, and this changed his life forever.  Historically, this Johnson's status is principally among one of the early generations of American jazz musicians who sought refuge on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. He was more of a rover than a settler, perusing scenes in a variety of countries including the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Switzerland. When the first Taylor tour ended, Johnson opted to hang out in Paris where he began working with Willie Lewis, a pioneer in the art of being an expatriate. The groovy Ville D'Est was a spot where Johnson led his own band, and he continued with similar gigs into the late '30s. Then he went back to the United States until roughly the end of the second World War. During that period he was associated with Frankie Newton and John Kirby; Raymond Scott Fans may notice Johnson as one of the players involved with the legendary 1942 CBS recording sessions. George Johnson packed up his alto and tenor saxophones and clarinet and went back to Europe, where he was last seen sitting by the side of a canal in Amsterdam. He played with Bix Beiderbeck's Wolverines.

June Cole was a male jazz performer whose career began in the '20s, the former detail clearly indicated by his full name, June Lawrence Cole. He appears to have tried out every kind of bass instrument used in jazz, including the popular choice of the early times, tuba, as well as string bass and bass saxophone. nth bass he might have played that as well. His first professional gig was with the Synco Jazz Band in his native Springfield, OH. This group evolved into the original McKinney's Cotton Pickers, with Cole still in the line-up. In late 1926, Cole finally left this outfit to join Fletcher Henderson, staying until 1928 and an opportunity to tour Europe with bandleader Benny Peyton.

Cole became one of the earlier American jazzmen to try a longer stay in Europe, moving from the Peyton outfit to that of Sam Wooding, and then finally joining up with the grand expatriate Willie Lewis, a man whose gigs provided plenty of players with money to buy everything from croissants to cappuccino. In 1941, Cole finally returned to the U.S. and began leading his own groups in New York City as well as working in a quartet led by Willie "The Lion" Smith. While he never gave up playing music, there was a period beginning in the '50s when players and jazz fans alike were more likely to run into him when shopping for records: Cole was the proprietor of a popular record shop located in Harlem. His gigs in this era were on a local basis around the Big Apple, including venues such as Club 845, Small's, and Wells' Bar.

 

Black Expatriate in the Jazz Age

Music on three levels: from the top to the bottom the bands of Andre Ekyan , Gus Viseur and Django Reinhardt
(Paris Occupation 1941)

Paris & Jazz

Jack Payne Show Band - Nigh Circus 1933

 

 
Mail jazzmaster@jazzeddie.f2s.com with questions or comments about the format of this web site.
Last modified: 25/08/2010