The Hot Club de France (or HCF) is a French organization of jazz fans dedicated to the promotion of "traditional" jazz, swing, and blues. It was founded in 1931 in Paris, France, by five students of the Lycée Carnot. In 1928, Jacques Bureaux, Hugues Panassié, Charles Delaunay, Jacques Auxenfans, and Elvin Dirat came together to listen to jazz and, later, promote its acceptance in France. The point was to make the public aware of jazz and to defend and promote the style in the face of all opposition.Mouellic, Gilles (Decembre 2001) Revue francaise d'etudes americaines, Hors-Serie: Play it again, Sim... Hommages a Sim Copans "Le jazz au rendez-vous du cinema: des Hot Clubs a la Nouvelle Vague" p. 99, Retrieved 4 April 2012. The club began in the fall of 1931 as the Jazz Club Universitaire, as the members were all still students. It was reborn and reimagined in 1932 as the Hot Club de France.
The club was founded by jazz enthusiasts and amateurs for the sole purpose of helping to spread the music to the rest of the world. The members joined together to promote the music in whatever form they could, leading to such developments as the first of many concerts in 1933, the creation of Le Jazz Hot, the club's official magazine, the founding of the Swing music label in 1937, conferences, rare-disc listening sessions, radio talks, and the birth of regional Hot Clubs, among others. This amateur organization played an important role in the diffusion and discovery of jazz in France,Jamin, Jean and Williams, Patrick (Apr. - Sep. 2001) L'Homme No. 158/159, Jazz et Anthropologie "Glossaire et index des musiciens de jazz" p. 318-319, Retrieved 4 April 2012 and copycat organizations sprang up across Europe to spread the music in countries such as Norway and Britain.
History At the time the Hot Club began promoting concerts for the Quintette du Hot Club de France, Charles Delaunay was the Secretary General of the club and Hugues Panassié was the President. These two men often occupied different top positions amongst the heads of the group, but which roles each filled during which time period is hard to determine. Both men accomplished a great amount of work with the Club prior to their schism in 1947.
The Hot Club has often adopted a fairly rigid stance in terms of the music it promotes; throughout its history the club has perpetuated the idea that only jazz rooted in the swing and blues traditions of African-American music is "authentic."Rye, Howard. CONSORT Web Catalog - pverify2 (wam), Oxford Music Online Hot Club de France, Retrieved on 20 April 2012. One example of this rigidity lies in the forced resignation of Charles Delaunay in 1947 over his growing interest in bop during the 1940s; his acceptance of the music alienated other members, notably Hugues Panassie.Oxford Music Online Hot Club de France
Although the Club is rigid in this philosophy, it is not, as some critics have said, only interested in the promotion of jazz styles from the pre-1945 era; the club has promoted the music of musicians it considers to be authentic or in some way rooted in the authentic traditions of swing and blues. These artists include, among others, Earl Bostic, Paul Gonsalves, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Ray Charles, Monty Alexander, Stanley Turrentine, and Stanley Jordan.
Around January 1934, Hugues Panassie and Pierre Nourry became the organization's president and secretary, respectively. In August 1938, the club was legally dissolved and refounded with Charles Delaunay as secretary. Presidents also included Madeleine Gautier (1975–83) and Jacques Pescheux. Louis Armstrong was elected honorary President of the Club in 1936. He held that title until his death on 6 July 1971.
The headquarters of the Hot Club de France moved from Paris to Montauban in 1948, to St.-Vrain (near Corbeil-Essonnes) in 1977, and to Nogent-sur-Marne in 1999. The total affiliated Hot Clubs in France has varied widely; there were 17 "affiliated" and two "associated" clubs in 2000. The Hot Club's library is housed at the Discothèque Municipale in Villfranche-de-Rouergue in Southern France; it was begun with Hugues Panassie's core collection, numbering in excess of 6,000 78 rpm records and 9,000 LPs, and has since expanded.
Bebop schism In 1947, a schism split the HCF into two camps: those headed by Charles Delaunay believed that the new be-bop style was simply a bold experiment at the frontiers of jazz while those led by Hugues Panassie contended that bebop was not jazz.Jamin, Jean (Apr. - Sep. 2001) L'Homme no. 158/159, Jazz et Anthropologie "Au-dela du Vieux Carre: Idees du jazz en France" p. 289, Retrieved 4 April 2012. This division between jazz fans in France was what Ludovic Tournes called "the war of jazz."
Publications Hugues Panassié, in addition to his duties with the club, wrote a monthly jazz column in the world's first jazz magazine, Jazz-Tango-Dancing, which would later become Le Jazz Hot.He likely acquired this position because of his work in Revue du jazz, a magazine that from 1929 to 1931 contained articles written by Phillipe Brun, Stephane Mougin, and the amateur Panassie.Welburn, Ron (Autumn, 1987) American Music, Vol. 5 No. 2, Jazz Magazines of the 1930s: An Overview of Their Provocative Journalism p. 256, Retrieved 4 April 2012. Jazz-Tango-Dancing appeared in 1929 as a magazine about the Argentine tango and jazz music.Welburn, Ron (Autumn, 1987) American Music, Vol. 5 No. 2, "Jazz Magazines of the 1930s: An Overview of Their Provocative Journalism" p. 256, Retrieved 4 April 2012. In 1934, Hugues Panassie and Charles Delaunay decided to launch a magazine and to form a band to represent the club's musical point of view; the magazine would become "Jazz Hot: La revue internationale de la musique de Jazz"L'Homme p. 318 and the band would become the Quintette du Hot Club de France, promoting a new jazz a cordes or "string jazz" style.
Jazz Hot, the official mouthpiece of the Hot Club, started in 1935; the first issue was a one-page edition printed on the back of a program for a concert given at the Salle Pleyel by Coleman Hawkins on 21 February 1935 and was distributed during admission.Harlem in Montmartre p. 96 Hugues Panassie edited the journal from 1935 to 1946. The writings of Panassie in Jazz Hot, along with other critics and writers, served to help define the new music according to old European traditionsTournes, Ludovic (Decembre 2001) Revue francaise d'etudes americaines, Hors-Serie: Play It Again, Sim... Hommages a Sim Copans "La reinterpretation du jazz: un phenomene de contre-americanisation dans la France d'apres-guerre (1945-1960) p. 74, Retrieved April 4, 2012. but also to place the music geographically and socio-culturally in the United States, in New Orleans, beginning with the African-American minority; this made it the first publication to acknowledge not only the contribution of African-Americans to the music, but their role as its progenitors. The second world war forced the Club to halt publication of Jazz Hot until the mid-40s.Welburn, Ron (Autumn, 1987) American Music, Vol. 5 No. 2, Jazz Magazines of the 1930s: An Overview of Their Provocative Journalism p. 257 The magazine has continued to be published, but after 1946 was no longer under the purview of the Club; this was in part due to the ideological split that forced Charles Delaunay to resign and leave the Club. Delaunay retained control of the magazine and was its main financial backer until 1980.Sportis, Yyves. Jazz Hot - La revue internationale du jazz depuis 1935 Le Jazz Hot. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
After 1950, the Bulletin du Hot Club de France became the main publication for the club; it continues in that role to this day. Hugues Panassié edited and published the Bulletin starting in 1950. The magazine Jazz Hot should not be confused with Panassie's book of the same title, Le jazz hot, published in 1934.
Clubs and venues The Hot Club de France, as it was an association, did not own its own club until 1969.Oxford Music Online CONSORT Web Catalog - pverify2 (wam) Nightclubs: France. Retrieved 20 April 2012. The Club focused its energies on planning and producing events at several major Paris clubs between its inception in 1932 and its acquisition of the Cave du Hot Club de France at 9 rue Pavee in 1969.CONSORT Web Catalog - pverify2 (wam) Oxford Music Online; Nightclubs: France
Before 1930, the Quintette du Hot Club de France could be heard at the Casanova Club on Rue Fromentin.Oxford Music Online Nightclubs, France
The Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris at 78 rue Cardinet, at boulevard Malesherbes, was used by the Hot Club de France for many of its concerts from the 1930s to 1954, beginning with the first performance by the Quintette du Hot Club de France on 2 December 1934. Among the musicians whom the Hot Club presented here were Garland Wilson, Bill Coleman, Benny Carter, and Eddie South. Further jazz concerts were given at the Ecole in 1962, 1966, and 1968.Oxford Music Online Nightclubs: France
The Hotel Claridge, at 74 avenue des Champs-Élysées, featured the double bass player Louis Vola's orchestra which played as the evening entertainment during the daily the dansant; this group gave both Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, who were members, the opportunity to jam between sets. It was during one of these informal jam sessions that members of the Hot Club "discovered" the pair.
The Salle Gaveau at 45 rue La Boetie was regularly used for jazz concerts; Pierre Nourry organized an appearance of the Quintette du Hot Club de France on 20 October 1937 and the group performed there again in March of the next year.
The Salle Pleyel at 252 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honore was the venue for several important jazz performances beginning in the years before World War II. The Quintette du Hot Club de France and several American artists, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway, performed there in the pre-war years. In 1949, 1952, and 1954 the Festival International de Jazz (popularly, the Paris Jazz Fair) organized by the Hot Club under the direction of Charles Delaunay was held in this hall. Louis Armstrong gave two important concerts in this hall; the concerts were held on 9 and 10 November 1934. It is to these performances that Panassie devotes an entire chapter of his "Douze annees de jazz."
Tours The Hot Club organized tours for several visiting American musicians; Earl Hines' tour of France in the 1960s was organized through the regional Hot Club affiliate branches.
During the 1960s, the Club also organized tours for Bill Harris, the blues pianist Memphis Slim, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Quintette du Hot Club de France The Quintette du Hot Club de France was founded with the help of Pierre Nourry and, later, the full backing of the Hot Club. In August 1934, Nourry, then secretary of the Hot Club, vouched for Django Reinhardt and his talents when he brought him and Nin-Nin Reinhardt into the Publicis Studios, a recording studio for amateur musicians. Nourry paid 80 francs of his money to have them recorded and even tracked down a bassist, Juan Fernandez of Martinique, to round out a trio.