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Summary

Debussy lived in Paris for most of his life and left it only for short periods, with the exception of his time in Italy after he won the Prix de Rome, which he regarded as a wasted period in his life. In many ways Debussy epitomises the new confidence of the city as a centre of culture and modernity. His life embraced both its old bohemian neighbourhoods and the new, smart boulevards that had replaced much of the medieval city in the years before the Commune. This chapter explores the urban modernisation of the city during the second half of the 19th century and the Belle Époque, the development of cultural infrastructures (from museums to music halls) that transformed Paris into a ‘City of Light’, as well as technological advances that blurred the distinction between art and commodities and exerted influence on the composer’s inspiration.

‘Hot clubs’ proliferated all over Europe and the United States during the 1930s. For a brief period (1935–6), they joined forces in an International Federation of Hot Clubs (IFHC), the main purpose of which was to link together devotees in search of American hot jazz recordings at a time when they were difficult to find and buy in Europe, since that sub-genre was less popular and commercially successful than what was then called ‘straight’ jazz. The expression ‘hot jazz’ was coined by jazz musicians at the end of the 1920s and referred to a style based on performance and improvisation rather than on the composition and performance of written parts. A founder of the Hot Club de France (HCF) in 1932, the French jazz critic Hugues Panassié was the first to establish a hierarchy between these two styles:

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Chapter 1 - Paris, the City

Summary

From the History of Jazz in Europe towards a European History of Jazz: The International Federation of Hot Clubs (1935–6) and ‘Jazz Internationalism’

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Chapter 1 - Paris, the City

Summary

From the History of Jazz in Europe towards a European History of Jazz: The International Federation of Hot Clubs (1935–6) and ‘Jazz Internationalism’