A World Premiere
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| Hugues Pannasié |
In early
1948, when the greatest misery of the war slowly faded, president of the Hot Club de France organization Hugues Panassié had the idea to
organize a jazz festival from February 22nd to 28th (- immediately after the
carnival) at the Riviera in Nice. He relied on the earlier success of the film
festival in Cannes and the ideas of the committee which organized festivities
in the city of Nice.
It would be
an absolute premiere, for never before had such a festival occurred in the
world. Even the Americans had not organized anything of the like.
But
Pannasié's initiative, announced in the magazine "Jazz Hot", was primarily intended to get the traditional
jazz into the spotlight. Because .... ..What was the state of art in Jazz? From
the beginning of the 1940s had started a new jazz movement in the USA, the bebop. The swing was more or less on its
peak.
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| Charles Delaunay |
Secretary Charles Delaunay (whose efforts had resulted
in Django
Reinhardt’s fame) was particularly fascinated by the new style, unlike
Panassié. Even Django liked all modern. There was thus already registered the
start of a conflict within the Hot Club de France organization.
While
Panassié’s festival was sponsored and musicians like Louis Armstrong with his
"All Stars" band had been invited, as well as other greats like Earl
Hines, Barney Bigard, Baby Dodds, Jack Teagarden, Rex Stewart and Mezz
Mezzrow, Delaunay contributed with 17 men counting on the orchestra of Dizzy
Gillespie to participate. Bebop trumpeter Dizzy was shortly before the
festival invited by Delaunay and now arose among jazz fans two camps:
traditional or modern jazz.
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| Dizzy Gillespie, 1948 |
Before he
came to France, Dizzy was dogged by bad luck. In Paris, he gave a series of
concerts at the famed Salle Pleyel.
But Panassié, who attended the first concert, was extremely negative and stated
that this was not jazz. On subsequent appearances there were clashes between
supporters and opponents and even the gendarmerie had necessarily been involved.
In the
month prior to the Festival, Django
Reinhardt played in the ABC theatre, near Les Halles. Dizzy went there one
night after his performance. He found the guitarist along with bassist Emmanuel
Soudieux. Django was positively surprised, because he had already met
the trumpeter during his visit to America in 1946 and the two musicians had
become good friends and admired each other.
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| Dizzy Gillespie & Django Reinhardt |
Spontaneously
that night resulted in a jam session which Soudieux remembered how great both
musicians played and exchanged turns and what a pleasure they experienced doing
it.
Delaunay
also arranged a concert for Dizzy in Marseille plus - as mentioned earlier -
participation in the great jazz event in Nice.
 |
| Festival program |
Jazz and Entertainment
Now
something about the actual festival: To maximize the attraction of the public
to this event there had been reserved rooms the first day where could be danced
to the music of famous orchestras, while later that week could be attended
concerts.
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| Hotel Negresco |
It was
mainly the Americans who entertained dance lovers in the large halls of the Hotel
Negresco. But afterwards several band members joined - to the delight
of many Frenchmen - jam sessions in other places, i.e. "Monte Cristo" or "Christies". Well known American
musicians were treated with admiration and with all respect by the staff at
Negresco. Especially the drummer of Armstrong's orchestra, Sidney Catlett and vocalist Velma
Middleton led to the astonishment of the Negresco staff when ordering the
most expensive drinks and meals at 4 o'clock in the morning.
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| Hotel Negresco: l-r: Louis Vola, Barney Bigard, Django Reinhardt, Earl Hines, Stéphane Grappelli, Sidney Catlett, Arwell Shaw |
And there
was, of course, enormous attention and praise for Satchmo and to a lesser extent, the famous French artist Boris
Vian. Nice to say is that among the celebrities were also young
European jazz musicians like Humphrey Lyttlelton and Toots
Thielemans, who - as we know - later would make great furor.
During the
"Nuit de Jazz” there was also a "Tour de Chant" with French singers
Yves
Montand, Suzy Delaire and coming from Nice Henri Betti; all
naturally attracted extra crowds. The hall offered for this event for 600
visitors claimed 5,000 francs for each seating.
Georg Lankester
---
Jo
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