Hot Club of France

The Hot Club de France 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 Lycee Carnot. In 1928, Jacques Bureaux, Hugues Panassie, 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 new style in the face of all opposition. 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, and copycat organizations sprang up across Europe to spread the music in countries like Norway and Britain.

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 Panassie was the President; these 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 strictly from their involvement. 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." 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.

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; he 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.

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