Jazz Hot

Early history

Acclaimed vanguard journalism

Jazz Hot is acclaimed for having innovated scholarly jazz criticism before and after World War II — jazz criticism that was also distinguished with literary merit, and in some articles, pre-1968, with leftist political views. Several of its early contributors are credited for helping intellectualize jazz journalism and, in turn, helping jazz gain serious attention, particularly from fine arts establishments and institutions. Jazz Hot has played an integral role integrating jazz into a French national identity.

Publication frequency

From inception of the First and Second Series, until November 2007, Jazz Hot was published monthly, but irregularly, typically combining months in the summers and sometimes the winters. Beginning with Issue N° 649, Fall 2009, Jazz Hot, has been published quarterly, regularly.

Pre-War Series, Original Series, First Series

The pre-war series — March 1935, Issue N° 1 to July–August 1939, Issue N° 32 — is referred to as the "First Series" or the "Original Series" or the "Pre-War Series." The First Series was bilingual, in French and selectively in English.

Post War Series, New Series, Second Series

The Post-war series, beginning with Issue N° 1 in October 1945, was initially referred to as the "Second Series" or the "New Series" or the "Post-World War II Series." The Second Series was and still is in French only.

Distinction as world's oldest jazz publication

Although the American jazz magazine Down Beat was founded four months before Jazz Hot, it was not exclusively a jazz magazine at the time. Ergo, Jazz Hot holds the distinction of being the oldest existing magazine in the world devoted exclusively to jazz. But the distinction has two caveats.

1. Oldest does not mean longest running; publication of Jazz Hot was interrupted during World War II, giving way to jazz magazines that have been published without interruption.
2. The issue sequence of the pre-war series, from March 1935 to July–August 1939, numbers 1 through 32, is independent from the issue sequence of the post-war series, which begins October 1945 with issue 1, which clouds the connection between the two series.

1935 — Founded as a Dixieland revivalist club publication

Jazz Hot was first published March 1935 in Paris on one page in the back of a program for a Coleman Hawkins concert at the Salle Pleyel on February 21, 1935. At its inception, Jazz Hot was the official magazine of the Hot Club of France, an organization founded January 1934 by Panassié as President and Pierre Nourry as Secretary General. In August 1938, the club was dissolved and reestablished with Panassié as President and Delaunay as Secretary General. The club was primarily interested in Dixieland recordings, revival of Dixieland — which had lost popularity due to the swing craze of the 1930s — record listening sessions, and camaraderie among like-mined enthusiasts. Panassié and Delaunay were the founders of the Jazz Hot.

Before World War II, Jazz Hot was instrumental in the club's efforts to curate, restore, and import live and recorded Dixieland. The magazine endured under the auspices of the Hot Club of France for 45 issues — the entire 32 issues before World War II and first 13 consecutive issues after World War II — until February 1947, when it became privately owned and headed by Delaunay.

Jazz Hot during World War II

Jazz Hot suspended publication — the last being July–August 1939, Issue N° 32 — for 6 years, 1 month. Panassié spent the war years at his chateau in the unoccupied zone of Southern France and Delaunay, using the Hot Club as cover, gathered intelligence that was transmitted to England. He also traveled around France, organizing concerts and giving lectures on music — all sanctioned by the Propaganda-Staffel. Unable to publish Jazz Hot, Delaunay issued clandestine, one-page publications:

Bulletin du Hot Club de France — from December 1940 to August 1941

Following the Decree of July 17, 1941, Delaunay began issuing a clandestine, one-page duplex sheet, Circulaire du Hot Club de France — from September 1941 to June 1945 — inserted in the programs of Hot Club concerts.

The Hot Club of France resumed publishing Bulletin du Hot Club de France in December 1945 as Issue N° 1.

1946 — Dispute over the definition of jazz

Panassié, editor-in-chief since the founding of Jazz Hot before the war, was adamant his entire life that "authentic jazz" was strictly Dixieland of the 1920s and Chicago-style jazz — or hot jazz similar to the style of Louis Armstrong and others. Panassié further insisted that "real jazz" was the music of African Americans and that non-African Americans could only aspire to be imitators or exploiters of African Americans.When Panassié first heard a bebop recording of "Salt Peanuts" in 1945, he ardently refused to accept it as jazz and frequently admonished its artists and proponents. He harbored the same objections to cool and other progressive jazz. His refusal to accept new genres of jazz as "real jazz" lasted his entire life.Panassié vigilantly argued that real jazz was innately inspired. He praised so-called black rhythm over white harmony and innate black jazz talent over white jazz mastery. As one musician put it, "If a black man knows some [stuff], that's talent. If a white guy knows the same [stuff], he's smart. For Panassié, Dizzy and Parker's foray into bebop, despite the fact that they were African Americans, represented a betrayal to African American jazz musicians and a departure from jazz itself because bebop required learned musicianship, which, according to Panassié, contaminated jazz because it was white music.Panassié also strongly argued that jazz was an art that should not be contaminated by commercialism. Panassié furthermore was one of the most hostile critics of swing, which emerged in the 1930s.From June 22, 1940, to November 11, 1944, Germany occupied Northern France. Panassié spent that time safely at his family's château in Gironde in the unoccupied zone of Southern France, isolated from developments in jazz. Bebop began to develop in Harlem late 1939. The outrage by Panassié began when Delaunay, in 1945, sent him a 1944 Musicraft bebop recording of Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts," a 1943 composition by Gillespie and Kenny Clarke.Panassié's views ceased to reflect the views of Jazz Hot when he left the magazine in 1946. But, because he was a co-founder of Jazz Hot and because he set a standard for covering jazz as editor-in-chief of Jazz Hot, he is closely identified with Jazz Hot, even today in 2017.Delaunay, who spent World War II years in Paris, had been following developments in progressive jazz, namely bebop and cool jazz. Delaunay also saw economic potential given that jazz in post-war France was big. Delaunay had been speaking of tolerance for modern jazz and "old white traditionalist" such as Eddie Condon and Jack Teagarden.

Schism between hot clubs

Panassié, who through November 1946, had been editor-in-chief of Jazz Hot and President of the Hot Club of France, was furious over Delaunay's views in support for new jazz and threw him out as Secretary General of the Hot Club. Panassié declared a schism in the Association of Hot Clubs movement. A few regional clubs sided with Panassié but the Hot Club in Paris sided with Delaunay.

1946 — Jazz Hot separated from the club, privatized, and began adding current and forward jazz

In the November 1946 Delaunay, André Hodeir, and Frank Ténot formally declared Jazz Hot's independence from Hot Club of France. In December 1946 (Issue N° 11), the cover featured a full-page photo of Dizzy Gillespie and the erstwhile words on the cover, "Revue du Hot Club de France," disappeared. Henceforth, Delaunay was the publisher, Hodeir, editor-in-chief, Ténot, editorial secretary, and Jacques Souplet (fr), director. Jazz Hot's registered office was 14, rue Chaptal (fr), Paris 9e Delaunay remained as the financial backer for 34 years — until 1980.

Jazz scholar Andy Fry wrote that the dispute was less about traditional jazz vs. modern than it was about closed and open notions of jazz tradition; and it involved a "healthy slice of professional jealousy." Jazz Scholar Matthew F. Jordan wrote that the split had begun, not over whether "jazz" was a threat to true French culture, but over authority over the definition of jazz and commercial control of what, by then, had become immensely popular and marketable form of mass culture.

Nonetheless, privatizing Jazz Hot and establishing a new openness to evolving jazz redefined the publication as a comprehensive jazz magazine — expanding its coverage in multiple countries and cities, rather than maintaining the erstwhile fan club publication of a revivalist niche style of jazz, for which a prime locus — a hotbed for a latent genre — was France.

1946 — Panassié resigns from Jazz Hot

December 1946, Panassié resigned as editor-in-chief of Jazz Hot, claiming that "our correspondent in the United States, Franck Bauer (fr), was used to compare Bunk Johnson to Louis Armstrong!" Jazz Hot — beginning with December 1946 issue, Vol. 12, N° 11 — removed Panassié's name as director from the masthead.

Bebop and cool

Beginning December 1946 (Issue N° 11), Jazz Hot began to add coverage of evolving jazz, which at the time consisted of so-called progressive jazz — bebop from New York, cool from Los Angeles, gypsy from France. Notable contributors included Lucien Malson (fr) (born 1926) and André Hodeir (1921–2011). Other influential magazines, notably Down Beat of Chicago, had been publishing articles that extol bebop as serious music since 1940. Down Beat had risen through the 1940s on the tide of big band swing, which declined in the late 1940s. Bebop, however, continued to develop and spread globally into an essential jazz mainstay that endures today, but has never been big in a commercial sense.

Weak tastes for swing and white big bands in France

Roscoe Seldon Suddarth, once an American diplomat, wrote a masters thesis, "French Stewardship of Jazz: The Case of France Musique and France Culture." In it, he stated that the French never developed a strong taste for swing white bands such as Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman. He and other historians attribute this to the fact that the French were cut off from American music during the war. And also, the French developed a preferences — strongly expressed by Panassié, Delaunay, and Vian — for African American musicians. Brubeck, hugly popular in America, never caught on in France. His use of formal his training in jazz offended Hodier and Delaunay. According to Suddarth, Vian was so offended by it that he refused to distribute his recordings, and also, for similar reasons, refused to distribute those of Stan Kenton.

1948 — absorbed Hot Club Magazine of Belgium

Jazz, a magazine published by the Hot Club of Belgium, ran from March to November 1945, Issues 1 through 13. After a 1-month hiatus, it resumed January 1946 under the name Hot Club Magazine: revue illustrée de la musique de jazz and ran to August 1948, Issues 1 through 29. Carlos de Radzitzky (fr) (1915–1985) was editor-in-chief of Hot Club Magazine. Beginning November 1948, the publication was absorbed and appeared as a two-page insert in Jazz Hot from November 1948 to October 1956. The Hot Club of Belgium was founded April 1, 1939, by Willy De Cort, Albert Bettonville (1916–2000), Carlos de Radzitzky, and others. The club disbanded in mid-1960s.

Subsequent back and forth criticism between Panassié and Jazz Hot

In October 1947, Boris Vian, a Sartre protégé, contributed an article to Combat, a leftest daily underground newspaper established in 1943, mocking Panassié In 1947, Delaunay co-edited some essays, collectively called "Jazz 47." It was published in a special edition of the French publication, America. The article appeared under the auspices of the Hot Club of Paris, but apparently without getting approval from the club. It included essays by Sartre, Robert Goffin, and Panassié, but Panassié was not invited to be an editor.

Free jazz and avant-garde

Jazz Hot greeted the arrival of free jazz scene in New York, and the European free jazz movement, with much fanfare, devoting considerable space to the movement beginning in 1965, and throughout the peak of the free jazz movement, from about 1968 to 1972. Leading critics included Yves Buin (fr) (born 1938), Michel Le Bris (fr) (born 1944), Guy Kopelowicz, Bruno Vincent, and Philippe Constantin (fr) (1944–1996).

Media format

Beginning with Issue N° 647, November 2008, Jazz Hot went online.

Related publication launches

Launch of La Revue Du Jazz

Panassié launched La Revue Du Jazz: "Organe Officiel Du Hot Club De France," in January 1949 (Issue Issue N° 1) (OCLC 173877110, 4979636, 19880297). Panassié was editor-in-chief.

Launch of Bulletin Du Hot Club De France

Bulletin Du Hot Club De France was launched January 1948 (ISSN 0755-7272, ISSN 1144-987X). As of March 2017, the publication has endured 69 years as the official magazine of the Hot Club of France.

Earlier jazz magazines

La Revue du Jazz was first published in Paris July 1929, Issue N° 1, by an Armenian eccentric dancer and impresario, Grégor (né Krikor Kelekian; 1898–1971), who, beginning 1928, also led a jazz orchestra with Stéphane Grappelli at the piano. It was the first French magazine to focus exclusively on jazz, but also served to promote his Grégor's big band. The magazine lasted for less than a year, ending March 1930, Issue N° 9. Panassié contributed two articles to this series.

Review Négre (fr) was founded in 1925 in Paris, partly to promote the success in France of performances by Josephine Baker. The magazine is often cited as the first French jazz magazine, though its focus was not exclusively on jazz.

Jazz-Tango was founded in Paris October 1930, Issue N° 1, and ran monthly until 1938. The magazine was published monthly and targeted professional musicians in dance bands that played jazz and Argentine tango. The magazine published the official news for the Hot Club of France until Panassié and Delaunay founded Jazz Hot in 1936. For a few publications, beginning around 1933, Jazz-Tango was renamed Jazz-Tango Dancing. In 1936, Jazz-Tango merged with L'orchestre L'orchestre, Jazz-Tango beginning with the May–June 1936 issue, N° 67. The editor of Jazz-Tango asked Panassié to become a columnist. The publication was a monthly and targeted professional musicians in dance bands. When approximately three-thousand Parisian musicians were out of work, a riff developed over Panassié declarations that true was had to be performed by black musicians. Stéphane (Marcel) Mougin (1909–1945), a pianist with the Gregor Orchestra and musicians' union organizer, contributed articles that ran counter to Panassié, in support of French musicians. Mougin was editor of La Revue du Jazz and Jazz-Tango. Notable contributors included Jacques Canetti, who had a job writing for Melody Maker. Léon Fiot, a musician, was one of the editors of Jazz-Tango.

Der Jazzwereld, a Dutch publication, was founded by Ben Bakema (artist name Red. R. Dubroy), who published the fist issued in August 1931.

Down Beat was founded in Chicago in June 1934.

Music magazines that covered jazz

Gramophone, which, as a general music magazine, included some jazz writing by critic Edgar Jackson

Melody Maker was founded in 1926