Jazz in Paris
Tuesday: January 21, 1:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Valle Verde Theater 900 Calle De Los Amigos, Santa Barbara
VISTAS member price: $20; non-member price $30
Presented by Darroch Greer
“Jazz in Paris” is a presentation filled with music, photos, and film tracing the development of jazz by mostly African Americans in the City of Light. Originally produced for Smithsonian Associates, this talk focuses on the vibrant French arts and culture of the belle epoque, the evolution of jazz in New York and later in Paris, the African Americans who made Paris their home, and how Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Eugene Bullard, and Ada (“Bricktop”) Smith transformed Parisian culture. We’ll learn how the European tours of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong in the ’30s transformed their careers, and how a gypsy guitar-playing genius finally made jazz French. We’ll see how WWII upended the music scene and how jazz musicians survived. At war’s end, jazz once again buoyed the spirits of the French, and prominent jazz musicians continued to come to Paris. Today, jazz in Paris is as vibrant as it’s ever been.