Until very recently, I thought that the Hot Club de France was simply the name of the band led by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli back in the ’30s and ’40s. Some of the august readers of The Syncopated Times—many of whom are astute historians of early jazz—know better. But a bit of research taught me that the Hot Club de France began its life as a group of people in Paris who congregated to listen to 78s of what was then a new genre.
After its earliest beginnings in 1932 as a high school jazz club meant to organize dances, the Hot Club became more formal and organized when they managed to recruit Hugues Panassié, who wrote for the review Jazz-Tango, and who insisted on the name Hot Club de France. Under the leadership of Panassié and Charles Delaunay, the Hot Club de France established and expanded listening groups, sponsored jazz concerts, issued a periodical called Jazz Hot, and eventually established its own record label, Swing Records.
In 1934, Panassié and Delauney were discussing how to expand the readership of Jazz Hot to the English speaking world, when Walter Shaap arrived on their doorstep. A Columbia College graduate who had gone on to graduate school at the Sorbonne, Walter Schaap was well-suited to that expansion, and he also had a substantial record collection; the listening clubs relied at that point on the record collections of its membership. For our New York readers, it’s worth noting that Walter Schapp was the father of our own dear Phil Schaap.
The outbreak of World War Two had conflicting effects on the Hot Club. Delaunay left Paris to join his artillery regiment, and the Nazi occupation of Paris ensued shortly. The struggling Hot Club listening groups experienced a surge of attendance during the war, including not only French jazz enthusiasts, but also German soldiers, and Django himself was a regular attendee. Once back in Paris, Delaunay joined the French Resistance, and more than one meeting of the Resistance was held at a Hot Club listening party.
The Hot Club de France sponsored its first live concert in 1933. Attendance at the following concerts was spotty. During this time when the Hot Club’s concerts were standing on wobbly legs, Django and Stephane Grappelli had a regular gig at the Hotel Clairidge, and it was at backstage jams at the Hotel Clairidge that they formed their group with Louis Vola (bass), Joseph Reinhardt (Django’s brother, guitar), and Roger Chaput (guitar).
At the same time, Pierre Nourry and Charles Delaunay were arguing that the Hot Club should have an established, permanent group bearing its name. Django’s band was honored with the name the Quintette du Hot Club de France, and they recorded their first side in September of 1934, on the Ultraphon label. The band’s first recording for the record label launched by the Hot Club—Swing Records—was in April of 1937. All in all, the Quintette recorded and released over 130 titles with the Ultraphon and Swing labels, but also releasing records under the Decca, HMV, Odeon, and other labels.
A regular gig at the nightclub La Grosse Pomme (the big apple), and a highly successful tour by the group further spread the group’s name, and in fact Django was in England when the second world war broke out. The war years meant fewer recordings, but Django’s own composition, “Nuages” (“Clouds”) was first recorded during those years, and it eventually became an internationally recognized jazz standard.
The last recording that included Django and Stephane Grappelli took place in Rome in 1949.
That brings us to the present.
In June of 2024, the Hot Club de France made the decision to name Duved Dunayevsky’s band the new “Quintette du Hot Club de France.” Quite an honor, in that only Django’s and Duved’s bands have borne the name of the Hot Club. In their announcement, the Hot Club noted that Duved’s group plays entirely in the spirit of Django Reinhardt et Stéphane Grappelli.
On December 11th of 2024, the nouveau Quintette du Hot Club de France will have its debut at the prestigious Salle Cortot in Paris, ninety years since Django’s Quintette du Hot Club de France first played together under that name and at that same venue, in December of 1934. To mark this special occasion, Philippe Baudoin, will make a scholarly presentation on the evening of this historic concert. Mr. Baudoin’s book on Django Reinhardt and the Quintette du Hot Club de France is on the verge of publication. He is a great lover of jazz, a musician, a musicologist, and a teacher.
I have been a devout fan of Duved Dunayevsky since I met him and heard him play in 2020, at Tatiana Eva Marie’s birthday party in Brooklyn. I had the honor of welcoming him and the new incarnation of Staphane Grappelli: Daniel Garlitsky, to a private gig and my family’s home in 2021. I have had the pleasure of hearing him and his band play much more frequently since I moved to Paris in 2022—at La Couple, Bal Blomet, Assporare, Les Chiffoniers, La Mere Lachaise, le Café Parisien, among others. Starting in early 2025 the band will have a weekly gig at the soon-to-be-launched restaurant Jools.
Duved has dedicated his career to learning and playing in the style of Django, with the boldness and beauty that characterize Django’s playing. The nouveau Quintette is comprised of violin, three guitars, and bass. It is my pleasure to congratulate Duved Dunayevsky (solo guitar), Daniel Garlitsky (violin) Scott Koehler (bass), Andrea Soria (guitar), and Pierre Richeux (guitar) on this well-earned and well-merited honor.
Hats off! (Chapeaux Bas!) to the nouveau Quintette du Hot Club de Jazz!
Brice Moss(code name ~ Flâneur de Paris) now resides in France year-round. See his videos at www.youtube.com/@BriceMoss.
