Worlds of night

Jazz, eastern Paris, African music, celebrations

Cradle of jazz

: Iconic Latin Quarter jazz club, 1954

Paris was the first European city to welcome black American musicians. Its prestigious intelligentsia recognized the intellectual and rigorous aspect of a music conventionally deemed too gripping to be serious.

It remains the capital through which most jazz musicians sooner or later pass.

: The same place now

One hears excellent jazz in a great hotel, or a jazz club, a café or a neighborhood joint where the patron loves music.

We can suggest where to go.

Eastern Paris is where the arts flourish now, as they did in Montmartre or Montparnasse...

•Eastern Paris, where new worlds emerge

: Café in Belleville, a neighborhood in eastern Paris

... because the relatively modest rents in these distant, working-class neighborhoods lead youth and artists to settle there : Please CLICK.

Here you need a guide. We take you to places where insiders congregate, and, on Fridays and Saturdays, to a café where an excellent singer takes us under his wing.

New source of vitality – Immigrants inject a unique energy, which blends spontaneously with local roots

• One way to approach them: Let a Cameroonian chief's daughter take us under her wing.

: In an African bar

• Another way – African musicians' showcase (most Saturdays, 8-10 p.m;)

Radio, television and festival producers come to meet the evening’s performer in a Cameroonian record-store, a landmark to Africans for 40 years. They join the 20 or so onlookers for dancing and refreshments. Hosts: the store-owner’s charming family.

Europeans are welcome, but rarely know about this legendary place.

Free of charge, though you may wish to purchase a record.