Keep (it) Swinging: Jazz aux Champs-Élysées - a European broadcast of light music and Jazz

Jazz aux Champs-Elysees - a European broadcast of light music and jazz ( English) Jazz aux Champs-Elysées - Jack Diéval: De Franse Pete Felleman (Nederlands)

Jack Diéval présente ...
JAZZ AUX CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES - a European broadcast of light music and jazz.
Hans Koert

One of the most popular French radio programs on Paris-Inter from the 1950s and 1960s must have been “Jazz aux Champs-Élysées”, directed by Jack (= Jacques) Diéval …. Une émission européenne de variétés et de jazz. ( = A European broadcast of light music and jazz. )

Jack Diéval, the man with the pipe (1921) ( source: Jack Diéval Trio - Live at the "St. James de Paris)

Producer, host and piano player Jack Diéval, the man with the pipe, born September 1921, was a popular announcer during the 195os and 1960s and hosted the program for more then 20 years. What made the program so special?
Jazz aux Champs Élysée ( released by INA) (cover photo: The Delta Rhythm Boys) ( photo courtesy: Ina, Louis Joyeux, Paris)

Well - In Holland we had a similar popular radio program for the AVRO entitled Swing and Sweet from Hollywood and 52nd Street by Pete Felleman, which lasted for more then 50 years. The difference between Jack Dieval's Jazz aux Champs-Élysées program in France and Pete Felleman's Swing and Sweet in Holland was that the latter played gramophone records, while most of Jack Diéval's music was live or especially recorded for his program. Bobby Jaspar (1926 - 1963) ( source: Vogue)

The US musicians that visited France where invited to join the program, accompanied by the JACE All-Stars ( JACE: Jazz aux Champs-Élysées), with great names like guitarist René Thomas, Guy Lafitte and Roger Guérin, to list some. Some of the foreign jazz musicians that joined the program were Lester Young, Donald Byrd and Bobby Jaspar, Walter Davis jr., Lucky Thompson, Chet Baker and Catharina Valente, Stéphane Grappelli, Stan Getz and the Delta Rhythm Boys.

The Delta Rhythm Boys (Source:http://www.ukforsk.se/ukf/bd-delta.htm )

Thanks to the French INA ( the French Sound and Light archive) some of these recordings are re-issued on a cd entitled Jazz Aux Champs-Élysées L'émission culte de Jack Diéval. The album contains almost 2 dozen tracks from the 1955 - 1959 period with the foreign guests listed above.

Catharina Valente (1931) and Chet Baker ( 1929-1988) ( source:
https://eee.uci.edu/programs/rgarfias/links/chet-baker.html )

The album contains extensive information about the musicians. A must is you love to learn more about these visiting jazzmen ......... and the European jazz history of the 1950s.

INA has created a French national archives of what has been broadcast over French radio and television: almost 30,000 hours are available on its sites. A great treasure ......... The album can be ordered at its website.

Another selection of tunes by Jack Diéval - Jazz aux Champs-Élysées, with a program by Jack Diéval and his JACE-All Stars, has been released in the budget series: Jazz in Paris.

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl

Jack or better Jacques Diéval, the man with the pipe, was the host and producer of Jazz aux Champs-Élysées, a weekly program on Paris-Inter with light music and jazz during the 1950s and 1960s with numerous US guests musicians who visited Europe. The musicians where accompanied by his JACE All-Stars, which featured the best French jazzmen of that moment. The INA released a great album with a selections of those concerts, featuring great names like Lester Young, Stephane Grappelli, Chet Baker and Bobby Jaspar. Keep Swinging recommends this pearl of European Jazz ... If you don't want to miss its contribution, follow it at Twitter or ask for its free newsletter.