Before immigrating to Paris in the early 1960s, when jazz clubs had begun to take root after World War II, Gurley played in several black nightclubs on Chicago's Southside. It was one of the many post-World War II nightclubs that featured African American musicians, who were instrumental in resurrecting Paris jazz after its glory days in Montmartre. In the pages that follow, I focus on some of the principle actors who played critical roles in shaping the jazz scene in Montmartre, between the Great Wars. I leave to others to write a musicological study of the era covered in these pages, which witnessed the transformation of black American popular music through the periods of ragtime, jazz, and swing. Of the African American jazz musicians, who figured prominently in the Paris jazz scene that flourished for two decades between 1919 and 1939, few were alive when this study was undertaken.
None is known to be alive today.
The last of the French contingent of leading jazz musicians, violinist, Stephan Grappelli, died in 1998. Writing a story of Jazz Away From Home, as Chris Goddard characterized the scene of the Harlem-style musical culture that thrived in Paris after the Great War, is rather like sketching colorful must see images for a tourist brochure. The Champs-Elysees takes on a life in words that can be experienced vicariously by strolling down Paris' most famous boulevard. But descriptive words do not easily convey the characteristics of a jazz nightclub and its swinging, sounds that once attracted Parisians out for an evening soiree in Montmartre. Today, historical memories of Paris jazz performed by African American and French musicians in the early days are kept alive by Maurice and Vonette Cullaz, and Jacques Bureaux.