Le Club Saint-Germain sits at 13 rue Saint-Benoît was formerly operating under the name of Le Tabou at 33 rue Dauphine in Paris' left bank district in the fifth arrondissement. Le Tabou was a popular underground establishment that opened April 11, 1947 and was frequented by young people who gathered to sing, dance, drink and socialize.[1] Not only was the jazz club a hot spot for the local youth but for famous existentialists that we are familiar with today such as Simone de Beauvoir, Juliette Greco, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.[2] When the club made its debut, it opened with an orchestra lead by the infamous jazz trumpeter, Boris Vain. He gives the following description of the club: "one ended up in a long passageway, like a Metro station, but much smaller and much dirtier…the cigarette smoke was nearly like a London fog and the hullabaloo so intense that…one did not see anything.[3]" He gives us the impression of a typical smoky jazz bar that we associate with today. Although the attendance of many intellectuals brought popularity from the Left Bank, the club lost the majority of its attendance when one night, members of the orchestra fired more than 100 shots into the air. All of Le Tabou's customers began to flock to Le Club Saint-Germain which absorbed Le Tabou's clientele leaving it barren and to be transformed into a hotel.[4]

Le Club Saint-Germain was an important site for jazz history in Paris as it was located off of the highly popular and frequented street Saint-Germain-des-Près. This street, which divided Paris' Latin Quarter, was known for its jazz caves which attributed to the musical culture of Paris. These Saint-Germain clubs were important for the establishment, production and popularity of jazz musicians we are familiar with today. Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Claude Luter are all present day famous musicians that had their debuts in Saint-Germain jazz clubs. Louis Armstrong was said to be the first great jazz soloist of his time.[5]

The Saint-Germain clubs were also where the Hot Five made their debut and changed the name of jazz.[6] This group of five extremely talented musicians changed the jazz scene by moving music from ensemble-based to solo-based. This was one of the primary ways in which the infamous Louis Armstrong became known as one of the greatest soloist of his time. Armstrong and his début band consisted of Johnny Dodds on the clarinet, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo and, Lil Hardin-Armstrong on piano.[7] Together they made what would be known as the finest jazz recoding group of their time.

Another reason that Le Club Saint-Germain was important was because it not only served as a rendezvous point for young people to socialize but it served as a hot spot for black-market goods exchange. Goods included nylon stockings, bike tubing and American records.[8]

[1] "Jazz Liberates Paris | AMERICAN HERITAGE". 2000. Americanheritage.Com. http://www.americanheritage.com/content/jazz-liberates-paris.

[2] "Left Bank sings blues at jazz club's demise; Le Tabou, Paris." Times [London, England], July 3, 1995, 9. Academic OneFile (accessed November 25, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.library.brocku.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=st46245&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA115432588&asid=741169fed8927f26ed3afd3f193319f5.

[3] Ibid.

[4] "Jazz Liberates Paris | AMERICAN HERITAGE". 2000. Americanheritage.Com. http://www.americanheritage.com/content/jazz-liberates-paris.

[5] Lewis, Steven. 2017. "Louis Armstrong | Smithsonian Music". Music.Si.Edu. https://music.si.edu/essay/louis-armstrong.

[6] Mouëllic, Gilles. "Le Jazz Au Rendez-vous Du Cinéma: Des Hot Clubs à La Nouvelle Vague." Revue Française D'études Américaines, 2001, 97-110. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.brocku.ca/stable/20874825.

[7] "Louis Armstrong And His Hot Five". 2017. Redhotjazz.Com. http://www.redhotjazz.com/hot5.html.

[8] "Left Bank sings blues at jazz club's demise; Le Tabou, Paris." Times [London, England], July 3, 1995, 9. Academic OneFile (accessed November 25, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.library.brocku.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=st46245&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA115432588&asid=741169fed8927f26ed3afd3f193319f5.