During the years between the world wars, a small but dynamic community of African American jazz musicians left the United States and settled in Paris, creating a vibrant expatriate musical scene and introducing jazz to the French. While the Harlem Renaissance was taking off across the Atlantic, entertainers in Montmartre, the epicenter of the Parisian scene, contributed enthusiastically to a culture that thrived for two decades, until the occupation of the city by German troops on June 18, 1940. In Harlem in Montmartre, William Shack takes a fascinating look at this extraordinary...
During the years between the world wars, a small but dynamic community of African American jazz musicians left the United States and settled in Paris,...