Every Sunday, jam sessions are held at the Pélissier lounge in La Plaine. Pianist Willy Molinetti plays jazz at the bar of the Grand Hôtel Noailles too. Le Martinez, a cellar club like those in Saint Germain des Prés in Armeny Street, also offers concerts and dancing. At the same time, a section of the Hot Club is created in Aix and conducted by Marcel Blache. In 1946, Monsieur Brunet, President of the Hot Club of Marseille, gets Louis Armstrong to come in Marseille. In 1948, Dizzy Gillespie and his Big Band appear live at the Opéra. And the following year, it is Charlie Parker’s turn. This is how the masters of jazz are getting used to stop at Marseille.

The Great Years : 1950-1965

In the 50’s, debates rage between traditional jazz lovers and bebop enthusiasts in Marseilles as well as elsewhere in France. Among the former are Jean Pierre Lindenmeyer, Léo Missir, Willy Molinetti, Gilbert Gassin and Marcel Zanini. Among the latter are Georges Arvanitas, Robert Pettinelli, Louis Belloni, and the rising generation, such as Henri Byrss, Alain Fougeret, Gaston Ménassé and Roger Luccioni. Both groups have their own club : La Chistera for jazz traditionalists and the Saint-James which became the temple of bop fans. The Robert Pettinelli Quintet formed by Éric Vidal, Georges Arvanitas, Edmond Aublette and Louis Belloni is one of the best groups in town. They scooped the first prize at the Grand Tournoi, an amateur tournament with more than 30 competing bands organized by André Francis and Charles Delaunay in Paris.

While Marcel Zanini is getting in favor of the most innovative forms of jazz by traveling to the United States between 1954 and 1958, the quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns is going on relentlessly. At the end of the 50’s, René Bard, conductor of the Hot Club of Marseille, takes no risk and only invites jazz greats : Sydney Bechet, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie. The schism becomes inevitable. Roger Luccioni launches the Jazz Hip magazine with some of his friends such as Pierre Bompar -who will later collaborate with Jazz Magazine- with a view to oppose the Parisian diktat of the Jazz Hot magazine. Jazz Hip mentions the concerts in Marseille as well as those in Paris, Juan-Les-Pins, etc, and talks about cinema and science fiction with rigour and plenty of humor. The musical counterpart of the magazine is the Jazz Hip Trio with Roger Luccioni on bass, Jean-Bernard Eisinger at the piano and Daniel Humair on drums. Several tunes composed by the Trio will be played by people like Didier Lockwood or Barney Wilen. The Jazz Hip Trio releases two albums for the Riviera label and composes movie soundtracks such as L’Araignée by Rémy Grumbachand or the Madame êtes-vous libre ? TV show.

At the same time Roger Luccioni organizes more than 52 concerts until the end of the 60’s and holds a jazz column in the newspaper La Marseillaise. Jean Arnaud, manager of the Saint James club, writes in the newspaper Le Provençal and hosts TV shows, while Jean-Louis Ginibre invites Georges Arvanitas and Willie Molinetti in his Reflet du Jazz show. Other new jazz clubs open in town, such as L’intérieur. The great series of concerts organized by Roger Luccioni take place in various locations : the Opera of Marseille, the Gymnase theater, the Alcazar, the Vallier hall, the Casa d’Italia, the Medical School etc. Among the many memorable concerts, let’s remind that of Charlie Mingus, Art Blakey and the Messengers in ’58, and that mythical one with Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk together on stage at the Alcazar in ’61. In ’63, Duke Ellington and his big band played at a charity concert for the Cancer Research Society at the Medical School. Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson performed live at the same period. In ‘64, it was Miles Davis’s turn. That year is crucial for jazz in Marseille as Pierre Barbizet, director of the National Conservatory of Marseille since 1959, allows Sydney Bechet’s trumpet Guy Longnon to create the first jazz class in a French conservatory. This is how the first generation of non-self-taught jazz musicians appears. Free Jazz reached Marseille in the 60’s.

From the end of the 70’s to nowadays

The 70’s were not a brilliant period in the history of jazz in Marseille. However, let’s remind that it is Simone Ginibre from Marseille who created the now famed Great Jazz Parade of Nice in 1973. A former jazz singer, she performed in Marseille as well as in Paris and accompanied Bud Powell. She also was the wife of Jean-Louis Ginibre, director of Jazz Magazine. She became the European manager of some of the greatest jazz musicians : Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Charlie Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock etc. At the end of the 70’s, Marseille comes back to jazz. Jean Pelle becomes a prominent organizer on the jazz scene, at first with the Passe-Temps club, then with the Pelle-Mêle club in 1979. The creation of free radio stations allows jazz to be aired on a regular basis. Jean Pelle spends 3 years as a chronicler in the Jazz à Pelle broadcast on France Inter Marseille radio. The radios Forum 72, Radio Star, Radio Sud Contact, Fréquence Marseille and Radio Grenouille also broadcast jazz.

In 1982, Yves Sportis creates the Le Cri du Port (The Cry of the Port) association, which organizes a regular series of concerts featuring Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Chet Baker. On that occasion, Lionel Hampton et Dizzy Gillespie are given the Marseille City Medal. The Le Cri du Port association releases 2 films : Chico Freeman : escale à Marseille (1984) and Robin Kenyatta (1987). Since then, Yves Sportis has become the editor of Jazz Hot magazine, whose head office has been transferred to Marseilles.

New concert halls such as the Espace Julien and the Cité de la Musique contribute to the development of jazz in urban life. Two record labels created in Marseille release some jazz albums : CELP records and Tou Foul Production. New musicians such as Olivier Témime (tenor saxophone) and his Quintet are gaining fame.

In 1997 a first festival is created, called Marseille Jazz Transfert. Jazz can thus be heard in unusual places, such as the Vieille Charité or the Jardin des Vestiges. The City of Marseille organizes about 10 jazz concerts during the 1998 Soccer World Cup.

At the dawn of the third millenium, The Five Continents Jazz Festival comes to life in the park of the Palais Longchamp. Jazz has found a place that matches its standards. With regards to the success of the first ten editions, the festival’s history will last.

Petite histoire du jazz à Marseille - A brief history of jazz in Marseille
Roger Luccioni & Jean Pelle