Paris Jazz Clubs
 

Suggestions on Paris jazz clubs, especially near St. Germain Left Bank?

Le Caveau de la Huchette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Le Caveau de la Huchette is a jazz club in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The building dates to the sixteenth century, but became a jazz club in 1946. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Caveau_de_la_Huchette

The famous Caveau de la Huchette is right in that immediate area.

Here are a few I remember. As soon as you get to Paris, buy the weekly "what's on" paper L'Officiel des Spectacles - goes from Wed. through Tue. and look up the listings. There's a competing paper just like it, name escapes me - same deal.

Just up from the Ile de la Cité, parallel to Rue de Rivoli, runs Rue des Lombards, a narrow but busy street full of bars and restaurants and some Jazz clubs.

Go to Google Maps and turn on street view, you'll see what I mean.

The Duc des Lombards, www.ducdeslombards.com, takes its name from that of the street, at nr. 42 Rue Lombards. The musicians vary nightly, and their styles vary. You may not know the names of the musicians appearing, but if you google each and listen to samples on their own websites, you'll soon know if they play a kind of Jazz you like.

And at nr. 60 is the Sunset, www.sunset-sunside.com - I heard some "real" Jazz there, not a smooth pseudo wannabe note all night, and not a nostalgic bring-back-the-'20s either. Tonight it's Larry Golding with Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart - say no more, the real deal.

Club Etoile at 81 Boulevard Gouvion Saint-Cyr · 75848 Paris, www.jazzclub-paris.com/?lang=en aims at being upscale, check out the musicians if their names don't ring a bell. I'm not sure if it still uses the name of Lionel Hampton (who, of course, is not with us any longer). I haven't been there in years, looking at the website makes me think it has changed.

Le Caveau de la Huchette www.caveaudelahuchette.fr/ at 5 rue de la Huchette is around the corner from Note Dame (Métro St. Michel) and offers a variety of styles, mostly traditional.

Ditto Le Caveau de la Huchette.

Down the street from Caveau de la Huchette is Caveau des Oubliettes. Upstairs is a bar with a real guillotine. Down in the dungeon, where they used to keep prisoners, there is live music nightly.

Cafe Laurent (I think that's the name) plays jazz just off the lobby of D'Aubusson.

You can find schedules and more information at www.parisjazzclubs.net.

Sorry, no "s" on club. Here is the correct link.
www.parisjazzclub.net

It really depends what kind of jazz you want to hear, as Caveau de la Huchette does not always play (or even most of the time) what you might be thinking of as listening jazz. They play some of that old time swing stuff a lot, I think, that people dance to (big band, swing, boogie-woogie etc). It's probably better for that than for people who are thinking of a nice jazz club where they sit at a table and have a drink while listening. Well, I was only there once, and it was really crowded, there wasn't even a place for most people to sit or have a table. If that's what you want, it can be fun (and the cover isn't too expensive).

We went to Caveau des Oubliettes a week ago Saturday. The place is certainly historic and worth a visit. The dungeon downstairs where the band plays is very small, crowded, hot, etc. The music was mostly 70s and 80 USA light rock, more then true jazz.

Here is a link to the schedule of events listed by a Paris jazz radio station: http://www.tsfjazz.com/jazzenda.php

Caveau de la Huchette is Caveau des Oubliettes.>

oh oubliettes - meaning to forget about i guess was a cavern that served as a drain for the castle toilets and in which they just threw poor folks, shut the door and forgot about them - at least that's what i heard on one castle tour that had an oubliette.

There is a site (www.jazz-clubs-worldwide.com) that lists jazz clubs in various places.
Note that the descriptions of the places are given by the clubs themselves. It is not a "review" of various clubs but, at least, gives you a starting list.

Ditto Christina. Caveau de la Huchette is a pretty wild dance place at times. It is certainly not the sort of sit-down jazz cafe you find in Holland. I miss the smoke.