FEELING
A few years ago a veteran jazz musician was asked to form a jazz orchestra, you know, saxes, trombones, reeds, bass, drums, a piano. He did choose his saxophone players, trumpeters, drummer, trombonists, bass player and pianist with great care, looking at their professionalism. The aim was to perform the music of Duke Ellington. Of those who were selected, some were still studying, and others were already working as a professional. Yet the veteran was surprised that many of these young musicians were hardly able to play that style of music with flair, soul, swing, and with all the nuances necessary. That was then. I must admit that when you listen to the newest songs of individual young singers and musicians, a new sensitivity, a new artistry can be heard in the record shops of today.

WHY THIS INTRODUCTION?
The reason for these paragraphs can be found at the end of this page. There you will find "le clou", as the French say. But first the main course.

PREFECTURE DE POLICE
I have lived for several years in Paris, a beautiful city for visiting. However, if you live there you develop a different relationship. You learn to like the city and its inhabitants, you adept to their way of communicating which may seem cold and rude at times, especially tourists do complein, but the Parisian way is generally fast and efficient.

On the Sunny Side of the Street
An old postcard with a narrow street in the 18th arrondissement, Montmartre, with the "basilique du Sacré Coeur" in the background.
Paris... the name evokes vivid visual memories, smells and sounds for everybody. The smelling metro, hot and cold, thundering through the city's abdomen, or line No. 1, le métro à pneu, clicking while riding on rubber wheels, speeding like a "lettre pneumatique" from Neuilly to Vincennes. One level down the stations of the RER continuously smelling like a public toilet. When I lived in Paris they were building the first line of the Réseau Expresse Régional. When going out at night in the Quartier Latin it was imperative not to miss the last metro to Étoile. From there it was not too far to rue de la Pompe, and just a short distance to Rue des Acacias where I later lived in a studio. And it also happened that at a very late time a bus driver would pick you up when he had to return his bus to the garage. So you did not have to walk the last mile. Most busses were of the old fashioned, rectangular type with an open balcony at the rear. That made traveling a delight, especially in summer.

Saint Germain often meant a "hamburger à cheval" - a hamburger with a fried egg on top - in L'épicerie, rue des Saints-Pêres, or was it Rue Saint-Benoit? The joint was always packed to the brim with students and travelers, but it seemed that there were always a few unoccupied seats; you and your friends were always invited to join one of the small groups sitting elbow to elbow at the little round tables.

Zizi Jeanmaire danced with Roland Petit's Ballet her famous and amusing "Mon truc en plumes" in the Théatre du Trocadero, housed in le Palais de Chaillot. In the same complex was "le cinématèque", Place du Trocadéro where we viewed the great films of the great cinematographers like Serge Eisenstein's Le Cuirassé Potemkine and the episodes of the magnificent Ivan le terrible with the compelling musical score written by Sergey Prokofiev.
Paris had many large and smaller cinémas, about 256 at the time, advertised in Pariscope, the weekly program of what was happening in Paris. Especially the one on Avenue MacMahon, le cinématèque, and there was Empire Cinérama, Avenue Wagram, and its Russian pendant Kinopanorama on Avenue de la Motte Piquet. A contrast was this small Studio Opéra which featured the cartoons of Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other funny characters.

My friend Irene was a far better pianist than I am. We often went to play in the studios of Salle Pleyel. Our favorite shop was Piano Hamm, in rue de Rennes? There we tried these wonderful concert grands before we were kicked out by a severe lady manager or some other official. We both loved the Grotrian Steinweg in The Living Room.

On the Champs Elysees we saw "West Side Story" in the original version but had to wait for years to see "Porgy and Bess" which had been produced much earlier. The movie theater (which had bought the rights for showing Sam Spiegel's movie) continued showing West Side Story with great success. There was no hall for Sidney Poitiers and Dorothy Dandridge performing in the filming of Gershwin's masterpiece. Could be that the Gershwin Estate had already started a law suit to forbid the playing of the movie.

In every epoch Paris is filled with famous and not so famous stars, musicians, painters, designers.
Singer/actress Mae Mercer had rented the small studio above mine in Rue de la Pompe. She was busy to further her career which had more or less begun with her appearance in "La glaive et la balance", the movie with Anthony Perkins and Jean-Claude Brialy. Before going to the night club were she was performing, she always broke an "empoule buvable" with 1000 mg. vitamin C to boost her stamina.

Practically every Wednesday we played in the "Lotterie nationale" to contribute to the funds of Les geules cassées, Les mutilés de guerre and many other institution, hoping to become a millionaire.

CARTE D'IDENTITE
After my arrival I had to report to the Préfecture de police with my passport, two small ID pictures, and a certificate (déclaration) stating at what address I lived and who my employer was. In no time I had my Carte d'identité. Now I was a Parisian, so it felt, with all other Parisians.

DISCOVERING
But new as I was to this metropolitan city, I walked and walked to discover the plan of Paris, the quartiers, the neighborhoods, and all of that. I walked and travelled from Montparnasse to Montmartre, from Place d'Italie to Port Clignancourt and beyond, from Neuilly to Vincennes, and to Porte Dauphine were I worked. I fully understood Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem "Prologue" from 1955 and the verses "I want to ride through Paris in the morning, hanging on to a bus like a boy." I have to admit, for Yevtushenko it was a dream flowering, but imprisoned by the Soviet system. For me it was reality.

THEATRE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES
Music has always played an important role in my life. Not only classical. Important was jazz music as well, maybe unintentionally, maybe it became significant more or less naturally evolving from big band music I listened to when I was a kid, and the exploration of contemporary and less contemporary styles. And Paris had always a lot to offer.
When Ella Fitzgerald came to sing in the Théatre des Champs Elyssées, or Duke Ellington and His Orchestra came to town, we would visit their concerts. Ella sang evergreens, balads, and up-tempo while scat singing and improvising on the Porter, Gershwin and Arlen standards we all loved. But to our surprise she also sang the Beatles' 'Can't Buy Me Love' showing that she was up to date. I felt betrayed. Yes, she also sang: But I'am true to you darling in my fashion.... Yes, I'm true to you darling in my way...
We enjoyed Ray Nance's violin, Cat Anderson and Cootie Williams (trumpet), Johnny Hodges, Russell Procope and Paul Gosalves (alto), Sam Woodyard on drums, and the Duke overviewing the band from the immense, long concert grand piano and instructing the audience with his vinger snapping bit. There always would be an after concert gathering in some bar or jazz club.

THE LIVING ROOM
My most loved jazz venue was The Living Room, Rue du Colisée, between the Champs-Elysées and Faubourg Saint Honoré, in the 8th arrondissement. On most Saturday nights Paula and I visited the bar were two Afro-American pianists were playing: Art Simmons and Aaron Bridgers. They both had been living in Paris for several years and that is probably why Leonard Feather did not give them entries in The Encyclopedia Of Jazz (Bonanza Books, 1960).

ART SIMMONS
Art Simmons was assisted by a drummer and a bass player - I had forgotten their names but found them in a publication: Gilbert Rovère and Stuart Da Silva respectively, and later Luigi Trussardi and Charles Bellonzi, and also René Nan and Michel Gaudry are mentioned. But I do not recall them as I always looked at how Art would play, often sitting next to him watching his hands touching the keyboard. He let me. I never thought that maybe he would not have liked it, or my observing his art could have irritated him, or just made him play more intensely, starting very calmly, displaying the melody or the phrase, repeat it with a few variations, and then gradually building up and exploring ever more complex clusters of harmonies while completely getting carried away, though he always remained in control. Something like Oscar Peterson. But he had his own style, reminding me at times of Phineas Newborn on Lester Koenig's Contemporary S7600.

RECORDINGS
In my opinion this way of Simmons' playing has never been fully captured on tape, as is so often the case with performing artists, classical and jazz, the records that have been made cannot replace the actual performance. Nevertheless the records Art Simmmons made are to be cherished. The old recordings issued on the Don Byas CDs evoke the atmosphere of the early 50s. Next to Byas he played with Jean Jacques Tilche, Roger Grasset, Claude Marty, Joe Benjamin, and Bill Clarke. And he also recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Graham, and Joe Benjamin.
The Mercury record "Boogie Woogie - Piano Stylings" was made in France and gives us virtuoso performances. There is also this 45 rpm disc with trumpet player Georges Jouvin. But the virtuosity and the ecstasy displayed in The Living Room was unique. Other records that exist of Art Simmons, notably Art Simmons and his Orchestra on Ducretet Thomson, are difficult to find, and I did not get the chance to hear these.

MERCURY WING HI-FI STEREO
I was not aware at the time that Art had made quite a few recordings. The Mercury recording (SRW 12505) was made in Studio A at Barclay Studios Hoche in Paris, a famous venue for recording classical artists as well. Next to Art Simmons there was French pianist Maurice Vander, drummers Kenny Clarke and Baptist Reilles, and Emmanuel Soudieux, bass. The image above is taken from the back of the cover of the Mercury disc.
Mercury is the label which pays much attention to the choice of microphones and the microphone placement. Mercury's David Carroll writes on the back of the cover that a variety of accent microphones were used: Neumann KM 53 for the piano, RCA 44 BX for the bass, Neumann KM 56 for drums, and a pair of Neumann U 47 microphones were set apart and above the artists to provide the basic stereo image. The result is a lively and energizing recording.
. Click here for a sample of Art Simmons and Maurice Vander playing boogie woogie.

Ella Fitzgerald

Columbia CS 8707

Art Simmons (piano) can be heard in 23 selections with various artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Joe Benjamin, Pierre Michelot, Pierre Lemarchand. These were recorded in 1950 (July) and in 1952 (February 6, March 16, March 25, Théatre des Champs-Elysées; on April 6, Théatre des Champs-Elysées; and on April 10).

Memphis Slim

Claude Nougaro: Le cinéma, Les Don Juan, Une petite fille, Le jazz et la java.

On Arion ASV 52 Aaron Bridgers gives examples of his calm and entertaining style under the title Music for Dreaming: Summertime, Bess, you is my woman now, Caravan, Perdido, Somebody loves me, Billy Strayhorn's Lush Life, and 8 more songs.

I attended courses given by the Alliance française, given in the "dépendance" Boulevard Malesherbe. One evening the administrator entered the classroom and she talked in a soft, whispering voice to our teacher who looked all of a sudden very shocked. When the adminstrator had left, the teacher told us that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. That was on Friday, November 22, 1963.

Art Simmons at the piano and Georges Jouvin playing the trumpet. La voix de son maître.

With my friend and colleague Paula, I spent several Sunday afternoons at Marpessa Dawn's place in "le banlieu". Marpessa of course had become very famous by starring in "Orfeu negro" (Black Orpheus), and she performed on stage, night after night, in "Chérie noire".

The liner notes of Fontana 6424 026: Orfeu Negro was the beginning of a musical style which became as famous as the film itself: bossa nova. It captured North America first, by influencing the course of jazz and rapidly spread over to Europe and the rest of the world. Luis Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim, nowadays two living legends, together with the Brazilian singer Joao Gilberto were the composers of the soundtrack and also the creators of bossa nova.

Paula helped Indonesian friends by sewing curtains and napkins for their newly opened small Indonesian restaurant. Sometimes we had a meal there to contribute to the cash register which was most of the time nearly empty. It was no competition to the only big Indonesian restaurant "Bali".

Coming home from a night out we would play music of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara, Yves Montand, or listen to Guy Bedos. Most of my records I bought at "Lido musique" on the Champs Elyssées. Lilly Christova (originally from Bulgaria) worked their in the evenings until closing time at midnight. Afterwards we often had a coffee or drink in a "café-tabac" in a side street of the Champs Elyssées until three or four in the morning. And then she would recite Tatjana's letter from Yevgeny Onegin. Lido musique would order any record from the US. Art Blakey on Blue Note, Duke Ellington on Columbia 6-eye, David Fathead Newman on Riverside, Shelly Manne on Contemporary.

In winter we swam in the pool in Rue de Tilsit before going to work. In summer we went sunbathing at Piscine Déligny where everybody was sort of showing off. Stars and celebrities. Especially if you had a well shaped physique as Serge Nubret did. The juke box played "Hello Dolly" sung by Louis Armstrong, and Sinatra with "Oh, you crazy moon".

 

Many a Sunday evening began with a meal in Pub Renault on Champs Elysées, the showroom annex restaurant: salade aux crevettes, a Tuborg beer and a St. James Blues for dessert, the delicious icecream on cake soaked in rum.

With Brenda I visited concerts of the Colonne Orchestra with George Sebastian conducting and in the "Theatre des Champs Elyssees" we saw and heard "L'orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris". André Cluytens conducted Ravel's Boléro with just lifting one finger - only near the end his movements became wild and energizing. There I heard for the first time Kyril Kondrashin (Kondrachine).

There also was Le Batucada, the Brazilian club where we danced the batucade (of course) and other exotic danses like the bossa nova. With Patrick, a friend, I often visited "La payotte" and "Le crocodile", the jazz clubs where they played lp records. In "Le crocodile" it was the extraordinary record changer TD-224 made by Thorens which carefully changed from Jackie McLean to John Coltrane, from Thelonious Monk, via Art Blakey and Dexter Gordon to Bud Powell. On Sundays the fun of live jazz presented itself in "La cigale" in Montmartre.

TALENT
Arthur Simmons was born on February 5, 1926, enlisted in the US Army, and played in Army Bands in various European countries after World War Two had ended. When he came to France he started studying at the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire national de musique) and would play in bars and clubs to support his stay and studies. Paris has a long jazz history and always had an attraction for foreign talents; and it still has. Big names are linked to the city of lights: Django Reinhardt, Sidney Bechet, Don Byas, Bud Powell, to name a few.
When Art Simmons had settled down he played in the Ringside, renamed Blue Note, in the Mars Club, and from 1963 till 1969 in The Living Room, rue du Colisé. He was the pianist in the three movies listed on the IMDb website: Deux hommes dans Manhattan (1959; Melville), Trois chambres à Manhattan (1965; Marcel Carné), and Borsalino (1970; Jacques Deray). There is however no entry in Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz like a few more names of musicians who lived abroad are missing.

A L'IMPROVISTE
The Living Room was the place to be. It could happen that Memphis Slim unexpectedly entered, sat behind the Grotrian Steinweg and started to sing the blues and played a few boogie woogies too. Or Claude Nougaro visited and sang and played 'Le jazz et la java'. Pianist Martial Solal played in his modernistic style. Also composer-pianist-orchestra leader Michel Legrand sometimes dropped by, played and sang. All just for fun. They wanted to meet their colleagues, came after a concert, or just came to relax. Or I just found myself talking at the bar with sympathetic actor Sidney Poitiers who, like me, was just a listener too. And there was Margie, the singer. She sang "Just squeeze me, but please don't tease me", and she sang of course her song "Margie", while handsome bartender Gilles was shaking cocktails and serving drinks.

GOOD OLD PARIS
A French friend recently remarked that I had lived in a far more interesting Paris than the Paris of today. I of course do disagree but I know what he means, even though I did not witness - at least not consciously - so many other jazz greats who were performing in those days: René Urtreger, Pierre Michelot, Daniel Humair, Stéphane Grapelli, Jean-Luc Ponty, Eddy Louiss, Phil Woods, André Persiani, Guy Lafitte, Claude Bolling, etc.
The atmosphere made me a fond collector of the fabulous Black and Blue lp records of so many greats: Don Byas, Slam Stewart, Cozy Cole, J.C. Heard, Major Holley, Cat Anderson, Guy Lafitte, Jacques Dufivier, Cliff Smalls, Buddy Tate, Ellen Humes, Gérard Badini, Oliver Jackson, Hank Jones, etc.

DUKE ELLINGTON
My first encounter with the music of Duke Ellington was when, as a fourteen year old, I had bought HiFi Ellington Uptown, the Columbia recording released in Europe by Philips: A Tone-parallel to Harlem, The Mooche, Take the A-Train (with singer Betty Roché) and Perdido. High caliber big band jazz, symphonic and jungle style.
One day when Duke Ellington and his Orchestra were in town again and would give concerts in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, one of my black friends, Gene, called me on the phone and invited me to go to the Ritz Hotel to see Duke Ellington. When we arrived, Ellington was in a conference and did not have time for us. Well, said Gene, we go see Billy Strayhorn, who he knew well.

BILLY STRAYHORN
Billy (William Thomas) Strayhorn was also a resident of The Ritz. When we entered his room, he sat in his blue-gray, silken morning coat behind an antique, sculptured French desk, eating a fruit cocktail, a good meal to start the day with after a demanding concert of the night before; good to replenish your energy reserves. It was about two in the afternoon.
I was introduced and practically immediately tested to see if I was of the right caliber, to see if I had that specific feeling for jazz music. This happened when in the conversation the expression "hell no..." was used. Billy Strayhorn, the composer of Take the 'A' train, the tune of Ellington's band, said to me: "Say hhhellll-nooooohh". He said it while giving the two words equal emphasis. I did my best saying "hhelll-nooohh". I found that I succeeded quite well. But Mr. Strayhorn, who is also the composer of Lush Life and Sweet and Pungeant, was not at all content with the musicality of my effort and wanted me to say it with more feeling, with more music. He told me to listen carefully and said: "hhhhhhellll-nooooohhhhhh", as if he was playing Johnny Hodges's saxophone, or Ray Nance's violin. Again I repeated the words and gave the sound a sort of turn at the end, something like a muted trumpet or a trombone with a cup or bucket. Well, after the third or fourth time, he decided that I had passed the test. I had succeeded, but... only just!
That was the game he played. In 1965 that was. I did not know that he had already been diagnosed with cancer a year earlier and that he would die two years after this encounter when I had returned to the Netherlands after three and a halve years of living in Paris.