Paris's jazz clubs

Map of 5 locations in Paris, France

Paris keeps its jazz in three kinds of room: Left Bank cellars dug long before anyone played bebop in them, the fifty-metre run of rue des Lombards where three clubs sit almost shoulder to shoulder, and the halls further out in the 10th, 15th and 20th that take the bills a cellar cannot hold. Some of the names here are still booking seven nights a week and some survive mainly as a line in a 1967 listing, which is worth knowing before you set out. Each entry says which it is, where the door actually is, and whether you can get through it in a wheelchair.

Places in this collection

  • Studio de l'Ermitage — A two-storey concert hall on a quiet street above Ménilmontant, far enough east that its audience is local rather than touristic. The progr…
  • Bal Blomet — The hall at 33 rue Blomet opened as the Bal Nègre, the Antillean dance room of the interwar 15th, and the old name is still attached to the…
  • New Morning — A concert room on rue des Petites-Écuries in the 10th, well off the Châtelet jazz corridor and large enough to take touring bills the cella…
  • Café Universel — A rue Saint-Jacques room where the booking policy is the point: young players are put on stage to test themselves, backed by a professional…
  • Caveau de la Huchette — A medieval stone cellar off the Quartier latin that has been running as a jazz club since 1948, with a dance floor given over to lindy hop…

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