The Cultural Office and the Music Library are pleased to welcome you to a photographic and iconographic exhibition around the pioneers of jazz in France.

This exposition looks at how African-American enlisted in the US army around 1917 became war heroes in the French army. In the hallucinatory crash of this first industrial war, military orchestras played an essential role in the morale of the troops and the reputation of their regiment. Jazz then began to spread in France. James Reese Europe is one of these soldiers. He conducted the 15th IR orchestra, going so far as to obtain special conditions: 40 musicians instead of the 25 regulars, a higher salary and even an envelope to recruit the best musicians, such as clarinetists, that he would seek in Puerto Rico... Mathieu Jouan, curator of the exhibition and director of the publication Citizen Jazz, invites us to the birth of this fabulous epic of jazz in France, during this journey made of unpublished documents to see, read and listen to.

Admission is free and open to all.