Hot Club de France

The Hot Club de France (or HCF) is a French organization of jazz fans dedicated to the promotion of "traditional" jazz, swing, and blues. It was founded in 1931 in Paris, France, by five students of the Lycée Carnot. In 1928, Jacques Bureaux, Hugues Panassié, Charles Delaunay, Jacques Auxenfans, and Elvin Dirat came together to listen to jazz and, later, promote its acceptance in France. The point was to make the public aware of jazz and to defend and promote the style in the face of all opposition. The club began in the fall of 1931 as the Jazz Club Universitaire, as the members were all still students. It was reborn and reimagined in 1932 as the Hot Club de France.

The club was founded by jazz enthusiasts and amateurs for the sole purpose of helping to spread the music to the rest of the world. The members joined together to promote the music in whatever form they could, leading to such developments as the first of many concerts in 1933, the creation of ''Le Jazz Hot'', the club's official magazine, the founding of the Swing music label in 1937, conferences, rare-disc listening sessions, radio talks, and the birth of regional Hot Clubs, among others. This amateur organization played an important role in the diffusion and discovery of jazz in France, and copycat organizations sprang up across Europe to spread the music in countries such as Norway and Britain. Provided by Wikipedia