R-26 (alt. English: R-Two-Six or French: R-vingt-six) was an artistic salon regularly held at the private residence of socialites Madeleine, Marie-Jacques and Robert Perrier at 26 Rue Norvins in the Montmartre district of Paris. First convened on 1 January 1930, the salon became a meeting ground for many creative luminaries of the next eighty years, including singer Josephine Baker, architect Le Corbusier and musician Django Reinhardt.
In 1929, haute couture textile supplier Robert Perrier was residing with his wife, Madeleine, and daughter, Marie-Jacques, in a spacious loft apartment overlooking the Moulin de la Galette in the Montmartre district of Paris. [1] The address, located at 26 Rue Norvins, was popular among artists, shared with Marcel Aymé and Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, and counting Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Gen Paul and Tristan Tzara among the immediate neighbors. [2]
Madeleine and Robert Perrier, by virtue of their diverse connections in haute couture, were both respected socialites. Large social gatherings at their home occurred regularly, bringing together eminent artists and designers who would share and discuss their latest works. Early on, painter Sonia Delaunay, a close colleague of Robert Perrier, was most active in introducing new artists to the gatherings, aided by her husband, Robert, and son, Charles. The Perrier family's informal soirées, increasingly influential as time progressed, were at last formally baptized in the first hours of the year 1930, when New Year's Eve guests officially founded the artistic salon of R-26 ('R' for Robert Perrier and '26' for 26 Rue Norvins). [3] Among these founding members was painter Georges Vantongerloo, who that night designed the salon's iconic Cubist shield. [4]
After 1930, R-26's membership steadily grew. Architect Le Corbusier was presented to the salon by his brother, musician Albert Jeanneret (with whom the young Marie-Jacques Perrier began her musical career). Le Corbusier soon set to work modernizing the interior of R-26, designing the salon's Cubist staircase. During this time, Robert Perrier began to hone his talents as a songwriter, publishing with Les Publications Francis Day and acquiring a second grand piano to add to the festivities at R-26. [5]
The year 1935 saw the arrival at R-26 of numerous musicians who would prove quintessential to the salon's development. Pierre Dudan, having arrived on foot from Lausanne, immediately took up residence with the Perrier family. His song "Clopin-clopant", originally composed for a soirée at R-26 and dedicated to the Perrier family, [6] soon proved a staple of the salon's repertory. Following Dudan came Jean Tranchant and Michel Warlop, the latter of whom introduced to R-26 violinist Stéphane Grappelli, soon one of the salon's most dedicated members. [7]
In his memoir My Violin As My Only Baggage, Grappelli wrote:
Then there was Robert and Madeleine Perrier…These naturalized Montmartrois residing on the Rue Norvins entertained many: writers, musicians, painters and poets alike gathered at their home. They invited me often; the soirées were brilliant…It was there that I met all of Montmartre. [8]
By 1937, Grappelli was regularly holding rehearsals at R-26 with guitarist Django Reinhardt, another devoted contributor to the salon. Early on, Reinhardt was impressed by the budding musical talents of Marie-Jacques Perrier, with whom he decided to record several staples of the R-26 repertory, including "Les salades de l'oncle François" (written by Tranchant) and "Ric et Pussy" (written by Robert and Madeleine Perrier). [9]
Speaking of Reinhardt at R-26, Tranchant wrote in his memoir The Big Wheel:
Between Django and me there was but one common denominator: music, that which was found, far from the theater's preoccupations, at the fabled salon of Madeleine and Robert Perrier, an ideal refuge at which to kick up one's heels. [10]
Though World War II and the Nazi occupation of Paris closed a chapter in the history of R-26, the Liberation of Paris opened another. Over two years, Madeleine and Robert Perrier entertained some one hundred and sixty-six American officers at R-26. [11]
Jean Tranchant, upon his return to France, took up permanent residence at R-26, while Stéphane Grappelli found lodgings at the home of Robert Perrier's mother. The artistic salon resumed activity as before, introducing to R-26 singer Josephine Baker, a mutual friend of Le Corbusier and Tranchant.
Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli continued to favor R-26 as an informal rehearsal space for the Quintette du Hot Club de France, often improvising with other members of the salon. In 1947, in honor of ten years spent at R-26 as guests of the Perrier family, Reinhardt and Grappelli composed the song "R. vingt-six", to be used as an anthem among the salon's members. [12]
Throughout the next decade, many new artists presented their talents at R-26, from Henri Salvador to Yves Klein to Mary Lou Williams, a pianist for whom Robert Perrier wrote the celebrated melody "I Made You Love Paris". [13]
During the 1950s, Robert Perrier begin making audio recordings of numerous soirées held at R-26, tapes that offer precious insight into the creative process of several of the salon's most famous guests. A selection of these recordings were later released publicly, including Marie-Jacques Perrier's cover version of "La pluie sur le toit" (written by Robert and Madeleine Perrier), accompanied by Stéphane Grappelli.
Following the death of Robert Perrier in 1987, Marie-Jacques Perrier decided to modernize her family's artistic salon by offering long-term residence at R-26 to foreign students studying in Paris. Over the next twenty-five years, Perrier shared her apartment with over a hundred young artists and freethinkers of diverse nationalities. Under Perrier's direction, soirées at R-26 increased in both frequency and scope, attracting members of the French leadership including former Prime Minister Alain Juppé. [14]
R-26 remains present in the popular imagination as an exclusive meeting place of many avant-garde artists of the 1930s to 1960s. The address's exterior (now 2 Place Marcel-Aymé), located next to Jean Marais's statue of Le Passe-muraille, attracts many tourists visiting Montmartre, particularly those interested in the legacy of Django Reinhardt. [15] The salon has been the subject of several television documentaries for France 4, History and ITV, [16] and has inspired various museum exhibitions as well as numerous musical anthologies.
Pierre Dudan's song "Clopin-clopant", an old staple of the R-26 repertory, [17] found initial fame when orchestrated by Bruno Coquatrix and recorded by several of the salon's members, including Josephine Baker, Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt and Henri Salvador. An English-language version, ironically re-titled "Comme ci, comme ça", became internationally famous when recorded by Maurice Chevalier, inspiring further cover versions by Paul Anka, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand.
The tribute song "R. vingt-six", written by Reinhardt and Grappelli, has since been covered by numerous musicians paying homage to the R-26 salon, including Tim Kliphuis, Fapy Lafertin, Paulus Schäfer and the Rosenberg Trio.
Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
Montmartre is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is 130 m (430 ft) high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its artistic history, for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit, and as a nightclub district.
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties.
Pierre Michelot was a French jazz double bass player and arranger.
Jazz music has been popular in France since the 1920s. Its international popularity peaked in the 1930s, and it has been continually enjoyed since.
Gypsy jazz is a musical idiom inspired by the Romani jazz guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–1953), in conjunction with the French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–1997), as expressed in their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Because its origins are in France, Reinhardt was from the Manouche clan, and the style has remained popular amongst this clan. Gypsy jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English language sources.
The Quintette du Hot Club de France, often abbreviated "QdHCdF" or "QHCF", was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli and active in one form or another until 1948.
The Hot Club de France 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.
René Urtreger is a French bebop pianist.
Jean-Jacques "Babik" Reinhardt was a French guitarist and the younger son of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt by Django's second wife, Naguine. His elder half-brother Lousson, who was Django's son by his first wife, Bella, was also a guitarist, but the two grew up in different families and rarely met. He was christened Jean-Jacques but generally known by his family nickname, Babik.
"Nuages" is one of the best-known compositions by Django Reinhardt. He recorded at least thirteen versions of the tune, which is a jazz standard and a mainstay of the gypsy swing repertoire. English and French lyrics have been added to the piece which was originally an instrumental work. The title translated into English is "Clouds", but the adaptation with English lyrics is titled "It's the Bluest Kind of Blues".
Djangology is a compilation album by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, released in 1961.
Jean Pierre "Matelo" Ferret was a French musette and gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was an associate of Django Reinhardt and the youngest brother of guitarists Baro and Sarane Ferret. He recorded with his own sextet in Paris in the 1940s and continued performing there, with occasional recording sessions, until his death in 1989. He was noted for a musical style that incorporated Russian and Hungarian influences and lived long enough to see a resurgence of interest in gypsy jazz in which he was recognised as one of the great surviving players of the genre. Two of his sons, Boulou and Elios Ferré, continue to play a more modern and individualistic form of gypsy jazz-based guitar music in Paris.
The Club Saint-Germain was a jazz club located at 13 rue Saint-Benoît in the 6e arrondissement de Paris.
Music Makers is an album by Helen Merrill. It was recorded in March 1986 and released by Owl Records.
Marie-Jacques Renée "Jacotte" Perrier was a French singer, fashion journalist, voice actress, socialite, author and art collector. She was best known for her musical collaborations with the Quintette du Hot Club de France and her fashion reporting for Fairchild Publications. She was the daughter of musical composer and haute couture textile supplier Robert Perrier, from whom she inherited direction of the R-26 artistic salon.
Robert Charles Perrier was a French haute couture textile supplier, songwriter, socialite and art collector. His vintage silks rank among the world’s most coveted luxury fabrics, including exclusivities created for Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, now exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée de la Mode et du Textile and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Perrier is further credited in history for having introduced synthetic fabrics to French haute couture, a major novelty at the time.
Bernard Lubat is a French jazz drummer, pianist, singer, percussionist, vibraphonist, and accordionist.
