Black Montmartre in the Jazz Age
Robert Tomlinson
University of Georgia Press
In jazz age Montmartre, African American musicians arrived in response to a demand for American dance rhythms. Hallowed entertainment venues acquired jazz orchestras, and a plethora of clubs sprang up in the narrow streets around the rue Pigalle and the rue Fontaine, creating a jazz-fueled dance culture. On this self-contained island in Paris, far from their racist homeland, these performers established an imperfect utopia. In Black Montmartre in the Jazz Age, Robert Tomlinson guides readers down these streets and into clubs and theaters in an eff ort to reveal what this unique neighborhood looked like to the Black Americans who were forced to search abroad for their American Dream.