Name Change for an Historic Afro-Caribbean Night Spot

In September 2016, I wrote about the impending relaunch of the Bal Colonial, which was commonly known as le Bal Nègre.

The club was scheduled to reopen on March 21, 2017 with the name "Le Bal Nègre." But protests caused the owner to rename the club "Le Bal de la rue Blomet," after the street on which it is located.

Le Bal de la Rue Blomet
Header at Le Bal Blomet's Web site

Le Bal Blomet façade
Press photo from Le Bal Blomet Web site

On the Web site Change.org, an open letter to owner Guillaume Cornut expressed outrage at the selection of the name "Bal Nègre," saying that the name was insulting and racist. It also "called out" M. Cornut for having falsely declared that Claude Ribbe - a key influencer in Paris' Afro-Caribbean community - supported his choice. Six thousand (6,000) - 7,000 persons reportedly signed the letter, which was addressed to Cornut; Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris; Philippe Goujon, Mayor of the 15th arrondissement; and Audrey Azoulay, France's Minister of Culture.

Additionally, several dozen people staged a live protest in front of the establishment on February 7. Notably, one person carried a sign bearing the image of James Baldwin and the title of the recently released documentary I Am Not Your Negro.

Tweet posted by @vivreparis on February 7, 2017
The original opening date of March 21 was selected because it marks the beginning of spring. But, as noted in the open letter, this is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The opening actually took place on March 22, 2017.

Le Bal Blomet promises eclectic musical programming, including cabaret, jazz, and classical music on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in a spacious, 250-seat concert hall.

Concert hall at Le Bal Blomet
Press photo from Le Bal Blomet Web site
It also has a restaurant that seats 70 persons and features French cuisine with a Caribbean influence.

Restaurant logo and photo at Le Bal Blomet
Press photo from Le Bal Blomet Web site
Le Bal Blomet
33 rue Blomet
75015 Paris
Telephone: 01 44 93 00 27
La Table du Bal Restaurant hours:
Tuesday through Friday 12 noon to 2 PM and 7 PM to 10 PM
Saturday 12 noon to 3 PM and 7 PM to 10 PM
Sunday 12 noon to 3 PM

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Making a Comeback - Le Bal Nègre

Le Bal Nègre at 33, rue Blomet in Paris' 15th arrondissement, was the most popular Antillean dancing nightspot in Paris for decades.

Bal Nègre advertisement
Though the establishment was officially named Le Bal Colonial, it was commonly known as Le Bal Nègre. It was created in 1924 in the French tradition of the bal-musette. The club featured music and clientele from the French Caribbean; a Martinican named Jean Rézard des Wouves led the orchestra. According to another Martinican musician named Ernest Léardée, who took over the orchestra in 1929 and remained its leader until 1931, “banjos, horns, and drums” provided the sounds that moved the crowd, and a dance called the biguine ruled the day. Josephine Baker made the biguine popular with a broader public when she performed the dance in Paris Qui Remue at the Casino de Paris in 1931.

African Americans were frequent visitors at Le Bal Nègre; Countee Cullen was a repeat customer during his visits to Paris in the late 1920s and 30s. These interactions represented a significant means of exposure of African Americans to the culture of other people of African descent. Then whites became enamored of the club, particularly the Surrealist crowd and American expats such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Their patronage changed the atmosphere of the club and it was reportedly never the same again.

Palmer Hayden captured the spirit of the Bal in his c. 1927 watercolor on paper Le Bal Jeunesse.

The Bal Nègre suffered great decline after the Second World War and became a café in 1962. In 1989, a jazz club called St. Louis Blues took over the space and operated there until 2006.

St. Louis Blues in 2004
© Discover Paris!
The building was slated for renovation into office space in 2010, but the project was abandoned. In 2012, approval was granted for the restoration of the Bal Nègre in its original spirit, complete with dance hall. An architectural and cultural reconstitution is now underway. It will consist of a multi-level performance hall and a multimedia art cabaret dedicated to the alignment of art and popular culture in music, film, musical theater, and the fine arts for the public’s enjoyment. It is scheduled to reopen in 2017.

Mailbox at Le Bal Nègre construction site
© Discover Paris!
Read the detailed history of the Bal Nègre here: http://www.lebalnegre.fr/ (an English translation is available on the Web site).

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Caribbean Square Dancing in Paris - Part 2

Last week, I presented Part 1 of a blog posting on the Caribbean band, Caribop, written by Paris blogger Ilan Moss for his blog called Gangs of Paris. Ilan is a freelance journalist and amateur ethnomusicologist who has worked for non-profits in Paris and spent lots of time exploring (and playing for) the "ethnic underbelly" of the city. Read Part 2 of his article below.

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A Night of Creole Square Dancing with Caribop
(Original publication date: May 18, 2010)
Caribop’s Music

For years now, Caribop has been holding Bals Creoles in Paris and its suburbs, bringing Kwadril and other styles to a new audience. Like square dancing further north, French Caribbean traditional dances require a caller to guide the dancers. To make the dances more palatable, Marc spent time hanging out at French traditional regional dances throughout Paris and has integrated some of their moves. Might not be “traditional,” but it allows your average French folk dancer to pick up the dances without hard-core schooling in booty shacking (his words, not mine). After all, cultural fusion is at the essence of Kwadril and mixing some steps from Breton and Auvergne dances just adds to the historical funkiness of West Indian music.

Marc has decided to do his calling in French and not in Creole – to the chagrin of some of his band mates. “Imagine if you had to translate James Brown songs into French,” percussionist Gilbert told me. Yet Gilbert obliges... And has a chance to belt out some Creole song when the occasion calls for it:


Caribop’s music is also a fusion of different Caribbean styles. In Guadeloupe, Kwadril in the 19th century was accompanied by fiddle and percussion. Since then, accordion has taken over from the fiddle. The last Guadeloupe fiddler died a few years ago, a certain Elie Cologer (his wonderful music can be heard on this CD, highly recommended for fiddling nuts). Marc will play button accordion on a few tunes, but Caribop mostly incorporates a bit of Kwardril music with a strong brassy Biguine style.

After all, Caribop is not the first time Caribbean music has come to Paris. Biguine is another funky West Indian mixture (between slave bèlè chants and the polka) and was brought by the first wave of Caribbean immigrants in the 1930s. Biguine orchestras were all the rage in Bohemian Paris in the 1930s. The Bals Creoles were legendary in Paris counterculture until WWII and definitely merit further research for this blog…

Caribop is pretty much the only band in Paris playing old-style Caribbean music. Might be some other stuff lurking around and I’ll have to gather up some fellow weird music buddies to go check it out. (Paris music blogger extraordinaire cocoringo has also blogged about Kwadril and we will be hitting the scene soon). More to come, check out some Creole accordion à la Caribop:

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Caribbean Square Dancing in Paris - Part 1

I recently learned of an excellent Paris blog called Gangs of Paris, written by Ilan Moss. Ilan is a freelance journalist and amateur ethnomusicologist who has worked for non-profits in Paris and spent lots of time exploring (and playing for) the "ethnic underbelly" of the city. I am pleased to present his story about Caribop, a Caribbean band that is devoted to spreading the culture of traditional Antillean dance, on the Entrée to Black Paris blog. Read Part 1 below. Part 2 will follow next week.

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A Night of Creole Square Dancing with Caribop
(Original publication date: May 18, 2010)
A square dance rages deep in the suburbs of Paris and a mixed crowd of French and West Indian locals shake their booties and toss partners to the sounds of funky mazurkas, quadrilles and waltzes.

Caribop Square Dancing
Photo courtesy of Ilan Moss
“Dos-à-dos, promenade votre partenaire…” The dance calls and partner swinging might be familiar to your average American folk dancer, but this is no Appalachian square dance. We are at a “Creole Ball” and both the music and dance – a heady mix of African rhythms and 19th century European dances known as Kwadril – come from the French West Indies.

On stage, the house band Caribop maintains a pulsating tropical dance groove with saxophone, accordion, tuba, tambour (long drum), triangle and other assorted percussion. At the same time, bandleader Marc alternates between explaining the dances, calling out the steps (assuming the role of a “caller” or commandeur) and playing saxophone and diatonic button accordion.

Caribop does the whole song and dance (literally) and it is testament to their dedication to playing and teaching the disappearing musical traditions of the overseas French “territories” of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Marc, like most of his band mates, was born in France but is of Afro-Caribbean origin. He is an ardent traditionalist, but with the younger generation of Guadeloupians and Martinicans both on the islands and in France losing interest in their musical traditions, Caribop has been reaching out to other folk music enthusiasts. As Paris has a vibrant folkdancing scene, Caribop has found some new fans of old-school Kwadril and Biguine.

This particular night, his biggest challenge: getting folk dancers, used to dancing “straight” dances à l’européen, to biguiner (swing) like it’s done in the French Caribbean. Just imagine shaking yer booty while doing a ballroom waltz. Not too easy, but it’s at the essence of French Caribbean music. Check out some footage:


The Dances

Behind the traditional dances of the French West Indies is a tangled transatlantic cultural conversation. Most North American musical forms have their origins in the marriage between African rhythms and European melodies – country music, blues, jazz, rock, etc. French Caribbean music is similar and the dance traditions reflect this.

Starting as early as the 16th century, the urban European upper classes began to adopt and “refine” wild rural peasant dances, such as the “country dance” (contredance). By the 18th century, these had evolved into new forms, such as the Quadrille or other “square” dances, which quickly became all the rage in ballrooms throughout Europe. These dances made their way – along with French colonists – to the plantations of the Caribbean. Lost yet? It gets more confusing.

Over time, the contredance and quadrille were “Creolized” by African slaves, who initially adopted the dances to mock their masters. After the abolition of slavery in 1848, Afro-Caribbeans took the dances and music to whole new levels, adding a bit of tropical sultriness into the genteel and courtly dance patterns. Quadrille became Kwadril, and other new Caribbean styles emerged out of European dance forms. Yet the dances still kept some of the aristocratic trappings from Europe – curtsies, bows etc.

Take the “Mazurka,” a popular 19th century ballroom dance that actually comes from an ecstatic triple meter dance form in Poland. Along with other courtly European dances, it was taken up and altered by Afro-Caribbeans. In Europe, it’s a stately waltz, while in the Caribbean it is at the essence of many musical forms. Marc breaks it down here how the triple meter Mazurka (a waltz in Europe) became a penultimate Caribbean groove (video in French):


For those familiar with modern Caribbean music, “zouk,” probably the most popular style in the West Indies, has its root in this dance. Mazurka became “mazouk” in Creole and was eventually shortened to “Zouk.”

Next week: Caribop's music

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