Le Chat Qui Pêche

Le Chat Qui Pêche is a Parisian jazz club and restaurant founded in the mid-1950s, located in a cellar in rue de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter, on the left bank of the Seine.

It was run by a woman called Madame Ricard, who had been in the French Resistance during the war,[1] and "who looked so small and delicate that people likened her to the 'Little Sparrow', Edith Piaf. According to legend, Ricard had become a heroine of the French Resistance by informing against the Nazis. As she floated through the club she was all maternal warmth, however, calling the musicians 'mes enfants' and housing them in an apartment she kept over the club."[2]

According to the recollections of Jimmy Wormworth, who was invited to perform at Le Chat Qui Pêche in August 1957 with his American Jazz Quintet (comprising Wormworth as drummer and leader, Roland Ashby on piano, Sal Amico on trumpet, Barry Rogers on trombone and George Braithwaite on alto saxophone):[3] "I was told that we made her club so successful, because there were many bus tours coming to hear us, that, after us, Madame Ricard hired many famous American jazz musicians, so that she had the funds to add another floor in the club....I don't know if that's true, but I think it was the late Al Levitt, who told me that, because he stayed in Paris, after we came back to the USA."[1]

In the 1960s numerous jazz legends played there, including Bud Powell,[4] Chuck Israels,[5] Chet Baker,[2][6] Eric Dolphy[7] Jackie McLean,[8] Johnny Griffin,[9] Lucky Thompson,[10] Oscar Pettiford[11] Donald Byrd, whose 1958 Au Chat Qui Peche date (with pianist Walter Davis, Jr., bassist Doug Watkins, drummer Art Taylor and featuring Bobby Jaspar on tenor sax) was one of his earliest live recordings as a leader.[12]

The club lasted up to 1970, when Madame Ricard sold her license. A restaurant with the same name now operates at the location.

References
  1. "Jimmy Wormworth: The American Jazz Quintet in Paris (1957)-part two", Keep (It) Swinging, 23 July 2011.
  2. James Gavin, Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, Chicago Review Press, 2011, p. 192.
  3. "Jimmy Wormworth: The American Jazz Quintet in Paris (1957)-part one", Keep (It) Swinging, 22 July 2011.
  4. "Powell Chronology", in Peter Pullman, Wail: The Life of Bud Powell: "August 1959 - Powell begins a residency at a very different kind of venue, the Left Bank, subterranean Chat Qui Peche. He returns to the unpretentious club whenever he’s not working elsewhere."
  5. Groves, Alan; Shipton, Alyn (27 February 2001). Glass Enclosure: The Life of Bud Powell. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-8264-4746-3. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  6. Herzig, Monika; Davis, Nathan (16 November 2011). David Baker: A Legacy in Music. Indiana University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-253-35657-4. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  7. "Eric Dolphy Sextet = Paris 1964 ( Le Chat Qui Peche )".
  8. A. B. Spellman, Four Lives in the Bebop Business; new edition Four Jazz Lives, University of Michigan Press, 2004, p. 227.
  9. "Johnny Griffin On Paris Jazz Life". Sebastian Rotella, "Musicians Still Hear Paris' Call", LA Times, 18 March 2006.
  10. Daniel Humair entry ("By 1958 he was regularly accompanying Americans in Paris, including a long spell at the Chat Qui Pêche, with Lucky Thompson.") in Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley, Charles Alexander (eds), The Rough Guide to Jazz, 3rd edition, May 2004, p. 378.
  11. "Ivery, Marchel (Lee)", in Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians Archived 2015-09-05 at the Wayback Machine, jazz.com: "While at Le Chat Qui Peche Ivery got the very rare opportunity to sit in with Bud by default due to the great Lucky Thompson. There was a verbal altercation between Lucky and Oscar Pettiford which allowed Ivery to be asked by Lucky to play in his place, just a couple of tunes requested by the management. The band consisted of Bud, Oscar, and G. T. Hogan."
  12. Ken Dryden, "Donald Byrd - Au Chat Qui Peche", All Music.

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