Panassié, Hugues

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(b Paris, Feb 27, 1912; d Montauban, Dec 8, 1974). French writer on jazz. After studying the saxophone he first wrote about jazz at the age of 18. He was one of the founders (in 1932) and then president of the Hot Club de France, and from 1935 to 1946 he was the editor of the journal Jazz-hot. With his unrivalled enthusiasm for communication, Panassié wrote hundreds of articles for this and other periodicals and was the author of several books, notably Le jazz hot, an important study that was among the first to treat jazz seriously. In 1938 Count Basie dedicated to him and recorded a composition called Panassié Stomp. The same year, in New York, Panassié organized a series of small-group recording sessions with Mezz Mezzrow which also included (at various times) Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet; these were highly influential and contributed considerably to the New Orleans revival movement. In ...