Henri Renaud Trio With Jimmy Gourley (1953)

In 1953, there were just a handful of French jazz record labels in Paris. Among them was Disques Vogues. The imprint was founded in 1947 by producer Léon Cabat and Charles Delaunay, a jazz enthusiast who co-founded and led the famed Hot Club de France, an organization of fans who promoted traditional jazz, swing and blues. [Photo above of a model wearing Givenchy on the Champs Elysées in Paris in 1953, by Pierre Boulat]]

In October of that year, Henri Renaud, an established French jazz pianist, assembled his trio members for a recording session for Vogue. The group featured Renaud (p) Pierre Michelot (b) and Jean-Louis Viale (d). The American expatiate guitarist Jimmy Gourley was added.

Gourley was born in Missouri in 1926, became taken with the lyrical, single-note style of guitarist Jimmy Raney and left the U.S. for France in 1951. Given the year of his departure, my guess is the impetus for relocation was his earlier Communist leanings, which put his ability to work at risk during the anti-Communist Blacklist of jazz musicians, Hollywood actors, writers and directors and others in the arts.

In Paris, Gourley had no trouble finding work, with Sandy Mosse, Renaud, Michelot, and Bobby Jaspar, among others. His early Paris recordings include Lee Konitz’s Ezz-thetic for Prestige along with sessions led by Zoot Sims, Gigi Gryce and Clifford Brown. Then came Gourley’s inclusion in Vogue’s Renaud Trio session.

Vogue’s studio was located in Paris at 269 Rue Saint-Jacques, in what today is a private amateur music, dance and theater school. Once gathered there, the musicians recorded enough material for a 10-inch LP—four songs per side:

• You’re A Lucky Guy

• You Stepped Out Of A Dream

• It’s De Lovely

• Not Really The Blues

• My Heart Belongs to Daddy

• Changing My Tune

• I Love You

• Who Cares

Jimmy Gourley died near Paris in 2008, at age 82.

Here’s the fabulous complete Henri Renaud et Son Trio, Featuring Jimmy Gourley, without ad interruptions…