How popular is GJ in Europe?

woodamand

I realize of course that GJ is a very small part of the music scene here in the US - where I think I read only 1-2% of people even listen to jazz at all, which is awful! - but is this genre any more poplar in Europe, or maybe a least France? It would be nice to think that somewhere people have a bit better taste than they do here. (Yeah, that is snooty but there you are.)

spud

Yep its really marginal, even in Paris.

PapsPier

Gypsy jazz can be quite popular in France if you mean that there is several amateur bands in almost each city and people going to listen to bands in bars/restaurants or hiring bands for weddings. But most of the audience think of gypsy jazz just an ambiance music (they dont pay really attention to what they are listening, it is just cool to listen to this kind of music), the great gypsy musicians are not that famous in France (gypsy jazz is famous because it is sometimes mixed with french pop song: Thomas Dutronc or Sanseverino)

woodamand

Boy have a played a lot of gigs where we were ambiance. Well, GJ is just like everything else musical that I like, far out of the mainstream. Don't get me started on how much I love playing my bass clarinet, and how little if anything most people know about the music you can produce with it!

Jim Kaznosky

I prefer "musical wallpaper."

Buco

Nice Jim!

But I did see several videos on YouTube where giants of GJ are playing in front of what seems to be 10,000 concert hall audience. Maybe this is rare but that'll never happen in US or Canada.

Teddy Dupont

Django's music and Gypsy Jazz are more popular in Europe than they used to be but they are still only niche genres.

crookedpinky

I don't know the exact numbers in the UK or Europe but I'm always amazed by the numbers that turn up for some things. And yet watching the mighty Angelo Debarre playing to a meagre audience of 40 odd people is galling.