Claude Abadie (16 January 1920 – 29 March 2020) was a French

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

ist and bandleader. Abadie was born in January 1920 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He was interested in New Orleans jazz and Chicago jazz from an early age, and formed his own ensemble in 1941 to play in a Dixieland-revival style;

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sulliva ...

played in the group from 1943. Soon after, Abadie's ensemble included

Claude Luter Claude Luter (23 July 1923 – 6 October 2006) was a jazz clarinetist who doubled on soprano saxophone. Luter was born and died in Paris. He began on trumpet, but switched to clarinet. He might be best known for being an accompanist to Sidne ...

Jef Gilson Jean-François Quiévreux (25 July 1926 – 5 February 2012), better known as Jef Gilson, was a French clarinetist, pianist, arranger, vocalist, composer and big band leader. "In the occupation of which he initiated groups" proved Gilson "an ex ...

Raymond Fol Raymond Fol (April 28, 1928 in Paris – May 1, 1979 in Paris) was a French jazz pianist. Fol's older brother was Hubert Fol, and both were raised in a musical household; Raymond began playing piano at five years of age. Fol and his brother played ...

, and Hubert Fol. He founded a new ensemble in 1949, which included

Jean-Claude Fohrenbach Jean-Claude Fohrenbach (January 5, 1925, Paris – March 30, 2009, Villiers-le-Duc) was a French jazz saxophonist. Fohrenbach learned clarinet, piano, tenor saxophone, and violin as a child, concentrating on tenor sax once he began playing full-t ...

and Benny Vasseur, but quit music in 1952, not returning to performance until 1963. In 1965 he formed a large ensemble to play contemporary jazz; among his sidemen was Paul Vernon. He turned 100 in January 2020 and died that March.

References

*Michel Laplace, "Claude Abadie". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed.

Barry Kernfeld Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians. Education In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at U ...

. 1920 births 2020 deaths French centenarians French jazz clarinetists Men centenarians Musicians from Paris {{France-musician-stub