Observations from the Bar

Throughout jazz history there have been nightclubs where the music and the atmosphere live on to become legendary, like Minton's in Harlem or Lincoln Gardens in Chicago. In Paris in the late 1940's , it was Aerobleu -- notorious for its all-night jam sessions and its enigmatic owner, Max Morgan. In the heady chaos and excitement of postwar Paris, in a time that was every bit as shadowy, as sensual, as idealistic as it was reported to be, all paths crossed at Aerobleu. Drawn by a feverish mix of music and martinis, Janet Flanner, Hemingway, Picasso, and Bogart all flocked to hear the best jazz this side of Harlem. And when Max Morgon won an old DC-3 in an all-night poker game, Miles Davis and Max Roach were there, giving flight to the music in legendary jam sessions en route to New York, Paris, London, and New Orleans. In the late 1950s, the ever-elusive Max Morgan disappeared, vanishing mysteriously from Havana, leaving behind some of the best jazz ever played and a state of mind that has come to be known as "Aerobleu."