Jazz news: Blue star revue

The Jazz News : Blue Star Revue was a short-lived post-war journal funded by the record label Blue Star. The first issue, directed by the founder of the label, Eddie Barclay, appeared in December 1948. He attempted to quell readers' potential objections to the involvement of the label by assuring them that the rigid structure of the journal would protect the contents from its influence. Though the topics were determined by a pre-established rubric, he claimed that contributors would be invited to write freely about their given topic. Yet not all commentary was necessarily encouraged. At the end of the same editorial Barclay condemned writers who engage in shallow debates, promising to veto any two articles with directly conflicting views because “deux lettres, de même force et de sens inverse, s’annulent.”¹ Thus any Jazz News writers wanting to participate in the raging intra-jazz debates of the post war era were challenged to analyse evidence, rather than the arguments of their peers.

The journal’s analysis-focused approach to broader questions was taken up by a diverse set of writers. These were not only professional musicians, but professional jazz critics, collectors, and at times representatives of the label itself. The record review section blended perspectives by sharing tasks between Patrick Lebail, a professional jazz critic, and Hubert Fol, a contemporary bandleader and saxophone player, an original decision which won them readership. The rest of the publication covered topics such as subgenres, artists, shows and records, accompanied by full page-sized images.

Jazz News released a total of eleven issues, ending in June of 1950. However, by the eighth issue there were already signs of change as Eddie Barclay suddenly transferred his role as editor in chief to Boris Vian. The final issues are given a satirical tone by Vian who vowed to restructure the publication in order to uplift the voices of the “enemies of jazz,” and discourage readers from continuing to buy the journal, writing “Il y a bien assez de revues embêtantes comme ça […] vous verrez bien, après tout, si on vous dit [les changements du rubric] tout d’avance vous n’achèterez pas les numéros suivants et Barclay sera sur la paille.”² In the last issue he celebrated their alleged success, writing, “Tous ces lecteurs là, on n’en veut pas, alors on a essayé de les décourager [...] Nous avons pris le risque, et nous avons gagné : d’après nous dernières statistiques, il reste sept lecteurs.”³ If there were plans to continue the publication for a “cleansed” group of readers who weren’t scared away by Vian’s threats, it did not pan out.⁴ In the years following the revue’s end, Barclay founded the record label Riviera-LM Records in 1951, followed by Barclay Records in 1953, two projects he reinforced by helping to launch Jazz Magazine in 1954, which still publishes to this day. Vian, on the other hand, continued his much-appreciated column at Jazz Hot, contributed to other influential jazz periodicals, and dedicated his spare time to writing novels and plays.

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¹ Jazz News: Blue Star Revue, Vol. 1 no. 1 (December 1948): 3. “Two letters of equal force and opposite direction cancel each other out.”

² Jazz News: Blue Star Revue, Vol. 1 no. 8 (November 1949): 3. “There are enough annoying magazines as it is […] you'll see, after all, if we tell you [the changes to the rubric] in advance, you won't buy the next issues and Barclay will be broke.”

³ Jazz News: Blue Star Revue, Vol. 1 no. 11 (April 1950): 3.“We don't want any of those readers, so we tried to discourage them. [...] We took the risk, and we won: according to our latest statistics, there are seven readers left.”

⁴ Jazz News: Blue Star Revue, Vol. 1 no. 11 (April 1950): 3. “Maintenant, on va pouvoir, entre nous, faire gentiment une revue de jazz,” “Now we can have a nice little jazz review among ourselves.”

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