Jack Paradise: Montreal by Night

If Montreal is still a jazz city with one of the world’s most important jazz festivals, it’s because her love for that music has a long past. Back in the 1950s, there was even what could be called a golden age of jazz in Montreal. Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, George Shearing, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk and other jazz greats all played in local nightclubs. It’s not happenstance that in the midst of the Great Depression, a French Canadian born in St. Henri, one of the most underprivileged neighbourhoods of Montreal, early developed a passion for piano, jazz... and the shady individuals who often accompanied them. Thus, Jacques Paradis became Jack Paradise, the undisputed master of Montreal nights and lover of the sultry black singer Curly Brown.