A particular favourite was Raymond Legrand, whose jazz orchestra played on 520 radio shows between August 1940 and March 1942.
And jazz thrived. By the end of 1939, over a quarter of the Radio-Paris music programmes were jazz. A particular favourite was Raymond Legrand, whose jazz orchestra played on 520 radio shows between August 1940 and March 1942. Disk sales also went up – in the case of Reinhardt's ensemble, to nearly eight times what they had been in 1937. Jazz influences also infiltrated variety music. 125 new cabarets opened in Paris after the signing of the Armistice, and performers such as Charles Trenet and Yves Montand became popular for their swinging style. Jazz was not confined to the big cities either: Delaunay supervised the expansion to smaller areas in the occupied zone, and two other jazz enthusiasts (Michel Ellia and Paul de Rocca-Serra) controlled the free zone. They founded official clubs, started competitions to find new talent, and patronised up-and-coming groups. Jazz even spread to camps, such as the prisoner of war camp Stalag VI B which had a Hot Club of 300 members by April 1942, directed by Claude Briac. The Parisian Hot Club sent disks, music and food to the musicians. Only the forbidden zones did not witness the full force of the jazz craze. But even in certain annexed sections, such as Strasbourg and Nancy, clandestine clubs appeared. Jazz suffered after the Nazis took over all of France in 1942. In April 1943, Reinhardt sent clandestine messages to members of the Hot Club asking them to hide from the Service de Travail Obligatoire(Forced Labour Service) and avoid insignificant meetings in order that they not be called away.