Why did jazz take hold of the City of Light and shine a beacon across Europe? Drawing on rare film clips, photographs, and original recordings, John Edward Hasse, curator emeritus of American Music at the National Museum of American History, assembles an all-star cast—from Josephine Baker to Louis Mitchell and his Jazz Kings, Duke Ellington to Django Reinhart—to provide insight into how the quintessentially American artform captured the fancy of dancers, musicians, and audiences here more than in any other non-Anglophone country.