It was in March 1983 that the Gibson's Brothers took over 58, rue des Lombards in the heart of Paris. These three West Indian brothers, successful musicians who, among other things, wrote the worldwide hit Cuba decided to open the Baiser Salé and turn it into a Café Concert where you could have a drink while listening to a live band.

A few months later, there was a change of format, with the one band playing every night giving way to weekly programming, quickly put in place by current programmer Maria Rodriguez.

These were the real beginnings of the Baiser Salé Jazz Club...

Developing creative mixed music and going beyond the traditional jazz club, these were the aims of the Baiser Salé's programming from January 84.

This was a succession of much jazzier groups with a clear orientation towards jazz fusion, then called jazz rock, and a marked predilection for mixed music.

Those crazy years will be remembered for all the exceptionally talented musicians who played in this small venue, which served as a springboard for them and which now plays at the biggest international festivals; From Richard Bona to Angélique Kidjo via Monica Passos, Ultramarine, Les Étoiles, Sylvain Luc, Rido Bayonne, Leni Stern, Thierry Elliez, Etienne Mbappé, Mario Canonge, Nguyen Le and many more, the list is long of those who have heated up our walls and our stage.

Baiser Salé is proud to have encouraged so much talent by promoting their then unknown names, and it is our passion and pleasure to continue on this gratifying path that sees the birth and recognition of tomorrow's talent. In fact, it's often during our Monday jam sessions orchestrated by percussionist François Constantin that many young instrumentalists find the opportunity to get noticed by the 'pointures' and other old wolves who are always on the lookout for new musical sensations, and it's often over a drink that group projects are born after memorable jam sessions.

Here, anything goes, jazz club yes, but not forgetting that jazz was born of cross-fertilisation, all experience is good and the programming gives pride of place to cultural mixes, the only requirement asked of musicians: to perform. Here musicians are free to create, to invent, to combine music that was never heard of before, to mix names that are unfamiliar, to try out groups from which magic can be born, this is where CHIC HOT was born, ULTRAMARINE too. Sylvain Luc found the Baiser Salé a cosy corner where his music blossomed as a duo with Stéphane Belmondo : Le Baiser Salé gave him wings...

And then there's the bar and not just any bar.... open from 5.30pm to 6am, the late-night haunt of all musicians, shaped like a horseshoe, it allows regulars to chat face-to-face and novices to mingle in conversation while glancing at the barman shaking his thousand-and-one-coloured, summery-reflected cocktails... to the rhythm of one of the countless concerts broadcast on the video screen, some of them impossible to find on the market...