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The United States and France share a rocky international relationship. For musicologist Phillippe Gumplowicz, the ups and downs mirror the flow of jazz across the borders.

“All the ambivalence, the love and hate between the countries, appears in the history of jazz,” Gumplowicz said before a visit with the Alliance Francaise on Tuesday. “The French are very proud. They're very happy to elevate an American musical form better than the Americans themselves. It's as if they can say ‘America is a bad mother - we shall be the good mother.' ”

At the same time, Gumplowicz said his countrymen have trouble accepting the American pedigree of their favorite musical style. As international relations began cooling in the 1970s, French musicians spoke of loving and making “European, new improvisational” music rather than jazz. But the roots remained the same, and often, so did the players. France has long been a haven for American jazz players, from Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong after World War II to Miles Davis and Nina Simone in more recent decades.

“It began in 1917, when the American troops came over in World War I with their military music and their musical revues,” Gumplowicz said. “Soon you have people like Django Reinhart, who was a real genius for me. He joined French and American cultures and mixed them into his own music.”

Gumplowicz made his own music for a while, on guitar and piano, before becoming a distinguished lecturer at the University of Bourgogne in Dijon and the Sorbonne in Paris. He is also a novelist, playwright and multimedia producer for European TV and radio programs. His visit to Missoula was part of a national Alliance Francaise tour that included Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Birmingham, Ala.

During a visit to Rockin Rudy's music store, Gumplowicz was pleased to find many of his idols on display in the CD bins. But he added that jazz can be its own enemy by pursuing musical ideas to the exclusion of entertaining audiences.

“Jazz musicians are enclosed,” he said, hiding his face behind a wall of his hands. “It's most popular among the intelligentsia and people who think themselves refined. There is no reason to be proud of this. Jazz is legitimate music. Many people say it's wonderful, but they don't buy it. Classical music is in a similar disaster.”

Even so, he retained faith that jazz's musical discoveries and innovations would continue fertilizing contemporary styles.

“Look at John Hammond,” Gumplowicz said. “He discovered Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Before that, he was discovering Benny Goodman, Bessie Smith, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton.”

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