The BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its foundation and devoting itself to French jazz. This music became a symbol of freedom and the spirit of resistance during the German Occupation and subsequently became the soundtrack for Existentialism and the expression of the joie de vivre of an entire generation. Musicians including Miles Davis and Sidney Bechet encountered Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Boris Vian in the nightclubs of Saint-Germaindes- Prés. Juliette Gréco was the undisputed muse of the bohemian world and Paris became the place of yearning for many jazz musicians from the USA, far away from racial segregation and the McCarthy era.