The Hot Club de France (or HCF) is a French organization of jazz fans dedicated to the promotion of "traditional" jazz, swing, and blues. It was founded in 1931 in Paris, France, by five students of the Lycée Carnot. In 1928, Jacques Bureaux, Hugues Panassié, Charles Delaunay, Jacques Auxenfans, and Elvin Dirat came together to listen to jazz and, later, promote its acceptance in France. The point was to make the public aware of jazz and to defend and promote the style in the face of all opposition. The club began in the fall of 1931 as the Jazz Club Universitaire, as the members were all still students. It was reborn and reimagined in 1932 as the Hot Club de France.

The club was founded by jazz enthusiasts and amateurs for the sole purpose of helping to spread the music to the rest of the world. The members joined together to promote the music in whatever form they could, leading to such developments as the first of many concerts in 1933, the creation of Le Jazz Hot, the club's official magazine, the founding of the Swing music label in 1937, conferences, rare-disc listening sessions, radio talks, and the birth of regional Hot Clubs, among others. This amateur organization played an important role in the diffusion and discovery of jazz in France, and copycat organizations sprang up across Europe to spread the music in countries such as Norway and Britain.

At the time the Hot Club began promoting concerts for the Quintette du Hot Club de France, Charles Delaunay was the Secretary General of the club and Hugues Panassié was the President. These two men often occupied different top positions amongst the heads of the group, but which roles each filled during which time period is hard to determine. Both men accomplished a great amount of work with the Club prior to their schism in 1947.

The Hot Club has often adopted a fairly rigid stance in terms of the music it promotes; throughout its history the club has perpetuated the idea that only jazz rooted in the swing and blues traditions of African-American music is "authentic." One example of this rigidity lies in the forced resignation of Charles Delaunay in 1947 over his growing interest in bop during the 1940s; his acceptance of the music alienated other members, notably Hugues Panassie.

Although the Club is rigid in this philosophy, it is not, as some critics have said, only interested in the promotion of jazz styles from the pre-1945 era; the club has promoted the music of musicians it considers to be authentic or in some way rooted in the authentic traditions of swing and blues. These artists include, among others, Earl Bostic, Paul Gonsalves, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Ray Charles, Monty Alexander, Stanley Turrentine, and Stanley Jordan.

Around January 1934, Hugues Panassie and Pierre Nourry became the organization's president and secretary, respectively. In August 1938, the club was legally dissolved and refounded with Charles Delaunay as secretary. Presidents also included Madeleine Gautier (1975–83) and Jacques Pescheux. Louis Armstrong was elected honorary President of the Club in 1936. He held that title until his death on 6 July 1971.

The headquarters of the Hot Club de France moved from Paris to Montauban in 1948, to St.-Vrain (near Corbeil-Essonnes) in 1977, and to Nogent-sur-Marne in 1999. The total affiliated Hot Clubs in France has varied widely; there were 17 "affiliated" and two "associated" clubs in 2000. The Hot Club's library is housed at the Discothèque Municipale in Villfranche-de-Rouergue in Southern France; it was begun with Hugues Panassie's core collection, numbering in excess of 6,000 78 rpm records and 9,000 LPs, and has since expanded.

In 1947, a schism split the HCF into two camps: those headed by Charles Delaunay believed that the new be-bop style was simply a bold experiment at the frontiers of jazz while those led by Hugues Panassie contended that bebop was not jazz. This division between jazz fans in France was what Ludovic Tournes called "the war of jazz."