Jazz in Paris, Vol 3 -"Saint-Germain-Des-Prés (1946-1956) 3 x CD, Compilation, 2004 (Gitanes Jazz Productions )

I love everything French ever since I was a tot and my dad took me to see a Bardot movie in Larkspur  California.  Over decades my love of Parisian aesthetic came to fruition with the music of Serge Gainsbourg, Boris Vian, Les Rita Mitsuko, and many others.  I also love French Jazz, which sometime sounds like American Jazz, but with a French twist to the sound.  In 2004, they released a "Jazz in Paris" series that is excellent.  Eventually, they then made CD boxsets with an additional book in the package.   One can't go wrong with the quality of the book as well as the music of course.  Volume 3 is "Saint-Germain-Des-Prés (1946-1956), and it's a compilation that goes beyond excellence.

Saint-Germain was the focal point of those years for writing and music-making.  Think of it as Liverpool in the early 1960s or Height Asbury in the Psychedelic Era, or NYC from the 1930s to 1970s.  It seems that brilliance was from the air and landed on the grand boulevard of Saint-Germain.

Boris Vian and some others introduce American Jazz into Paris, by releasing recordings as well as arranging tours for various Jazz artists such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and others.  This collection mostly focuses on French jazz musicians like Django Reinhardt, René Urtreger Trio, and including my hero Boris Vian. 

There are also Americans such as Sidney Bechet And His Feetwarmers,  Don Byas, and so forth. Still, the magnificence of the playing and the communication between the two cultures are breathtaking. Beautiful moments of time and this boxset takes you to ground zero of French greatness.  

Boris Vian - "Inédits Radio" CD Compilation

Boris Vian - Inédits Radio

CD, Compilation, France, 2003

INA

For the Boris Vian fan, this is very much the holly grail of listening pleasure.  Among other talents by the Jacques-of-all-trades Vian also had DJ skills, which makes perfect sense because he was such a vinyl addict of his time.  I’ve read in a biography on Simone De Beauvoir that he helped purchase a sound system for her apartment, and also chose the recordings to go with that system.  A music lover, especially a jazz fanatic, is part of a small world.  Here Vian shares that world with listeners over the medium of the radio.

Vian had a thing for Duke Ellington, like he should of course, and the entire radio broadcast or the ‘best’ of his shows, he clearly has an understanding to what makes this music so cool.  Also included is Vian playing music with the Le Tabou orchestra.  And his priceless commentary (in French of course) on the music plus him interviewing Ellington. 

Bobby Jaspar - "Jeux De Quartes" CD Album

Bobby Jaspar – Jeux De Quartes

CD, Album, France, 2002

Jazz In Paris No. 85

I am so location and time orientated, I often buy albums for that sole purpose. For instance here's a record recorded in 1958 and in Paris. That alone gives the album three stars, if I believed in that horrible system of talking about art. Also the fact that Kenny Clarke's name came up on the back of this CD, made this recording a must for me.

Bobby Jaspar, born in Belguim, played Sax and flute. He also composed compositions as well as being married to the great Blossom Dearie. A pal of Boris Vian, which makes this album part of the “Friends Of Boris Vian” collection I have on going. But getting to the music, what we have here is very much 'cool' jazz that's very European sounding. His take on the masterful “Misterioso” a composition by Monk has an original arrangement by Jaspar that shows off the master's great sense of loopy melody, but Jaspar makes it is own, with great drumming from Clarke. It borders on bad taste oriental-ism, but that is part of the fun of this arrangement.

Perhaps it is the nature of the flute, but the music is very soft for the ears, but the interplaying between Jaspar and the rest of the musicians (besides Clarke - Paul Rovére, Jymie Meritt, Humberto Canto, Sadi Lallemand, among others) is effortlessly steamed into a beautiful sound. Actually a nice album to get drunk to. 

Barney Wilen - Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions) CD Album

Jazz In Paris Series

Barney Wilen – Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions)

CD Album, France, 1958

Jazz in Paris, Universal Music (France)

The great French Tenor Sax player Barney Wilen backed by ¾ of The Modern Jazz Quartet. Instead of John Lewis, we have the great vibe player Milt Jackson on piano, which I think is unusual. Nevertheless a great band with a fantastic rhythm section of Kenny Clarke and Percy Heath. These recordings always bring out the romantic in me, because I imagine these guys playing in a Parisian nightclub with numerous beautiful woman dressed in black with their gangster boyfriends. Drinking whiskey and water, and very little dialogue. Well, I think the Universal Music label 'Jazz in Paris' feeds that image for us foreigners, who spend a great deal of time in front of the TV/Computer to watch French gangster films of the 1950's.

So Jazz sur Seine (original title is Jazz Sessions) is a beautiful snapshot of what I imagine was a perfect time when French Jazz musicians played with American greats. It's the meeting of these two cultures that somehow becomes one-of-a-kind expression of a love shared by the few. This particular album has songs by Wilen as well as by Django Reinhardt, Charles Trenet and Thelonious Monk.

The original Vinyl album (1958)