[Note: There are photos available on Flickr of my "Jazz in Paris" collection.]

One of the highlights of these past years was to try and complete my full run of the wonderful reissue series, “Jazz in Paris”. Around the time when these over 100 CDs came out, people were still reluctant to pay larger sums of money for these, especially since prices seemed to be dropping after their initial release, but I’m sure many wish they had gotten with the program from the get-go. At the time, eBay also seemed to be less infested with bargain hunters as it is now, and I count myself extremely lucky that I was able to get the boxed sets of the first 100 CDs or so at virtually no cost. Altogether I paid around 200 Euro for a little over 100 CDs and still today I regularly celebrate the anniversaries of these purchases. Add to that the usual insanity that is collecting and what you get is me, myself and I also investing into the four wonderful compilation boxes some months later. But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Jazz went to Paris and other places in Europe to live. That might sound funny to many of those who don’t spend a lot of time listening to jazz, but it’s true. Although its birthplace was elsewhere, many musicians either relocated to Europe or found a more than appreciative audience there whereas in the US they were at times perhaps shunned or at best ignored. I think it was Dizzy Gillespie who once said something to the effect that jazz was too good for the United States. Without wanting to get too much into the racial implications here, it is a fact that at various times in US history, black (jazz) musicians had more than their share of problems, segregation more often than not relegating them to the back entrances of places they were playing at - and that was only a small part of the problem(s).

Paris, which had developed into the jazz center of Europe already in the beginning of the 20th century, offered many of these musicians a safe haven as well as a permanent home (later, Denmark, Sweden and sometimes Germany usurped that role) and jazz thrived because of it. One can even be as bold as to state that without Paris and Europe, jazz might never have been recognized as an art form. It was in Europe that jazz had gained that kind of recognition and, as far as I recall, it was jazz critics such as Leonard Feather (England) and Dan Morgenstern (Austria), who spent their entire lifetimes promoting it as an art form in the United States.

No matter what your take on jazz history is, it remains a fact that we all owe the bigwigs at Universal for releasing this wonderful run of spectacular recordings from mostly the 1950s and 1960s. If you got with the program right from the start, you had the chance to pick up over 100 regular reissues of classic LPs/EPs, a few more that were added “out of series”, as well as four absolutely beautiful boxed sets that collected the best from the previous runs on 3 CDs plus a wonderful booklet and perhaps an extra recording or two each. One had the chance to buy these reissues separately or, for a limited time, in two slipcased editions that either collected 25 or 75 of them and, if you kept your ears close to the ground, you will have the chance starting March 2007 to complete the series with the last 15 CDs coming up. There even was a catalog CD and a DVD (not seen by me) and if you look at the grand picture, this is definitely one of the most consistent and exciting reissue series of the 21st century, bar none. Kudos to Universal France for pulling it off.

Each CD is housed in a digipack cover, carries the “Gitanes Jazz Productions” logo, was carefully remastered, sports a wonderful Paris photo from that time period and includes a booklet in French and English with liner notes and complete session information. The spines are quite colorful and for packaging fetishists like me, the entire run brightens up a collection considerably.

The CDs published “out of series” were similar and equally wonderful double CDs with a portrait of the artist on the cover.

The boxed sets that were compilations of the best tracks from the first hundred or so CDs came housed in sturdy white “themed” boxes and included stunningly produced booklets (books, in fact) with rare photos, reproductions of LP covers, posters and tickets plus longer essays invoking the spirit of the time. For a while, these boxed sets were available at real bargain prices from caiman.com and I jumped on them for the books alone. Again, these compilation boxed sets were certainly amongst the best ever produced in Europe.

Beg, steal AND borrow.

“Jazz in Paris”: A Complete List of (Previously) Available Items:
001 Louis Armstrong:
- The Best Live Concert Vol. 1
002 Louis Armstrong:
- The Best Live Concert Vol. 2
003 Miles Davis:
- Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud
004 Donald Byrd:
- Byrd in Paris (live)
005 Donald Byrd:
- Parisian Thoroughfare (live)
006 Buck Clayton/Peanuts Holland/Charlie Singleton:
- Club Session
007 Bill Coleman:
- From Boogie to Funk
008 Chet Baker:
- Broken Wing
009 Dizzy Gillespie:
- The Giant
010 Slide Hampton:
- Exodus

011 Django Reinhard:
- Django et Compagnie
012 Django Reinhard:
- Swing from Paris
013 Django Reinhard:
- Swing 39
014 Mary Lou Williams:
- I Made You Love Paris
015 Elek Bacsik:
- Guitar Conceptions
016 René Thomas:
- The Real Cat
017 Toots Thielemans:
- Blues pour Flirter
018 Buddy Banks /Bobby Jaspar
- Jazz de Chambre
- Quartet Barclay
019 Les Blue Stars/Henri Salvador
- Pardon My English
- Plays the Blues
020 Harold Nicholas/June Richmond/Andy Bey
- Chanteurs-Chanteuses

021 Don Byas:
- Laura
022 Sidney Bechet/Claude Luter
- Self-Titled
023 Sonny Criss
- Mr. Blues pour Flirter
024 Guy Lafitte
- Blue and Sentimental
025 Henri Renaud
- New sound at ‘The Boeuf sur le Toit’ (live)
Zoot Sims:
- Quintet Barclay
026 Barney Wilen:
- Jazz sur Seine
027 Bobby Jaspar:
- Modern Jazz au Club Saint Germain
028 Lucky Thompson:
- Modern Jazz Group
029 Pierre Michelot:
- Round about a Bass
030 Oscar Peterson ft. Stéphane Grappelli:
- Volume 1

031 Oscar Peterson ft. Stéphane Grappelli:
- Volume 2
032 Michel Legrand:
- Paris Jazz Piano
033 Claude Bolling:
- Plays the Original Piano Greats
034 Rhoda Scott/Kenny Clarke
- Self Titled
035 Eddie Louiss:
- Bohemia after Dark
036 Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon
- Aux Trios Mailletz
037 Sammy Price/Lucky Thompson
- Paris Blues (live)
038 Earl Hines:
- Paris One Night Stand
039 Kenny Clarke:
- Plays André Hodéir
040 Art Blakey
- Paris Jam Session (live)

041 Eddie Louiss/Yvan Julien
- Porgy & Bess
042 Stéphane Grappelli:
- Improvisations
043 Jean-Luc Ponty:
- Jazz Long Playing
044 Lionel Hampton and his French New Sound:
- Vol. 1 (live)
045 Lionel Hampton and his French New Sound
- Vol. 2 (live)
046 Lionel Hampton:
- Ring dem Vibes
047 Various (Albert Nicholas/Jimmy Archey/Michel Attenoux)
- Classic Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés
048 Various (Bernard Peiffer/Bernard Zacharias)
- Modern Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés
049 Barney Wilen/Alain Goraguer
- Jazz & Cinéma Vol. 1
050 Art Blakey/JatP/George Arvanitas
- Jazz & Cinéma Vol. 2

051 Louis Armstrong:
- And Friends
052 Dizzy Gillespie
- Cognac Blues
053 Chet Baker
- Quartet Plays Standards
054 Hubert Rostaing/Maurice Meunier
- Clarinettes à Saint-Germain-des-Prés
055 Hubert Fol/Michel de Villers/Sonny Criss
- Saxophones à Saint-Germain-des-Prés
056 Stéphane Grappelli
- Plays Cole Porter
057 René Thomas
- Meeting Mister Thomas
058 Django Reinhardt
- Swing 48
059 Django Reinhardt
- Django’s Blues
060 Henri Crolla
- Notre Ami Django

061 Art Simmons/Ronnell Bright
- Piano aux Champs-Elysées
062 Lou Bennett
- Pentecostal Feeling
063 Rhoda Scott
- Live at the Olympia (live)
064 Willie « The Lion » Smith
- Music on My Mind
065 Bernard Pfeiffer
- La Vie en Rose
066 Raymond Fol
- Les 4 Saisons
067 René Urtréger
- Joue Bud Powell
068 Lionel Hampton
- Mai 1956
069 Art Blakey
- 1958 Paris Olympia (live)
070 Le Jazz Groupe de Paris
- Joue André Hodeir

071 Gainsbourg & Goaraguer/Hodeir/Humair Soultette
- Jazz & Cinéma Vol. 3
072 Don Byas/Tyree Glenn/Howard McGhee sextet/James Moody Quintet
- Bebop
073 Lucky Thompson
- With Dave Pochonet All Stars
074 Alain Goraguer
- Go-Go-Goraguer
075 Earl Hines
- In Paris
076 Michel de Villers/Claude Bolling
- Danse à Saint-Germain-des-Prés
077 Lester Young
- Le dernier message
078 Don Byas
- En ce Temps-Là
079 Stan Getz Quartet
- In Paris (live)
080 Henri Criolla
- Begin the Beguine

081 Elek Bacsik
- Nuages
082 Stéphane Grappelli/Stuff Smith
- Stuff and Steff
083 Sarah Vaughan
- Vaughan & Violins
084 Dizzy Gillespie
- Dizzy Gillespie & his Operatic Strings Orchestra
085 Bobby Jaspar
- Jeux de Quartes
086 Gerard Badini
- The Swing Machine
087 Stéphane Grappelli
- Django
088 Gus Viseur
- De Clinchy à Broadway
089 Henri Crolla
- Quand Refleuriront les Lilas Blancs?
090 Django Reinhard
- Nuit de Saint-Germain-des-Prés

091 Django Reinhard
- Nuages
092 Jack Diéval
- Jazz au Champs-Elysées
093 Bernard Pfeiffer
- Plays Standards
094 Blossom Dearie/Les Blue Stars
- The Pianist
- Les Blue Stars
095 Sammy Price/Price & Doc Cheatham
- Play George Gershwin
096 Max Roach
- Parisian Sketches
097 André Hodeir
- Jazz et Jazz
098 Wetzel/Gorageur/de Villers/Solal
- Jazz & Cinéma Vol. 4
099 Wilson/Chittison/Polo Trio/Charlie Lewis
- Harlem Piano in Montmartre
100 Various:
- Jazz sous L’Occupation

101 Joe Newman/Cootie Williams
- Jazz at Midnight
102 Django Reinhardt
- Place de Brouckère

(to be released March 2007)
103 Buck Clayton (with Hal Singer)
- Buck Clayton and Friends
104 Kid Ory
- At the Théatre des Champs-Elysées
105 Sonny Stitt
- Sits In with the Oscar Peterson Trio
106 Guy Lafitte
- Blues
107 Stan Getz/Michel Legrand
- Communications ‘72
108 Sammy Price
- Good Paree
109 George Wein
- Midnight Concert at the Olympia
110 Raymond Fol
- Echoes of Harlem
111 Maurice Vander
- Piano Jazz
112 Henri Crolla/Hubert Rostang/André Hodeir
- Jazz et Cinéma Volume Vol. 5

Those last 10 reissues are also supposed to be the last reissues in the series. The editors have stated that there is no more material in the vaults to be released.

Out of Series (2CDs each):
001 Sacha Distel: Jazz Guitarist
002 Bill Coleman: The Complete Philips Recordings
003 Jean Claude Fohrenbach: Fohrenbach French Sound

Boxed Compilation Sets (3CDs each):
001 Jazz in Paris: Champs-Elysées (1917-1949)
002 Jazz in Paris: Montmatre (1924-1939)
003 Jazz in Paris: Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1946 - 1956)
004 Jazz in Paris: Rive Gauche, Rive Droite (1956-1959)

“Best of” Sampler:
Officially published on December 4th, 2006, this sampler - somewhat strangely-titled “Jazz In Paris : The 100s most beautiful melodies” - contains 5 CDs with 100 of the best tracks from the entire “Jazz in Paris” run.

Special Items:
001 10-in LP ‘Cool Jazz A Saint-Germain des Prés’
(tracks by Armand Migiani and Michel de Villers).
Limited Edition Release, December 2005.
002 Jazz in Paris Remixed, DVD
003 Jazz in Paris: Sampler (980-691-8).
Includes catalog presenting issues 1-102 plus the Sacha Distel “out of series” reissue.

Categories: (01) Collecting
Tags: boxed set, CD, jazz, Jazz in Paris, recommended