VA - Jazz In Paris, 50 Reasons to Love Paris [2007] (3 x CDs)

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VA - Jazz In Paris, 50 Reasons to Love Paris [2007] (3 x CDs)

Released in 2007 as part of Universal’s long‑running Jazz In Paris program, 50 Reasons to Love Paris distills the broader series into a single, thoughtfully curated portrait of the city’s post‑war jazz identity. Rather than a generic “best of,” the compilers draw from the original albums recorded in Paris between the late 1940s and the early 1960s, sessions issued on labels such as Barclay, Gitanes Jazz, Philips, and the French branches of Verve and Mercury. For collectors, the appeal lies in the fidelity to period sources: these are the original masters, not later remixes or expanded reissues, preserving the warmth and immediacy of the era’s studio sound.

The set highlights Paris as a crossroads. American expatriates, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, appear alongside French players like Barney Wilen, René Urtreger, and Henri Renaud, capturing the unique blend of bebop fluency and European lyricism that defined the city’s clubs. Many of these recordings were cut in small Parisian studios or live rooms with minimal overdubbing, giving them a documentary quality that serious listeners value. The sequencing moves with a gentle narrative logic, shifting from smoky Left Bank atmospheres to brighter, more modernist sessions as the decade turns.

What makes the compilation stand out is its sense of place. These tracks aren’t just jazz recordings, they’re snapshots of a cultural moment when Paris functioned as a refuge, a workshop, and a meeting point for musicians seeking creative freedom. The compilers avoid the obvious standards in favour of pieces that reveal the city’s role in shaping post‑bop vocabulary. For anyone tracing the lineage of European jazz, the set offers a concise, historically grounded entry point, rich in mood, faithful to its sources, and anchored in the lived texture of Parisian musical life. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Quincy Jones - Parisian Thoroughfare 3:49

02 Sacha Distel - Olympia Orgy 2:42

03 Bernard Peiffer - Paris, je t'aime ... d'amour 2:39

04 Max Roach - Parisian Sketches 17:09

05 Sammy Price - Eiffel Tower 2:55

06 Le Quintet du Hot Club de France - Swing from Paris 2:33

07 Henri Crolla - La Parisienne 1:17

08 Gus Viseur - Ménil montant 2:19

09 Charlie Lewis - April in Paris 2:49

10 Michel Legrand - Sous le ciel de Paris 1:51

11 Bernard Peiffer - Midday on the Champs-Élysées 2:49

12 Michel Legrand - Paris in the Spring 3:31

13 Danny Polo - Montmatre Loan 2:54

14 Pierre Michelot - Sous les ponts de Paris 3:04

15 Barney Wilen - Swingin' Parisian Rhythm 4:27

16 Donald Byrd - Parisian Thoroughfare 9:01

17 Lionel Hampton - Flying at the Olympia 6:10

CD2

01 Barney Wilen - Ménilmontant 3:32

02 Henri Crolla - Alembert's 2:36

03 Gus Viseur - Paris je t'aime 1:31

04 Le Jazz Group de Paris - Parisian Thoroughfare 3:55

05 Hubert Rostaing - Champs-Élysées Club 2:56

06 Bill Coleman - Jumpin' at Pleyel 2:36

07 Michel Legrand - Sous les pont de Paris 2:53

08 Blossom Dearie - April i nParis 2:54

09 Mary Lou Williams - I Made You Love Paris 2:32

10 Sammy Price - Montparnasse 3:02

11 Howard McGhee - Étoile 2:57

12 Django Reinhard - Nuits de Saint-Germain-des-Prés 3:06

13 René Thomas - Relaxin' at the Grand Balcon 3:15

14 Michel Legrand - Moulin Rouge 2:40

15 Charlie Singleton - Blues à la Schola 4:02

16 Joe Newman - Blues on the Champs-Élysées 13:38

17 Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon - Pigalle Love 4:00

CD3

01 Miles Davis - Florence sur les Champs-Élysées 2:52

02 Michel Legrand - The Last Time I Saw Paris 2:24

03 Danny Polo - Montparnasse Jump 2:45

04 Sammy Price - Good Paree 2:52

05 Sammy Price & Lucky Thompson - Paris Blues 7:17

06 Michel Legrand - Paris canaille 2:02

07 Les Amis de Django - Swing from Paris 2:25

08 Gus Viseur - Revoir Paris 2:15

09 Ediie Barclay - Place Blanche 2:39

10 Gus Viseur - Quel temps fait-il à Paris? 1:43

11 Michel Legrand - I Love Paris 2:51

12 René Urtreger - Parisian Thoroughfare 3:37

13 Bernard Peiffer - Balld in Paris 3:19

14 Gus Viseur - Le bal du P'tit Jardin 2:09

15 Michel Legrand - April in Paris 5:12

16 Sammy Price & Lucky Thompson - Embassy Boogie 3:13

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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