Elsewhere: Freedom rules in Paris jazz Seine

In the years immediately following the Second World War Paris became a hotbed of jazz.

"Jazz is about freedom," Thelonious Monk once said, and for post-liberation Parisians jazz was the visible - and audible - manifestation of the freedom principle.

The French have long understood and respected jazz as an unfettered artistic expression. Even now many French teenagers - whose local equivalents might well be acclaiming Limp Bizkit - can engage in a conversation about Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Monk.

Jazz and Paris go hand in glove, and it would be impossible to count the number of American musicians who have found their audience in the sophisticated, and sometimes sleazy, clubs of that city.

A new series of Jazz in Paris albums - 50 in all, many being reissues of albums long out of print - brings the sound of French and American jazz musicians from the 50s through to the 70s back into the spotlight.

In generic and attractive covers, and with concise but informative liner notes, the Jazz in Paris series (on the Gitanes label, distributed by Universal) offers an impressive roll call of great artists recorded in the French capital: Louis Armstrong, Donald Byrd, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Slide Hampton, Don Byas and Sonny Criss are among the Americans featured. Canadian Oscar Peterson is represented too. There is also a swag of French artists, including Michel Legrand, Claude Bolling, Jean-Luc Ponty and the long-forgotten Barney Wilen.

Tenor saxophonist Wilen, from Nice, is an interesting character. He made his name internationally when Miles Davis chose him to play in his '57 group, which recorded the soundtrack album Elevator to the Scaffold. He subsequently toured with Davis.

He also made an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959 and over his rather too short life (he died in '96 aged 59) played with Clark Terry, Bud Powell, Mal Waldron, Kenny Barron and many others. His story was told in the acclaimed 1987 comic Barney and the Blue Note by Loustal-Paringaux (Paul Rijperman Comics).

Wilen's Jazz in Paris album Jazz sur Seine captures him fronting a trio of Milt Jackson (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums), three-quarters of the Modern Jazz Quartet in fact. It's fairly straight-ahead bop playing, but Wilen's fluidity and assured tone are a real delight. African percussionist Gana M'Bow appears on two tracks, an early nod to a path Wilen would explore when he went to live in Africa in the late 60s and attempt an Afro-jazz-rock fusion.

But on Jazz sur Seine, recorded in '58 between the Davis and Newport showings, he's at his easy-going best. No barriers hurdled but plenty of enjoyable, melodic playing.

That's also true of Mr Blues pour flirter (Blues to Flirt By) by altoist Sonny Criss, recorded with a French quartet in '63. Very much an acclaimed Charlie Parker disciple when younger, his star fell after the war.

From the west coast, Criss crossed the country and finally the Atlantic in search of an audience. In Paris musicians quickly recognised his effortless talent, which is displayed in abundance on Mr Blues.

The album was recorded at the start of another excellent, if brief, period in his roller-coaster career, which ended with his suicide in '77 aged 50. He swings through standards (Ellington's Don't Get Around, Green Dolphin Street, St Louis Blues) and a couple of originals. The bonus discovery is organist George Arvanitas.

Trumpeter Chet Baker's Broken Wing, recorded in '78 a decade before his death, reminds you of another career of highlights and low points. Paris had been good to Baker; he recorded some of his best work there in the mid 50s. He returns the favour in this session with two musicians from his touring band (pianist Phil Markowitz and drummer Jeff Brillinger) and a French bassist Jean-Francois Jenny Clarke.

There is his gorgeous, attenuated tone on the title track, written for him by Richie Bierach and he recorded here for the first time, and some real depth on Wayne Shorter's Black Eyes (which also appears in an alternative take).

There's also the lengthy ballad Blue Gilles, which Baker wrote for producer Gilles Gautherin and never played again.

The Jazz in Paris series is full of such lost or overlooked gems. Like barefoot organist Rhoda Scott, rocking-it-up drummer Kenny Clarke, fat-back tenor player Guy Lafitte from '54, violinist Jean Luc Ponty recorded at age 22 on his earliest available recording ... And more.

Tres superbe, as they say en France.