For many years after his death Sidney Bechet continued to be regarded as a demi-god in the French-speaking world. This simply excellent 4CD and lavishly produced book set of Bechet's collected work in Switzerland suggests that it's still the case. Indeed, when I was playing Bechet's music there with Bob Wilber's band in the 1980s, our hotelier showed us where Sidney and his band had signed the register in 1951. The man told us how impressed he had been to hear them perform, and coincidentally that same band with the pianist Christian Azzi (now 88 and still playing) is beautifully represented on these CDs. A single 1939 Jelly Roll Morton track is played during an interview with Bechet for the Geneva Jazz Hot programme, but otherwise the collection presents French or Swiss bands, with the occasional American or (in the case of Wally Fawkes) British guest. We hear what compère Loys Choquart assures us is Bechet's first-ever Swiss concert, and then a series of aural snapshots until the year before his death, including a series of piano sketches for his classical ballet ‘La Nuit Est Une Sorcière’. For the most part, the recordings are in excellent quality by Swiss Radio, but by the mid-1950s we are in the era of the private tape recorder and pianist Henri Chaix and enthusiast Emile Vadi captured two great live sets for posterity. The radio interviews make clear that Bechet is one of the ‘plus celebré’ American jazz musicians in Europe, and the recordings demonstrate that he plays that little bit more adventurously with his expatriate American colleagues, the drummer Kansas Fields and trumpeter Jack Butler. The studio and concert sessions with his frequent Parisian accompanists Claude Luter and André Réweliotty are by contrast much tighter as one would expect from regular working bands, and the soprano sax routines are clearly worked out for maximum impact on the audiences – the screaming and shouting of the crowd in Lausanne rivals Beatlemania! And there are surprises in those bands, too, including the French ‘Ragtime King’ Yannick Singery, who produces some authentic stride. Hearing what are for most of us hitherto unknown recordings of Bechet at the height of his European fame is a treat indeed, but what makes this a truly exceptional production is the book: 200 pages of LP format text, with an informative commentary in French and English, and an unparalleled collection of photos and memorabilia. It builds on Roland Hippenmeyer's pioneering 1980 book on Bechet, but with excellent reproductions of concert photos, tickets, programmes, contracts, reviews and more. It is a true portrait of Francophone Switzerland's love affair with the grand old man of New Orleans Jazz, put together with fitting attention to every detail.