This wide-ranging curio goes back to the early days of microgroove, via a famous French label (though most of the same LPs and EPs came out on UK’s Vogue affiliate too). Individuals couldn’t afford to import records from Stateside, so it was down to local companies doing deals with small US labels to release their product in Europe for example, Blue Note (whence these sessions by Miles, Bechet, Powell, Monk), Dial (Parker, Howard McGhee), Aladdin (Lester), Pacific (Gerry and Chet), Fantasy (Brubeck, of course) and others. Presumably, leasing deals were signed in perpetuity back then, with no thought to long-term worth, so Vogue’s current ‘owners’ Sony retain the rights despite comprehensive reissues from inheritors of the original labels, but this new French remastering is at least respectable if not outstanding. Reproducing original sleeves means it’s impossible to find out what’s on each CD without referring to the booklet but, while little here was recorded in France (except Garner and McGhee during the 1948 Paris Jazz Fair and blues pianist Blind John Davis), this is a trip back in time to when jazz fans were also expected to dig the R&B of Wynonie Harris and the gospel of Mahalia Jackson. And so say all of us.