For those unaware, three legends of jazz and improvised music came together back in 1981 and recorded what has since been titled Topographie Parisienne. It was an historic three-day concert featuring Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, and Evan Parker, already at the peak of their arts, both free-spirited and deeply attentive to one another (in duo form) or to each other (in trio form), and, of course, incredibly creative.

Such a recording deserved a beautiful presentation, and that’s exactly what we get. A magnificent four-disc set with a booklet. Each disc has its own gatefold sleeve with photos from the concert. The booklet includes liner notes by Bill Shoemaker, Sturat Broomer, Philippe Alen, Joël Pagier, and Jean Rochard, as well as an explanatory note by Jean-Marc Foussat, who recorded the concert.

“There are certain crucial art works around which one might construct a larger history, where everything known or felt about a certain past unfolds and a certain future comes into view, like an air check from Birdland in 1950 of Charlie Parker playing Street Beat for ten minutes with Fats Navarro, Bud Powell and Max Roach, or Velasquez,” states Las Meninas.

Bailey, Bennink and Parker’s Topographie Parisienne may be such a work, running 3:39:11. It is generously - and genuinely - overwhelming, three-as-one.

Disc 1:
Evan Parker solo
Derek Bailey - Han Bennink - Evan Parker trio

Disc 2:
Han Bennink - Evan Parker duet
Derek Bailey - Evan Parker duet
Han Bennink - Evan Parker duet

Disc 3:
Derek Bailey - Han Bennink duet
Derek Bailey - Evan Parker duet

Disc 4:
Derek Bailey - Han Bennink - Evan Parker trio
Evan Parker solo

On what has always been - up until now with FOU Records via MVD releasing this incredible four-disc box-set of the event - a rare and precious find to ever locate, they open their recording on a breathy, yet immaculately, nay stunningly performed Evan Parker solo, before then gifting us a truly magnificent Derek Bailey, Han Bennink and Evan Parker trio moment.

The second disc opens on the, at times jagged, other times playfully flirtatious Han Bennink and Evan Parker duet, a scratchy, yet authentically harmonious - is how I would describe it - second Derek Bailey and Evan Parker duet, before the intriguingly crafted, agreeably impulsive, yet always driven Han Bennink and Evan Parker duet.

The third disc opens on the impishly whimsical, yet cultured and always aware Derek Bailey and Han Bennink duet before culminating on a distinct preciseness conceived of both musical notions and the intervention of breath within the Derek Bailey and Evan Parker duet.

The fourth, and final disc brings forth the full-on onslaught of rhythms and melodies by Derek Bailey, Han Bennink and the Evan Parker trio within a most glorious cacophony of melodious discord - which is hard to not find oneself drawn into re: their incredible interplay - the set coming to a close on an affectingly sculpted, dulcet yet compelling Evan Parker solo.

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