We would gladly trade every other John Lewis album for a copy of this album – because the album's a treasure all the way through – and a really unique set, with a really unique feel! The session features Lewis' piano in the company of a hip French group that includes Sasha Distel on guitar, Pierre Michelot on bass, and the great Barney Wilen on tenor – all great players who bring out a whole new side of Lewis' genius! Wilen's solos alone are worth the price of the album – deeply soulful, with a resonant tone that's some of his greatest on record – and an easy illustration of why he was one of the few European players of the postwar years to get big notice on this side of the Atlantic. But amazingly, Sacha Distel's also great here too – and despite the fact that he later went onto become a vocal pop star, Distel displays a beautiful approach to jazz guitar that makes us wish we had more sessions of his from these days. Titles include "Afternoon In Paris", "I Cover The Waterfront", and "All The Things You Are" – but don't let the titles alone speak for the record, because every track is beautiful! CD

A classic meeting of east and west coast artists of the third stream jazz sphere of the late 50s – one that features the team of John Lewis and Percy Heath of the Modern Jazz Quartet working alongside the west coast tenor of Bill Perkins, plus the guitar of Jim Hall and drums of Chico Hamilton! The whole album's got quite a unique feel – one that's as airy as that of the MJQ work of the time, but not nearly as academic or sleepy – thanks to a nice biting tone from Perkins' tenor, which really seems to stretch out in the space provided by Lewis. There's almost a similarly sublime quality here as on Lewis' album with Sacha Distel – Afternoon In Paris – which featured a similar use of space for great tenor sound (in that case, the tenor of Barney Wilen.) Titles include "2 Degrees East 3 Degrees West", "Easy Living", "Skylark", and "I Can't Get Started". CD