Various Artists: L'Histoire du Piano Jazz

As befits a record label with a history of political orneriness (it was banned in occupied France during the second world war) and with subsequent links to the USSR through that state's Melodiya label, Le Chant du Monde's take on the history of piano jazz from 1899 to 1958 represents the hesitancies and fleeting triumphs of the foot soldiers and worthy unknowns as well as the stars. This elegantly designed 25-CD box draws, as budget compilations do, on out-of-copyright material, ending with Bill Evans, Bobby Timmons and Bud Powell rather than Hancock, Jarrett or Mehldau. But the audio enhancements minimise the technical deficiencies, and though the running order is chronological, the tracks have been chosen with improvisational adventures given at least as much status as hit tunes. Fats Waller's treble fills sound as if he's whistling in the street, Pinetop Smith's growled boogie-woogie instructions to dancers emphasise the early mass-social nature of jazz, while Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong's Weather Bird ("Wheather Bird" is among a clutch of translation glitches in the otherwise helpful booklet), Thelonious Monk's remorseless Blue Monk, John Lewis with the MJQ, and Bill Evans's Peace Piece trace the piano-jazz arc up to the end of the 1950s.