Francis Paudras Collection?

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I was reading up on the Gary McFarland Orchestra w/Bill Evans LP at a site and was curious about the "famed" collection that was mentioned? Never heard of it/him....what's it all about? Those two YouTube NBC clips that were removed -- are they posted at another online site? ....I'd like to see them.

http://www.jazzwax.com/2007/08/the-early-autum.html

[bakeostrin]

Please refer to this link a jazzhouse.org for an homage and obituary for Francis Paudras, discussing his relationship with Bud Powell and Bill Evans:

http://www.jazzhouse.org/gone/lastpost2.php3?edit=920558424

There may be some board members who knew Paudras, I would expect Brownie, for one; and they may have insights. There have been other threads on the "Mythic Sound" recordings of Bud Powell, originating from tapes Paudras made.

My familiarity with Paudras comes from being a book collector and he authored (or co-authored) two of the most desirable and collectable jazz books: "To Bird with Love" and "La Danse des Infideles"; each of which has been the subject of other threads (see the book thread on "labors of love" from this board). Also, he designed the layout for Herman Leonard's "L'Oeil du Jazz," certainly a fine book, but not in the class of the former two for collectibility and rarity. Each features material from Paudras' collection, particularly "La Danse des Infideles." The english language version "Dance of the Infideles" is small format softcover and, while generously illustrated, lacks the hundreds of photographs featured in the original hardcover French edition.

I add this homage to Paudras' books because I find it impressive, apart from his other accomplishments, that he produced two such wonderful, rare books. Someone has a thread up right now about artists as a leader for only one label, two album mimimum. It is an even smaller list to think of authors who have written two highly collectible and rare jazz books (with no other non-collectible titles).

Hope this helps,

Baker

[AllenLowe]

I met Francis at Bill Evans's funeral, and we corresponded for a time - he was a genuinely nice man, we started talking because he found out I was a friend of Haig's, and also that I knew Bill Triglia - he also was surprised to find anybody who knew a lot about Bud Powell, so we had a bit in common. I know he was a troubled guy, from what I heard later, but I found him, in my brief encounter, smart and focused and decidedly unlike the image of the obsessed fan/collector. I lost touch with him, and I know he had a lot of problems later on, and I was very saddened to hear not just of his death but of the way he died -