Mp3, 320 kbps. Covers.
CD1
01-Shoeshine Bo
02-Boogie Woogie
03-Lady Be Good
04-This Year's Kisses
05-This Year's Kisses
06-I'll Never Be The Same
07-I Can't Get Started
08-Honeysuckle Rose
09-Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
10-I Want A Little Girl
11-You Can Depend On Me
12-Dickie's Dream
13-Lester Leaps In
14-Tickle Toe
15-Jo Jo
16-I Got Rhythm
17-These Foolish Things
18-Exercise In Swing
19-Salute To Fats
20-Basie English
CD2
01-Empty Hearted
02-Circus In Rhythm
03-Poor Little Plaything
04-Tush
05-Blue Lester
06-Ghost Of A Chance
07-Indiana
08-Jump Lester Jump
09-Mean To Me
10-I've Found A New Baby
11-Lester's Be-Bop Boogie
12-I'm Confessin'
13-Crazy Over J-Z
14-Ding Dong
15-Blues'n'Bells
16-June Bug
17-Ad Lib Blues
18-Almost Like Being In Love
19-Just You, Just Me
20-I Can't Get Started
CD1
1. Shoeshine Boy (Cahn/Chaplin)
2. Boogie Woogie (Pinetop Smith)
3. Lady Be Good (G & I Gershwin)
JONES-SMITH INCORPORATED: Lester Young (tenor); Carl Smith (trumpet); Count Basie (piano); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums); Jimmy Rushing (vocal on Boogie Woogie). Chicago, 9th October 1936.
These are the first recorded examples of Lester Young’s approach to the tenor saxophone and were entrancing enough to have a generation of horn players learn these fabulous solos note-for-note, ensuring Young’s eternal influence on the development of jazz saxophone. Bright-eyed, swinging and relaxed but fuelled by a unique elliptical imagination, his startling playing can be analysed (and, boy, has it) in terms of daring rhythmic placement, colourful note choices and delayed tonal resolution. But sometimes all that need be said is what Jimmy Rushing, the vocalist here on “Boogie Woogie” and Lester’s erstwhile singing colleague in the Basie band once noted; “Every time you expect him to go one way, he’ll go the other.” With the group co-led by trumpeter Carl Smith and drummer Jo Jones and featuring a still striding Count Basie at the piano, in its day this was nothing less than state of the art small group swing.
4. This Year’s Kisses (Turk-Ahlert)
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Lester Young (tenor); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Benny Goodman (clarinet); Teddy Wilson (piano); Freddy Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums); Billie Holiday (vocal). New York, 25th January 1937.
5. Mean To Me (Turk-Ahlert)
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Lester Young (tenor); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Teddy Wilson (piano); Freddy Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums); Billie Holiday (vocal). New York, 11th May 1937.
6. I’ll Never Be The Same (Kahn-Malneck-Signorelli)
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Lester Young (tenor); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Buster Bailey (clarinet); Teddy Wilson (piano); Freddy Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums); Billie Holiday (vocal). New York, 1st June 1937.
7. I Can't Get Started (Gershwin-Duke)
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA: Billie Holiday (vocal); Lester Young (tenor); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Dickie Wells (trombone); Margaret ‘Queenie’ Johnson (piano); Freddy Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums). New York, 15th September 1938.
Part of the Lester Young legend is his enduring, platonic relationship with Billie Holiday (they both liked a drink and a toke) who took him under her wing when the Basie Orchestra arrived in New York and nicknamed him ‘Prez’, short for President of the Saxophone. He in turn nicknamed her ‘Lady Day’ (he called everyone Lady something) and both monikers stuck. Their music relationship too was one of great intimacy and empathy, with Lester’s tender obbligatos a perfect foil for Billie’s sensitive-salty vocals. Of the twenty or so sides they recorded together in the late ‘30s/early ‘40s, these are four fine examples of their special blend. With three tracks under the leadership of sublimely elegant pianist Teddy Wilson - and “I Can’t Get Started” from 16 months later when Billie led her own session, singer and saxophonist are at the peak of their respective powers.
8. Honeysuckle Rose (Fats Waller)
BENNY GOODMAN CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT: Benny Goodman (clarinet); Johnny Hodges (alto); Harry Carney (baritone sax); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Lester Young (tenor); Count Basie (piano); Freddie Green (gtr); Walter Page (bass); Gene Krupa (drums). New York, January 1938.
From the historic 1938 event when the King Of Swing brought jazz to the famous New York concert hall for the first time, this highlight from the 16-minute jam session version of “Honeysuckle Rose” has been specially edited to highlight Lester’s telling contribution. Even from this distance, the excitement and sense of occasion is palpable. And Prez is fantastic.
9. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (Layton/Creamer)
10. I Want A Little Girl (Moll/Mencher)
KANSAS CITY SIX: Lester Young (tenor/clarinet); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Eddie Durham (guitar); Freddie Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums). New York, 27th September 1938.
11. You Can Depend On Me (Carpenter-Dunlop-Hines)
COUNT BASIE SEXTET: Lester Young (tenor); Shad Collins (trumpet); Freddie Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums); Jimmy Rushing (vocal). New York, 2nd February 1939.
12. Dickie’s Dream (Basie/Young)
13. Lester Leaps In (Young)
COUNT BASIE’S KANSAS CITY SEVEN: Lester Young (tenor); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Dickie Wells (trombone); Freddie Green (guitar); Count Basie (piano); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums). New York, 5th September 1939.
Lester Young himself once defined his favourite sort of band. ‘The piano should play little fill-ins, just nice little chords behind the horn. I don’t get in his way, and I let him play, and he shouldn’t get in mine. Otherwise your mind gets twisted…A bass should play nice, four-beat rhythm that can be heard. I don’t go for the bomb; I want a drummer to be straight with the section. He’s messing with the rhythm when he drops those bombs.’ He could have been describing the swinging perfection of these wonderful offshoot combos of the Basie Orchestra. With groove, poise and melodic invention in delightful balance, the Kansas City small group sides of the late ‘30s are among the most important and satisfying music of the era. Highlights include a rare example of Lester’s mellifluous clarinet soloing, heard here on “I Want A Little Girl”, the melodic surprises of the blue-chip Kansas City Seven front line and the synergy of Young and Basie throughout. “Everything he did was special,” Basie said about Prez. Not especially known for his composing, Lester gets a co-credit on “Dickie’s Dream” – a perky little piece based almost entirely on a single minor chord – and a full credit on “Lester Leaps In”, his famous riff for the “I Got Rhythm” chord changes.
14. Tickle Toe (Young)
COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA: Harry Edison, Buck Clayton, Ed Lewis, Al Killian (trumpet); Dickie Wells, Benny Morton, Dan Minor, Vic Dickinson (trombone); Earle Warren (alto sax); Buddy Tate, Lester Young (tenor sax); Jack Washington (baritone sax); Count Basie (piano); Freddie Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones (drums). New York, 19th March 1940.
“Tickle Toe”, an attractively slippery up-and-down minor arpeggio is an intriguing formalisation of Lester’s improvisational style and probably Young’s most developed theme. The saxophonist himself named it as his favourite of his self-penned tunes and would undoubtedly have been delighted with the Basie orchestra’s roaring reading of Andy Gibson’s arrangement.
15. Jo Jo (Joe Bushkin)
16. I Got Rhythm (Gershwin)
KANSAS CITY SIX: Lester Young (tenor sax); Bill Coleman (trumpet); Dickie Wells (trombone); Joe Bushkin (piano); John Simmons (bass); Jo Jones (drums). New York, 28th March 1944.
Young had left Basie at the end of 1940 and after an abortive period attempting to lead his own sextet, spent a year or so in his drummer/singer brother Lee’s band in Los Angeles. Back in New York, Lester briefly joined the Al Sears band, jammed around with Dizzy Gillespie’s first bebop group and rejoined the Count Basie band in late 1943. These sides from another incarnation of the Kansas City Six (with only Lester and drummer Jo Jones from the original group) a few months later reveal the development of a darker, larger tone. On pianist Joe Bushkin’s blues “Jo Jo” and Gershwin perennial “I Got Rhythm”, there are still plenty of flowing ideas coming from Prez’s instrument, but those who hear Lester as someone who played it how he felt it detect a somewhat brooding, soulful air to his music from this period on.
17. These Foolish Things (Strachey/Marvell/Link)
18. Exercise In Swing (Guarnieri)
19. Salute To Fats (Guarnieri)
20. Basie English (Guarnieri)
JOHNNY GUARNIERI’S ALL STAR ORCHESTRA: Lester Young (tenor), Billy Butterfield (trumpet), Hank D’Amico (clarinet), Johnny Guarnieri (piano), Dexter Hall (guitar), Billy Taylor (bass), Cozy Cole (drums). New York, 18th April 1944.
Though still part of the Basie organisation, Lester joined Johnny Guarnieri – a piano player with whom he had recorded several sides a few months earlier – for the pianist’s own session. The titles of Guarnieri’s originals say much about the faintly mechanical pastiche work of the leader himself, though Prez is in fine form. His cunning paraphrasing of “These Foolish Things” is model Lester and his up-tempo lines on “Exercise In Swing” and “Basie English” are inventive and vigorous.
CD2
1. Empty Hearted (Warren)
2. Circus In Rhythm (Warren)
3. Poor Little Plaything (Warren)
4. Tush (Wells)
EARLE WARREN ORCHESTRA: Joe Newman, Ed Lewis, Al Killian, Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison (trumpet); Eli Robinson, Dickie Wells, Ted Donelly, Louis Taylor (trombone); Earle Warren, Jimmy Powell (alto sax); Lester Young, Buddy Tate (tenor sax); Rudy Rutherford (baritone sax); Clyde Hart (piano); Freddie Green (guitar); Rodney Richardson (bass); Jo Jones (drums). New York, 18th April 1944.
On the same day as the Guarnieri date, Lester took part in a Basie band session (without Basie himself) led by altoist Earl Warren. Savoy Records had settled terms over the mid-1940s Musicians’ Union strike whereas Vocalion/Columbia – Basie’s label – hadn’t, so exclusively for Savoy, the Earle Warren Orchestra was born. With swing-to-bop pianist Clyde Hart doing a good job deputising for the Count, it’s a cooking date. The band’s sound had evolved from the exciting, rough-around-the-edges unit of the 1930s to a well-oiled swing machine in the 1940s that could give some of the sweeter bands a run for their money. Lester, fulsome and delicious, carries on regardless.
5. Blue Lester (Young)
6. Ghost Of A Chance (Washington/Crosby/Young)
7. Indiana (Macdonald/Hanley)
8. Jump Lester Jump (Young)
LESTER YOUNG QUINTET: Lester Young (tenor sax); Count Basie (piano); Freddie Green (guitar); Rodney Richardson (bass); Shadow Wilson (drums). New York, 1st May 1944.
The final Young/Basie small group session and a classic. There is perhaps little less fizz than before, but these men were older and wiser (and in Lester’s case, perhaps a shade disappointed at being unable to establish himself as a leader) and what the session may lack in raw excitement, it more than makes up for in substance. “Blue Lester” is an ingenious minor key “Rhythm changes” variant with some gorgeous Lester blowing, “Ghost Of A Chance” is one of Prez’s all-time great ballad performances (hear those insouciant intervallic leaps) while “Indiana” and the blues “Jump Lester Jump” feature Lester well and truly ‘on it, man’, as Basie himself might have said.
9. Lester’s Be-Bop Boogie (Young)
LESTER YOUNG QUINTET: Lester Young (tenor); Joe Albany (piano); Irving Ashby (guitar); Red Callender (bass); Chico Hamilton (drums). Los Angeles, August 1946.
10. I’m Confessin’ (Neiburg/Dougherty/Reynolds)
LESTER YOUNG QUINTET: Lester Young (tenor); Argonne Thornton (piano); Fred Lacey (guitar); Ted Briscoe (bass); Roy Haynes (drums). New York, December 1947.
Following a disastrous 15 months in the army, much of which was spent in detention for apparent drug offences, this is the point at which Lester’s sensitive spirit and precarious talent is commonly supposed to have fractured once and for all. “Lester’s Be-Bop Boogie”, recorded in L.A. only eight months after his discharge suggests otherwise. The multi-key 12-bar blues - the kind of shouting R&B effort that some swingmen (like Lionel Hampton) would produce in an effort to get on the jukeboxes - proves Prez still had plenty to say that was rhythmically forthright and melodically unpredictable on the blues. However, 16 months later in New York, despite being a good recorded example of Lester’s ‘late period’ fullness of tone, “I’m Confessin’” reveals the beginnings of a hitherto unheard unsteadiness of pitch and a moving, rather distressing air of hesitancy.
11. Crazy Over J-Z (Young)
12. Ding Dong (Young)
13. Blues ‘N’ Bells (Young)
14. June Bug (Young)
LESTER YOUNG SEXTET: Lester Young (tenor sax); Jessie Drakes (trumpet); Jerry Elliott (trombone); Junior Mance (piano); Leroy Jackson (bass); Roy Haynes (drums). New York, 28th June 1949.
By 1949 Young - never the most organised of musicians - had a manager, a new wife and a reliable musical companion (Drakes) to look after him and he worked steadily, often in the company of gifted youngsters. On this session it’s the crackling work of drummer Roy Haynes which stands out and gives the music a real propulsion, especially “Ding Dong”, the uptempo variation of “A Slow Boat To China”. Another interesting thing about this session is that while Pres plays reasonably well in his late period style – fragmentary but still somehow telling a story - when the horns join him on both blues vehicles “Crazy Over J-Z” and “Blues And Bells” with supporting riffs, his playing reaches another level. It’s almost as if – for a few moments - he’s back with the Basie band.
15. Ad Lib Blues (control)
16. Almost Like Being in Love (Lerner-Loewe)
17. Just You, Just Me (Klages-Greer)
18. I Can't Get Started (Duke-Gershwin)
LESTER YOUNG WITH OSCAR PETERSON TRIO: Lester Young (tenor); Oscar Peterson (piano); Barney Kessel (guitar); Ray Brown (bass); J. C. Heard (drums). 1952.
There’s a story of one of Lester Young’s many saxophone-playing disciples (Stan Getz? Zoot Sims? Paul Quinichette? Al Cohn?) coming to see the master at work in the 1950s and being moved to say, ‘you’re not you, I’m you’. It may be apocryphal, but it conveys the sense one gets from some later Lester recordings of hearing ghostly echoes of a once-great player. Luckily, this 1952 set with his musical pals from many a Jazz At The Philharmonic tour the Oscar Peterson Trio (plus drummer J.C. Heard) has Prez sounding about as good as he ever did in his final decade. On “Ad Lib Blues” and “Almost Like Being In Love”, the final choruses of “Just You Just Me” and the sumptuous ballad “I Can’t Get Started”, he plays sweet, easy and clear. Peterson, in his autobiography A Jazz Odyssey, affectionately remembers Lester’s solos as a reflection of his “inner person”. Once more we hear Lester playing it how he was.
It wouldn’t be long after this session that Young’s playing would lose much of its spirit, a sorry musical reflection of the decline of the man himself. Yet even as he headed downward into his sad final years before his alcohol-induced death in 1959, he remained his unique self. An original musician, an original man.
Chris Ingham
Chris Ingham is a jazz musician, songwriter, contributor to Mojo magazine and author of Rough Guide To The Beatles and the forthcoming Rough Guide To Sinatra.