Lester Young on Savoy

[mikeweil]

I got the Complete Lester Young Savoy double CD today, it doesn't include the two bonus tracks Denon included on their CD issue (SV-0180) of the Jazz Immortal album: One o'clock Jump 6:16 and Jumpin' with Symphony Sid 3:57 (Chicago live date from April 2, 1950).

What Lester plays at the beginning of these two bonus tracks is virtually identical to the originally issued takes, to my ears, so could they be identical? The bonus version of Jumpin' and edited take?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Shrdlu]

I didn't know that Savoy had any live Pres. I have all takes of the studio stuff (4 sessions). What's on the live CDs?

[John L]

I am not sure that my copy of "Jazz Immortals" has any bonus tracks on it. I will check when I get home.

Shrdlu: This is a private live tape that Savoy purchased a while back, and not a professional recording. It first came out in the Jazz Immortal series. I purchased it as an LP on Savoy in the 1970s called "Pres Lives."

Even though it is not a professional recording, I consider it to be absolutely essential Pres, some of my favorite. Lester is in tremendous form on this one, especially on an extended 10-minute slow blues.

[mikeweil]

Chicago, April 2, 1950

Lester Young tenor sax

Jesse Drakes trumpet (plays not on Pennies

Kenny Drew piano

possibly Joe Shulman bass (as remembered by Drew)

Jo Jones drums

Tracks:

1. Lester Warms Up (Up and Adam)

2. I Can't Get Started

3. Lester's Blues, No. 1 (Big Eyes Blues)

4. Lester's Blues, No. 2 (Neenah)

5. Body and Soul

6. Up and Atom (Lester's Mop Mop Blues)

7. How High the Moon

8. Pennies from Heaven

9. One O'Clock Jump (One O'Clock Blues)

10. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid

11. One O'Clock Jump *

12. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid *

First issue was Savoy MG 12155. It was reissued with changing LP titles.

* denotes the bonus tracks on Savoy/Denon SV-0180.

Titles in brackets () are the correct ones according to the liner of the recent Savoy two CD reissue SVY 17122 Lester Young: The Complete Savoy Recordings, which includes the four studio sessions in toto as well as this live recording, but not the two bonus tracks.

Edited July 29, 2003 by mikeweil

[John L]

Mike: As it turns out, I do have a copy of that Denon CD. What you suspect is correct. The bonus tracks are nothing replications of the previous two tracks of One O'Clock Jump and Jumpin' With Symphony Sid, both of which were on the original LP. Strangely enough, the sound quality is different, suggesting that they may have come from another tape of the same concert.

As usual, Japanese Denon (Savoy) takes the cake for careless packaging.

Edited July 29, 2003 by John L

[mikeweil]

Yeah, and they didn't have the ears to recognize identical solos! Shame on them.

That whole Savoy reissue policy Denon displayed was ridiculous, imho, some with bonus tracks, but most without, discographical errors by the dozen ... the new reissues Keepnews compiles are a little better, at least they are discographically correct, but the cover design is as horrible as ever.

[Shrdlu]

Thanks, Mike and John, for the info. I'll have to look out for this live material.

What a mess this reissue is. Talk about careless. I'm speaking as one who was sent burns of some tracks from the Savoy studio sessions, all scrambled up on different disks. I had to spend quite a while comparing the different takes of some tunes, to see whether they really were different. So why can't the record companies do it. This was before the recent 2 CD set came out, and I was at the time unable to purchase official versions of a lot of the tracks. All I managed to land was a Japanese Denon CD called "The Master's Touch", which lacked several takes.