It's almost here: 100th birthday of Lester Young

[mmilovan]

For that matter I found this interesting article, and one of great Pres admirers - Dave Pell:

56 Years Of Rust: Pell Rescues Prez's Horn

http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2009/...ll_rescues.html

[Hardbopjazz]

Wow 100. Get musician. To bad he ended his life by drinking himself to death.

I read a while back he's credited with giving so many jazz musician's their nicknames. Those that come to mine, Billie Holiday- Lady Day. Horace Silver, which just eluded me.

[mmilovan]

It's a pitty they missed such opportunity to issue this one:

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0605/young.html

[John L]

It's a pitty they missed such opportunity to issue this one:

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0605/young.html

Yes. Since this is the US Government (Library of Congress), why can't they just release a disc themselves, perhaps through the Smithsonian? That would be a beautiful way to celebrate Pres' 100th birthday.

[BruceH]

It's a pitty they missed such opportunity to issue this one:

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0605/young.html

Yes. Since this is the US Government (Library of Congress), why can't they just release a disc themselves, perhaps through the Smithsonian? That would be a beautiful way to celebrate Pres' 100th birthday.

They could at least send a copy of it to my house.

[mmilovan]

Yes. Since this is the US Government (Library of Congress), why can't they just release a disc themselves, perhaps through the Smithsonian? That would be a beautiful way to celebrate Pres' 100th birthday.

Again, wall of neglection for one of the most importat musician in whole history of jazz.

[king ubu]

holy crap, just had a long list typed up... Miles and Duke were leading off (150 and 130 I think), then Coltrane, Mingus, Monk, Oscar Peterson, and a few others in the 40-60 category, and too many to even remember a third of them in the 40, 30, 20 and 15 categories, but including: Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Hank Mobley, Artie Shaw, Woody Shaw, Randy Weston, Art Ensemble, Cecil Taylor, Art Tatum, Django, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, and many others... that sucks, having culled together these names for half an hour and then all's gone

[flat5]

king ubum,

What are you talking about?

[AllenLowe]

he changed my life, no kidding.

[mikeweil]

Hearing his tremendous sound should make an impact on anyone's life ...

If I could take only one sax CD, it probably would be Pres.

I wonder if those live recordings JSngry raved avour are avaoleble somewhere?

[king ubu]

king ubum,

What are you talking about?

hm, that should have been posted here:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=54279

not sure what exactly happened, first I lost my fast reply then it ends up in a wrong thread...

anyway, since this is a Lester Young thread I would have ended up posting something of little importance here anyway, sooner or later...

[king ubu]

Can the US of A be sued for not releasing this 1940 recording? It should be declared cultural world heritage and distributed freely to all households all over the world. I'm sure the world would be a better place! Ya know, it might actually bring some of those terrorists to senses, just as Dizzy initiated the perestroika when he visited Greece with his big band in 1957... or some such

But I'd (almost) kill to hear that recording, that's for sure!

[kh1958]

This sounds like a job for Uptown Records.

[mmilovan]

Probably 10 years ago, at board dedicated to Greatest Day in Harlem photo, one of Young's relatives (grand daughter) told me that she was in possession of tape recorded in Newport, with Lester playing and singing! Probably this source still exists.

[bichos]

This sounds like a job for Uptown Records.

here is a repost from an old post of me in the lester young corner:

in july 2007 i contacted larry appelbaum from the loc in washington and asked him about plans to release the lester young sides. here is his answer:

" Hello Marcel,

I'm not aware of any plans to issue the Lester Young jam session materials.

Any record label can do so as long as they get permission of the rights

holders. So far I've not been contacted by any label and no one has come

down to listen to the discs.

Larry"

and in a second mail he gave this information:

"There's only about 15-20 mins of Lester, along with other items from the jam

session (like Sammy Price trio performances).

i would think this might be bonus material for a Lester Young reissue.

Larry"

that is both sad and surprise news for me.

because i thought that there is a market for a legend like lester young and

that this recordings go very quickly on cd (like the monk/coltrane one). but

that´s not the fact. so we have to make propaganda and find a label who is

willing to release this historical recordings.

keep boppin´

marcel

[bichos]

Probably 10 years ago, at board dedicated to Greatest Day in Harlem photo, one of Young's relatives (grand daughter) told me that she was in possession of tape recorded in Newport, with Lester playing and singing! Probably this source still exists.

and there is still the information that sonny rollins has a tape of himself playing with charlie parker and lester young circa 1953. also, columbia records once announced a six-minute track by parker with young singing, of unknown date, but this was never issued. ca. 1954. information via the lester young discography "lestorian notes" by piet koster and harm mobach, micrography, amsterdam 1998.

keep boppin´

marcel

[mmilovan]

and there is still the information that sonny rollins has a tape of himself playing with charlie parker and lester young circa 1953. also, columbia records once announced a six-minute track by parker with young singing, of unknown date, but this was never issued. ca. 1954. information via the lester young discography "lestorian notes" by piet koster and harm mobach, micrography, amsterdam 1998.

Yes, I still know where I first read notes about such exotic material - it was book titled "Lester Young" by Lewis Porter (issued around 1985. or so).

[JSngry]

he changed my life, no kidding.

Me too. Forever.

Once you know Lester, things are really never the same. No things. No matter where you start from, where you end up is gonna be more open, and there ain't no goin' back.

[CJ Shearn]

wow, they really should release that bit of Pres. For me, before Trane at least, Lester was the biggest influence on everyone. Such a sound and conception. Even in his final period like the Basie @ Newport record, he still sounds great.

Edited August 25, 2009 by CJ Shearn

[ghost of miles]

I posted a round-up of some Prez tributes from today, as well as links to an old Night Lights program and a new Afterglow one:

The House in the Heart: Lester Young in the 1950s

Lester Young and the Singers (special note of thanks to board members!)

[jazzbo]

Hey guys. . . is it PRES or PREZ?

Both?

I've always, with very few exceptions before the internet, known it as PRES.

Thank God for Lester Willis (and his brother Lee).

[JSngry]

I've seen both through the years, mostly S, but Z has not been unheard of either.

I thnk that PREZ is a phonetic representation of how PRES is usually enunciated.

[jazzbo]

Me too. I somehow am bothered by "Prez" because all my earliest encounters have been "Pres."

[ghost of miles]

Mentioned this in the Night Lights round-up post and started a thread elsewhere, but Ethan Iverson's 10-part tribute today is pretty amazing:

Lester Young Centennial

[medjuck]

Long piece on NPR this morning. Several factual mistakes but they're corrected by Lewis Porter in the comments section.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...oryId=112255870