*****Lester Young Corner*****

[danasgoodstuff]

Thanks for the link, nice interviews with BB King and Lovano re Lester.

[brownie]

Paris Jazz Corner is distributing this limited edition (750 copies) vinyl reissue of Lester Young's last album recorded in Paris by Barclay Records and released in the States on Verve.

Le Dernier Message

I have not heard this yet but it looks like a quality job!

[king ubu]

You've not heard this reissue or you've not heard the album? Hard to believe the later... it was in the Jazz in Paris series as well as in the Verve 8CD-set. Definitely not Pres' best, but somewhat better than the worst of his late recordings.

[brownie]

I feel insulted!

[EKE BBB]

Monsieur Brownie feels insulted... in his case, I would also feel insulted!

[king ubu]

Sorry, but I'm astonished!

Go get it then, no matter if the vinyl (sure looks fine to me!) or the CD!

[brownie]

Sorry, but I'm astonished!

Go get it then, no matter if the vinyl (sure looks fine to me!) or the CD!

My joke seems to be getting nowhere...

I have had that album for decades (in vinyl and CD). Not his best but still very worthy!

[king ubu]

Lost in translation, I guess... sorry!

[John L]

I waited and hoped for years that this 1950 JATP Carnegie Hall concert with Pres and Sweets would make it to the digital age. It has a sublime extended solo from Pres on Ghost of a Chance.

Little did I know that it has been hiding at iTunes under the following disguise, packaged together with JATP Bird with strings:

Beware, however, that the MP3 of Norgran Blues (here eroneously titled Morgan Blues) is defective and cuts off before Pres' solo.

But Ghost of a Chance is here in full. I can't think of a greater pleasure that can be purchased for 99 cents.

It is also astonishing to hear in the Norman Granz introduction to this concert just how much bigger a reception American audiences were giving Flip Phillips in 1950 relative to Lester Young. It wasn't like that in Europe. Europeans were hipper.

Edited February 16, 2012 by John L

[BrewskLitovsk]

Has the French reissue of the Aladdin sessions the same phony reverb like the LP-twofer on Blue Note? Although Michael Cuscuna has produced the album, I wonder why they had to "enhance" these recordings.

[bichos]

here is a glimpse of what could be the sensation of the year if it ever would be issued:

keep boppin´

marcel

[brownie]

Wonderful!!!

More! More!

Merci, Marcel

[mikeweil]

Pres was the greatest! Is there really no label willing to release this?

[bichos]

Unofortunatelly, we are still waiting for that unissued live LOC material from beginning 1940s, on few acetates... last time I heard about them, it was transcription turntable that was unfunctional, or something like that...

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

[mikeweil]

Even if it was only ten minutes on a disc or even double disc of jam session material - if it is like the sample heard, it merits release. Mosaic, step forward!

[mjzee]

here is a glimpse of what could be the sensation of the year if it ever would be issued:

keep boppin´

marcel

How does someone embed a YouTube video here?

[romualdo]

Does Lester Young play on the 15 minute version of "Stuffy" from the 1957 JATP All-Stars date (Sept or October)

I'm currently listening to it - it's the last title (added as a bonus) on the 1993 CD "Coleman Hawkins & Roy Eldridge At The Opera House"

The liner notes (research by Phil Schaap) list him as playing while other discographies omit him from this track. He's possibly the last soloist but Stan Getz is also listed as playing.

Coleman also solos. Having trouble distinguishing between Getz & Young (???)

Also interestng that Schaap has different dates (from other discogs) for the mono & stereo recordings of the CH/RE live at the Opera House.

[king ubu]

I don't think Pres is to be heard, but I'd be happy if I was told wrong!

[mracz]

Has anyone else looked at Jan Evensmo's newly posted Pred solography on the Jazz Archaeology website? He notes a recently discovered 2Nd take of Lady Be Good from 1936! Yes, that one! WTF, or does everyone else already know about this? At least it's not dated April 1st!

[Quasimado]

Has anyone else looked at Jan Evensmo's newly posted Pred solography on the Jazz Archaeology website? He notes a recently discovered 2Nd take of Lady Be Good from 1936! Yes, that one! WTF, or does everyone else already know about this? At least it's not dated April 1st!

Great news! That it existed was not in doubt. On the 1988 liner notes to 'Lester-Amadeus' on Phontastic, Anders R. Ohman mentions he was going to include the 2nd take, but 'alas, someone managed to steal it'. Let's hope it sees sympathetic release, and soon!

Interesting site, by the way ...

Q

[John L]

Good news, indeed! I look forward to hearing it.

[John L]

:excited: :excited:

I just read the piece at Jazz Archeology. It claims that we not only have another take of Lady Be Good, but two other new takes from Pres' first recorded session: alternates of Boogie Woogie and Evening!!!!!

[king ubu]

:excited: :excited:

I just read the piece at Jazz Archeology. It claims that we not only have another take of Lady Be Good, but two other new takes from Pres' first recorded session: alternates of Boogie Woogie and Evening!!!!!

Hadn't noticed yet either ... those takes should have been in the great Pres/Basie Mosaic box!

Someone really should collect those and the live session dubbed too short to fill a CD (who cares, I'd run for a 20 minute CD of unissued/unknown/unearthed Pres) and release it all!

[colinmce]

I'd buy a 10 minute Pres CD. That's no impediment!

[mracz]

Yes, the alternates of Evening and Boogie Woogie would be the cherry on the cake, but the LBG alternate will be very special. I never picked up the Phontastic, as I had the material in other permutations, so I missed the reference in the liner notes to the 2nd take. Incidentally, I thought I had all of Pres' pre-war recordings, but there were some tracks listed in the solography that I couldn't remember coming across (even in the very comprehensive Masters of Jazz Pres and Basie series). I'll have a look through my collection this weekend and see what's missing. I've been meaning to email Jan to thank him for his generosity in providing all this research gratis on his website. It's a remarkable achievement, and endlessly fascinating. Even when I don't agree with his opinion about particular items, he's always stimulating and more than once has spurred me to listen again to tracks that I thought I knew very well. I enjoy sitting in a comfortble chair on a Sunday morning, ipad in hand, the Jazz Archaeology solographies for Frankie Newton or Joe Thomas on the screen, and using Spotify to work through the recordings. Even with much/most of the material sitting upstairs on vinyl/CD, it's really luxurious to have so much of the material to hand. Bliss!