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

[mmilovan]

Some little known Lester solii behind Helen Humes, 1938:

[Matthew]

JSngry

Member

Member # 1611

posted May 02, 2001 01:50 AM

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One of the most, if not THE most, revealing insights into Lester's psyche is a story told by Lester to Nat Hentoff. It seems that when Lester was a child, in the South, he had occasion to attend a tent-style Revival meeting held by an itenerant evangelist. Lester said that he was deeply moved by the preacher's message and was totally filled with the spirit. He decided to commit, and when the minister called for all who wanted to be saved to come to "The Mourner's Bench" (I believe that that is the term he used), Lester eagerly went forward, because the preacher had stressed, and Lester truly believed, that that was the ONLY way to avoid the eternal wrath of God, only to find out, when he got there, that The Mourner's Bench, the one and only way to salvation, was reserved for whites only....

This happened to him when he was a child.

Geesh! This is one of the most heartbreaking stories I've ever read, and I completely forgot about it until I started reading this thread today.

[bichos]

new prez on the horizon!!! look here:

keep boppin´

marcel

[Quasimado]

Any more news on the recently discovered 2nd take of "Lady be Good" - or the Bill Savory collection referred to at Jazz Archeology?

Q

[bichos]

not exactly, but there is some new prez from glendale civic auditorium, los angeles (november 3, 1939) with basie´s band: "what´s new" (helen humes on vocal), "swinging the blues". together with the known "one o´clock jump" (issued years ago and not mentioned in evensmo jazz archeology lester young solography under this date) we have now three tracks from this one-nighter. it is avaiable on the brand new d-cd from the netherlands from the dr.jazz stichting and called "dinnertime for hungry collectors".

keep boppin´

marcel

[mjzee]

Does anyone have a discography for the CD "The Kansas City Sessions"? I ordered the CD from Amazon thinking I'd get the Verve version; instead, I got one on "Folio," evidently licensed from GRP but containing no discographical info. Any help would be appreciated.

[Carl Baugher]

Enjoying much Pres today on his birthday.

[BeBop]

To Lester, whose music was the reason I got addicted to this whole jazz thing in the first place. Happy Birthday, Pres.

[Chuck Nessa]

Does anyone have a discography for the CD "The Kansas City Sessions"? I ordered the CD from Amazon thinking I'd get the Verve version; instead, I got one on "Folio," evidently licensed from GRP but containing no discographical info. Any help would be appreciated.

Tracks 1-10 - Kansas City Six with Lester Young : Buck Clayton (tp) Lester Young (cl,ts-1) Eddie Durham (el-g,tb-2)

Freddy Green (g,vcl) Walter Page (b) Jo Jones (d) recorded in NYC 9/27/38

Tracks 11-18 - Bill Coleman (tp) Dickie Wells (tb) Lester Young (ts) Joe Bushkin (p) John Simmons (b) Jo Jones (d) recorded in NYC 3/29/44

Tracks 19-22 - Kansas City Five (Eddie Durham and his Base Four) : Buck Clayton (tp) Eddie Durham (el-g) Freddy Green

(g) Walter Page (b) Jo Jones (d) recorded in NYC 3/18/38

[mjzee]

Thanks! So Lester isn't even on the last 4 tracks? Wow.

Edited August 28, 2013 by mjzee

[John L]

So will we ever get to hear the discovered 3 additional tracks from 1936 (alternates of Lady Be Good, Boogie Woogie, Evening)? It's been more than a year now since we heard of them, and nothing seems to be on the horizon.

[king ubu]

Just caught this over in the Jimmy Giuffre thread, missed is when originally posted:

Too bad that the Europe 1 jazz archives remain dormant nowadays. Still wish someone would dig out the 1959 Lester Young broadcast from the Europe 1 studio off the Champs-Elysées avenue:

Do you have any specifics? Would that have been Pres and a French trio (Urtreger)?
Someone should really pull together all the scraps (those Jones-Smith alternates, the Library of Congress recording, this one from France ...) and release it!

[brownie]

That broadcast was not for Europe 1 but for Radio-Luxembourg in their Paris studio. Prez had Idrees Sulieman, René Urtreger, Jimmy Gourley, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke with him on March 13, 1958. He was not feeling well. The day later Prez flew back to New York where he died on March 15!

[king ubu]

March 13, 1959? Probably some sad stuff to listen to - but I'd still like to hear it!

[xybert]

I've recently discovered Lester Young. I already had the Basie Decca set and the America's Number 1 Band Columbia set but they didn't make me go crazy for Prez for whatever reason. Anyway, i enjoyed listening to early Dexter Gordon so much recently, and then comments that Ellery Eskelin made about Prez in an interview finally got me looking. I picked up a 10 CD box set on German label Past Perfect from 2001 second hand, in mint condition for next to nothing; apparently a PD set but it's decent enough quality and i'm saving for the Coleman Hawkins Mosaic.

Anyway, all i can say is what most here will already know, and that is that Lester Young rules. It's just so right, so enjoyable. I almost wish i could wipe my last 8 or so years of listening and restart with guys like Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins and work my way back up through the years. But i had to listen to all the other stuff to get to this, my ears just weren't ready for guys like Prez and Hawk until now. Amazing.

[John L]

OK, I spent the last three days in New York, and finally made it to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem today. I just dropped in, but was told that you need to make an appointment to listen to the Bill Savory collection. Fortunately, they finally took pitty on me and gave me an iPod with the Bill Savory Collection to listen to that was put together by Loren Schoenberg.

I only had two hours to spare. So I naturally prioritized the Lester Young-related material. I searched for what I could, although there is still no catalog of the whole collection. So I might of missed something major.

My first pleasent suprise was that, when I searched for Pres and Basie on the iPod, I saw that the newly discovered altenate takes of Lady Be Good, Boogie Woogie, and Evening from the 1936 Columbia session were ALSO there. )))) So I finally got to hear those. Sublime! The Lady Be Good alternate is just beautiful. The alternate of Boogie Woogie needs to be heard as well. Pres' solo is killin' here, better than on the master (IMO)!

Among the Savory material, I first found an extended jam from November, 1938 of a Teddy Wilson small band with Pres, Roy Eldridge, Benny Goodman, and Jo Jones on drums. I think that Walter Page was the bass player. There is a good 20 minutes of fabulous music. This is rather unique in Lester Young's discography. It needs to be heard.

Then I checked the Count Basie broadcasts. There are some very notable items here, including a live version of Pound Cake with Pres that completely blows away the studio track (IMO). There is another dynamite live version of "Woodside" that is different than all of the versions issued by Masters of Jazz. There is a killer live Lady Be Good from 1939, and plenty of Roseland Shuffles of a later vintage than most of the versions issued by Masters of Jazz.

I really enjoyed an extended Herschel Evans feature on Star Dust. There is a vintage 1939 live Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul in great sound with a breathtaking solo over 5 minutes long.

I wish that I had had more time to dig into that goldmine... or if only there would have been some way to clone that iPod! )))

Unfortunately, they indicated to me that the obstacles to releasing the music have proved so great that it no longer appears to be in the cards, at least in the foreseeable future.

Edited April 1, 2014 by John L

[Quasimado]

Thanks John. Great news!

What obstacles would there be to release? It's now 76 years for the Lester session. Isn't that now under US public domain?

Q

[John L]

Q - I really don't understand US copyright laws. But I don't think that the public domain rule is so simple. As I understand, the fear is that a relative of any one of the musicians could take legal action in case of release.

[romualdo]

OK, I spent the last three days in New York, and finally made it to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem today. I just dropped in, but was told that you need to make an appointment to listen to the Bill Savory collection. Fortunately, they finally took pitty on me and gave me an iPod with the Bill Savory Collection to listen to that was put together by Loren Schoenberg.

I only had two hours to spare. So I naturally prioritized the Lester Young-related material. I searched for what I could, although there is still no catalog of the whole collection. So I might of missed something major.

My first pleasent suprise was that, when I searched for Pres and Basie on the iPod, I saw that the newly discovered altenate takes of Lady Be Good, Boogie Woogie, and Evening from the 1936 Columbia session were ALSO there. )))) So I finally got to hear those. Sublime! The Lady Be Good alternate is just beautiful. The alternate of Boogie Woogie needs to be heard as well. Pres' solo is killin' here, better than on the master (IMO)!

Among the Savory material, I first found an extended jam from November, 1938 of a Teddy Wilson small band with Pres, Roy Eldridge, Benny Goodman, and Jo Jones on drums. I think that Walter Page was the bass player. There is a good 20 minutes of fabulous music. This is rather unique in Lester Young's discography. It needs to be heard.

Then I checked the Count Basie broadcasts. There are some very notable items here, including a live version of Pound Cake with Pres that completely blows away the studio track (IMO). There is another dynamite live version of "Woodside" that is different than all of the versions issued by Masters of Jazz. There is a killer live Lady Be Good from 1939, and plenty of Roseland Shuffles of a later vintage than most of the versions issued by Masters of Jazz.

I really enjoyed an extended Herschel Evans feature on Star Dust. There is a vintage 1939 live Coleman Hawkins Body and Soul in great sound with a breathtaking solo over 5 minutes long.

I wish that I had had more time to dig into that goldmine... or if only there would have been some way to clone that iPod! )))

Unfortunately, they indicated to me that the obstacles to releasing the music have proved so great that it no longer appears to be in the cards, at least in the foreseeable future.

Heaven !! (my version) - well almost (going back in a time machine & seeing the real thing, now that would be pure & unadulterated heaven)

[medjuck]

Q - I really don't understand US copyright laws. But I don't think that the public domain rule is so simple. As I understand, the fear is that a relative of any one of the musicians could take legal action in case of release.

But the rights to the alternate takes from the Jones-Smith Inc. session are owned by Sony. They should be able to release the alternate takes just the way they did with the alternate to Shoe Shine Boy.

And I still think the broadcasts could be legally streamed.

[Big Beat Steve]

I have a hunch that some around here would be inclined to silently and tacitly wish that usable copies of the Savory discs/tapes would find their way to some place (or rather, studio) in Spain or Andorra. ;)

[gmonahan]

I have a hunch that some around here would be inclined to silently and tacitly wish that usable copies of the Savory discs/tapes would find their way to some place (or rather, studio) in Spain or Andorra. ;)

Only if they *absolutely* were not going to be issued by Mosaic. When I went in and spent a few hours listening to the (wonderful) material last spring, Loren was still optimistic that he could get some of it out. I still cherish the hope!

gregmo

[bichos]

hope so, too

Keep boppin´

marcel

[Big Beat Steve]

Assuming its all about royalties:

What's the idea of being afraid that some descendants of musicians involed back then would bitch NOW about these recordings being issued NOW? Shouldn't they rather be glad that they might receive some kind of remuneration (even if only a token amount, given the likely sales and the modalities of splitting any royalties raised)? Or are those who hold the recordings really afraid that those descendants would be ASHAMED of what their ancesors did and would not want them to see the light of day for THAT reason?

The US royalty regulations have zigzagged so often in my impression that I've given up attempting to read some clear principle into them, but assuming the 70-year P.D. cutoff date does not apply because the recordings have not been issued before at all (so "70 years after first issue" would not be aplicable), shoul'dn't the regulations in force cover such cases anyway?

[king ubu]

I guess it might be more about being afraid of GREED? Of silly lawsuits (there seem to be many of those in the US) that will cost money, and time too, and keep the music from being released?

Mosaic should start a European subsidiary!