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

[brownie]

Thanks for the reminder...

Happy Birthday to the best Prez ever!

And good to see you around these parts, Milan!

[bichos]

Happy birthday, Prez...

We are patiently waiting to hear that 1940's material from LOC...

yeah, prez lives!!

anyone contacted larry applebaum about the recently discovered live prez and a future issue?

keep boopin´

marcel

[mmilovan]

yeah, prez lives!!

anyone contacted larry applebaum about the recently discovered live prez and a future issue?

keep boopin´

marcel

Judging from what I've heard, it is Pres at his peak - long wavy phrases, "free" adn disonant licks and things. Sonicaly, I think it's on the Bird and Diz 1945 Town Hall concert. Brilliant, in short. These 16" 33rpm acetates really can sound perfect...

[king ubu]

Hey Milan! Great to see you here, hope all's well!

These 40s Prez sides should be wonderful, let's hope they see the light soon!

[mmilovan]

Hey Milan! Great to see you here, hope all's well!

These 40s Prez sides should be wonderful, let's hope they see the light soon!

Hello my friend,

These are one of those rarest, from one of the most important period in Pres' career - his transition from big band (Basie) to small group format.

Gee, I forgot where are those URLs to excerpts of this live session...

Edited August 29, 2006 by mmilovan

[bichos]

Hello all,

peter schmidlin from the „tcb“ label gives the information that in early 2007 it is planned to release the vol. 16 in the “swiss radio days jazz series”. It includes the second part (the instrumental one) from the jatp concert in lausanne, march 14, 1953 with charlie shavers, willie smith, lester young and flip phillips. this concert is totally undocumented and unknown in the discographies. Sound quality is very good! So, we have another new prez discovery!!

Now, we are waiting for the release of the recently discovered lester young jam from 1940.

Keep boppin´

marcel

[king ubu]

Wow, now that's great news! Did you contact Schmidlin directly?

[bichos]

Wow, now that's great news! Did you contact Schmidlin directly?

no, he gave this info at the west-coast mailing list: http://merchant.book.uci.edu/pipermail/jaz...ber/023860.html

that´s indeed great news!

keep boppin´

marcel

[bichos]

Hello all,

peter schmidlin from the „tcb“ label gives the information that in early 2007 it is planned to release the vol. 16 in the “swiss radio days jazz series”. It includes the second part (the instrumental one) from the jatp concert in lausanne, march 14, 1953 with charlie shavers, willie smith, lester young and flip phillips. this concert is totally undocumented and unknown in the discographies. Sound quality is very good! So, we have another new prez discovery!!

Now, we are waiting for the release of the recently discovered lester young jam from 1940.

Keep boppin´

marcel

he instrumental part of the jatp lausanne concert 1953 with new and undocumented lester young is coming now out on the tcb label. look here:

http://www.tcb.ch/news.cgi?list=month|id&a...2007&sort=r

keep boppin´

marcel

[mmilovan]

I simply cannot believe my eyes...

[LAL]

Placed order for the disc. Would have missed this if not for the heads up.

Thanks!

[bichos]

hello,

i found this cover of a cd (i think a cheap production) on the net. my question is: is this a real photo of lester young or is it a painting? where can I find the original photo and (if it´s a real one) who is the photographer?

thanks in advance.

keep boppin´

marcel

[JSngry]

hello,

i found this cover of a cd (i think a cheap production) on the net. my question is: is this a real photo of lester young or is it a painting? where can I find the original photo and (if it´s a real one) who is the photographer?

thanks in advance.

keep boppin´

marcel

Looks like Bird & Prez had similar tastes in furniture...

[bichos]

[papsrus]

Well ... there's a ton of great information here that I've only begun to plow through, but I thought I'd chime in just to say (heh-hem) I had zero Lester Young in my collection ... until today. I'm taking some time out from my Ellington craze to feast on an armful of Young discs that arrived today in the mail: The Washington DC discs, vols. 1-5, and the with Oscar Peterson Trio disc. These will be my introduction to Lester Young.

I'm sure there are probably better places to start, but I seem to tend to begin with an artist's later-period music and work my way back. And I seem to like to hear these big band guys in small group settings before wading into their core stuff. ... NP: DC Disc 1

And thanks Mikelz777

Edited January 26, 2008 by papsrus

[papsrus]

Listening with varying degrees of attention during the afternoon and early evening, very much enjoyed vols. 1,2 & 3 of the DC series today, but the Oscar Peterson (on now) ... is a whole different animal. Young is completely in the groove -- more relaxed, fluid? -- with this much more refined trio. Excellent.

[Stereojack]

All of this later Pres is fine. You need to check out the Commodore, Keynote, and Aladdin sessions for some of the greatest Pres on record.

[Christiern]

I didn't know that Miles listen to Pres THAT closely.

Dude, standing on the stand right next to him while he plays is as closely as you CAN listen to him!

Talk about a blessing, anybody who had that opportunity got one.

Having SAT with both Miles and Prez, I can report that the experiences were equally daunting....and memorable.

[Chuck Nessa]

[AllenLowe]

if I could have met him - ah, I can't even express what it would be like - like meeting God, only better -

[BillF]

An excellent BBC Radio 3 programme on Pres in the Jazz Library series is currently available on www.bbc.co.uk. Author of a Lester Young biography, Dave Gelly, is interviewed by host Alyn Shipton.

[mmilovan]

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...

[EulaM]

if I could have met him - ah, I can't even express what it would be like - like meeting God, only better -

Once, when asked on AAJ if I had ever met Lester, this when I was recovering from a life saving

surgery, tubes still dangling, my view still obstructed from broken blood vessels in my eyes, still out of

it physically and emotionally, I said no, I hadn't. But you know, I had spent the better part of an

afternoon and evening with him, then with he and Mingus. This at the Lighthouse, and around the town

of Hermosa Beach. I even have the album he gave to me that day.

He told me about so much, things I wish I could remember more clearly, however, I remember parts

now as clear as ever.

Know this about Lester, the mischievous streak in him was pronounced, as well as his kindness.

Getting him to come off of the rickety "Condemned" Hermosa Beach Pier took me walking out on part

of it myself. There he was pussy toeing, like he was tiptoing with this silly grin, knowing how

dangerous his great adventure actually was, tiptoing around the broken boards and holes, hoping they

wouldn't give way with him. He was a tease , like a little fun loving boy, so part of the day was spent

with him doing all of the mischievous things he felt he had to do. He was trying his best to avoid Mal

Waldron and Sonny Stitt, as Mingus had them searching the town for him. Us going to the Mermaid,

using it for a hide out as well. Seems to me we even had one of their delicious shrimp cocktails.

We did have fun, but there were two grumpy and unhappy jazz guys going into a snit and a sulk over

Lester turning up missing. More to this story, lots more, but it turned out well after we got back to the

Lighthouse, and Lester began to play with them, Mal's eyes flashing, Sonny in a sulk, with Mingus being

unreadable, then when the set was over, there was Mingus, him jumping down off of the bandstand

with Lester in a headlock, dragging him along, Mingus laughing like crazy, and here they came, Mingus

still dragging Lester, them both coming up to my table. Lester introduced us, they sat down and talked

to me until they started their next set. Mingus telling me all fo the things which had been going

through his mind when they couldn't find him anywhere, it was all too cute. Later on that summer,

Mingus was in the Lighthouse with Sue, and he invited me to sit with them at their table. He was telling

her all about that day and having me explain to her what all had happened as well.

Such fun times, and had I not gone on AAJ, I wouldn't have thought about such a fabulous experience

for a long, long time.

Lester had even told me how, when in the army, he learned to walk on crutches through puddles and

mud, this so he wouldn't have to reshine his shoes. He didn't use his legs. Here we were outside in

front of the Lighthouse. He took the wingnut bolts, then the screws out of my crutches and raised them

up to , fit him and then taught me how to do it. We must have looked a sight out on the main street in

Hermosa Beach, being such clowns. He was in the hospital for quite some times he said. I believe he

said he had injured he leg on a porch in the baracks when it broke, him falling through it, running

pieces of wood into it, breaking it as well. It was severely injured. Him telling me how the nurses

kept him in the hospital by pretending he was still not doing well, when he was, his leg had healed

enough to be released to the brig, I believe. The nurses in charge, they just loved him as well, so

they kept him so they could just be around him and so he could play for them, and tell them his

stories.

What a sweetheart

.

[Ron S]

Sandi, what a great story! Pardon my ignorance, but what was/is your relationship with the Lighthouse?

[EulaM]

Sandi, what a great story! Pardon my ignorance, but what was/is your relationship with the Lighthouse?

I was such a wild child growing up, into anything, and everything physical as well as dangerous and so ended up over doing it, ending up with a terrible stone bruise and that went into bone infection on the ball of my foot, and so I was on crutches, fighting intermittent raging fevers, up into 105 a few times, and so I was having to walk on crutches forever, as bone infection never actually heals. There were times it was so bad I had a home teacher as it was too difficult to carry books all over our campus when it was raining and such, as we had no indoor hallways. So with a home teacher, my lessons were over by 10:00 AM, or around there, giving me free time like you wouldn't believe.

My mother worked nights and all of my friends were in school, when they weren't, they were there at our house by the dozens, but daytimes were so boring that I could hardly bear it, so I would walk down the hill, go swimming, watch everyone surf, walk the 13 blocks to town and go into the Lighthouse to rest, as that far along with the hills, were a chore on crutches, but I adapted and it became like nothing. But still, I would be thirsty and would want to just relax, so I'd go in and watch Miles and his band and whomever else would show up just to join in for fun, getting to see and hear them catch up with old friends. So I got to know most of the best who ever lived. I got to know them in a different way than most ever would. I was only 15 when I became a friend of Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Frank Rosolino, Stan Levey, Clark Terry, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Bill Perkins, LeRoy Vinegar, Milt Hinton, and too many others to name.

I had asked John Levine, the owner if it was alright for me to go in there on a regualar basis, and he welcomed me with open arms, as did most of the band members. After a ugly beginning, even Miles was terrific to me, offering to take request anytime anywhere if done in a certain unobtrusive manner, and if the band agreed to it. He did take them, and the band always agreed. I had no idea, no idea at all that he never took requests. They more or less looked out after me and put up with me, this due to my age, and due to the fact they knew it was rough going.

The doctors had wanted to amputate my leg to just below the knee, I refused and told my mother I would run away and eat out of restaurant garbage cans if they agreed to it, so they just put the papers on the buffet and told me the day I changed my mind, if it ever became too much to handle there they were. Anyway, I met Lester when I was 17. I had known Mingus when I was little, he was a teenager, & he worked at restaurants we used to eat at when we went up to my doctors in Los Angeles on Flower. Then I had met him at Watt's Towers as my dad used to take items to the fellow building them, metal and bright ceramic plates, which he put near and on his shack. Mingus was friends of the man building them, and spent a lot of time there, and he remembered me from there.

I dated a lot, but only went in on dates to there about 5 times. I went in with some girl friends frequently, that was ok, you hear about us on lots of posts and web sites about the place. We were the only single girls who frequented the Lighthouse. I didn't like going on dates there, and neither did my friends. With me as well as with them, I wanted to be in the music, not having to keep up idle chatter with anyone. It was my private place, my place for every emotion I've ever had, all except for the boy thing. I didn't date anyone from there either, except for one fellow. It just wouldn't have worked for me. In fact it would have ruined it.

Edited January 28, 2008 by EulaM