Lester Young In Washington D.C.

[Tom 1960]

Don't own them. Any thoughts about these releases?

[Matthew]

I enjoy these very much, I just listened to all five volumes in one day, and I found Young in great form, very relaxed in a safe environment for him. High quality music from Young, the backup trio is not earth shaking, but they lay down the rhythm in the "ticky boom" style that Young preferred. Proof here, as if any is needed, that the later Lester Young produced great music.

[Chuck Nessa]

Matthew speaks the truth.

[king ubu]

Matthew and Chuck have spoken the truth

[mikelz777]

I'm a big Pres fan and I own all 5 volumes. When I first listened to them, I was somewhat underwhelmed and didn't listen to them again for quite some time. A time came when I was trying to scrounge up some cash and I was considering selling them so I decided to give them another listen first. It was like I was hearing them with new ears. Despite the unremarkable trio, I thought all 5 volumes were well worth listening to and very enjoyable. I thought Pres was relaxed and in good form. The weakest link, in my opinion, was drummer Jim Lucht. He left me wishing Pres wasn't so generous with letting his band members make their statement. All in all, these aren't the first Pres recordings I would reach for, but they are well worth seeking out and listening to. I'd recommend them.

[brownie]

Get them!

[Larry Kart]

Great stuff.

[paul secor]

Another !!!

[mjzee]

The albums also work as albums - each one has a nice flow to it.

[Tom 1960]

I enjoy these very much, I just listened to all five volumes in one day, and I found Young in great form, very relaxed in a safe environment for him. High quality music from Young, the backup trio is not earth shaking, but they lay down the rhythm in the "ticky boom" style that Young preferred. Proof here, as if any is needed, that the later Lester Young produced great music.

Your posts Matthew the other day, made me curious about these recordings. Thanks for responding!

[jazzbo]

It's Pres. And it's GOOD Pres. Well worth having in your Presidential collection.

[mikeweil]

Am I right that the content of these five volumes would fit on three CDs, but there is no box set of this type?

[jazzbo]

That's about right.

[fasstrack]

I couldn't open the link, but if these are the recordings from the Patio Lounge-made by the group's bassist and IIRC originally released on a twofer-then it's nice late Pres. If not, as you were...

[mjzee]

I couldn't open the link, but if these are the recordings from the Patio Lounge-made by the group's bassist and IIRC originally released on a twofer-then it's nice late Pres. If not, as you were...

There was no link posted. Here are the releases in question:

[John L]

1956 was probably the last great year for Lester Young. In addition to these recordings, there are the Verve sessions with Teddy Wilson, the European date on Onyx, the Cafe Bohemia are more. Just about everything on wax by Pres from 1956 is highly worthwhile.

[fasstrack]

I think Lester Young in Washington 1956 was the one I had. But I remember 2 LPs, and a bassist named Potts in the local band who recorded it at the Patio Lounge. Or am I confused? The 5 disc thing is throwing me off. Prezaholics straighten me out please. (Oh the joys of CRS...).

[Larry Kart]

I think Lester Young in Washington 1956 was the one I had. But I remember 2 LPs, and a bassist named Potts in the local band who recorded it at the Patio Lounge. Or am I confused? The 5 disc thing is throwing me off. Prezaholics straighten me out please. (Oh the joys of CRS...).

It was pianist Bill Potts, who played on the gig and IIRC also recorded it. Potts, as you probably know, also was a brilliant D.C.-based composer-arranger, best known for the album "The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess."

[mjzee]

I think Lester Young in Washington 1956 was the one I had. But I remember 2 LPs, and a bassist named Potts in the local band who recorded it at the Patio Lounge. Or am I confused? The 5 disc thing is throwing me off. Prezaholics straighten me out please. (Oh the joys of CRS...).

It was pianist Bill Potts, who played on the gig and IIRC also recorded it. Potts, as you probably know, also was a brilliant D.C.-based composer-arranger, best known for the album "The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess."

Also this:

[Larry Kart]

1956 was probably the last great year for Lester Young. In addition to these recordings, there are the Verve sessions with Teddy Wilson, the European date on Onyx, the Cafe Bohemia are more. Just about everything on wax by Pres from 1956 is highly worthwhile.

I heard Pres in Chicago in Oct. 1955 with JATP. He was not in good shape and was hospitalized that November for alcoholism and depression. He emerged, judging by the music he made in 1956, in very good shape. IIRC, the superb "Jazz Giants' 56," with Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickinson, Teddy Wilson, Gene Ramey, and Jo Jones, was the first album to proclaim his return.

[fasstrack]

Thanks, guys. When I remembered the name Potts I was wondering if it was Bill Potts of the Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess. Great writer. Thanks for jogging my addled memory.

[John L]

1956 was probably the last great year for Lester Young. In addition to these recordings, there are the Verve sessions with Teddy Wilson, the European date on Onyx, the Cafe Bohemia are more. Just about everything on wax by Pres from 1956 is highly worthwhile.

I heard Pres in Chicago in Oct. 1955 with JATP. He was not in good shape and was hospitalized that November for alcoholism and depression. He emerged, judging by the music he made in 1956, in very good shape. IIRC, the superb "Jazz Giants' 56," with Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickinson, Teddy Wilson, Gene Ramey, and Jo Jones, was the first album to proclaim his return.

Yes, 1954-1955 was generally a down time for Pres. It was no accident that one of the tracks from his Verve session as a leader in 56 with Teddy Wilson was titled "Pres Returns." Still, lucky you to have seen Pres live in any condition!

Edited March 31, 2013 by John L

[fasstrack]

The Wikipedia entry on Bill Potts says: in 1956 he was the house pianist at Olivia Davis's Patio Lounge. Lester Young was booked there and Potts convinced him to record on two evenings. The result was released as the acclaimed Lester Young in Washington, D.C. 1956.

[Larry Kart]

1956 was probably the last great year for Lester Young. In addition to these recordings, there are the Verve sessions with Teddy Wilson, the European date on Onyx, the Cafe Bohemia are more. Just about everything on wax by Pres from 1956 is highly worthwhile.

I heard Pres in Chicago in Oct. 1955 with JATP. He was not in good shape and was hospitalized that November for alcoholism and depression. He emerged, judging by the music he made in 1956, in very good shape. IIRC, the superb "Jazz Giants' 56," with Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickinson, Teddy Wilson, Gene Ramey, and Jo Jones, was the first album to proclaim his return.

Yes, 1954-1955 was generally a down time for Pres. It was no accident that one of the tracks from his Verve session as a leader in 56 with Teddy Wilson was titled "Pres Returns." Still, lucky you to have seen Pres live in any condition!

What I wrote about that concert in my book:

'The first live jazz performance I heard was a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert that took place at the Chicago Opera House on October 2, 1955, with a lineup that included Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Flip Phillips, Illinois Jacquet , Lester Young, Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich. Aware of the music for just five months, at age thirteen I knew the names of most of these musicians. And one of them, Eldridge, was a particular favorite because he seemed to speak so personally and openly through his horn, with such passion, genuineness, strength and grit. (By contrast, I thought that Jacquet and Phillips’s tenor saxophone battles were exciting but mostly for show, not to be taken at face value.)

'Lester Young, however, was only a name to me; I’d yet to hear a note of his music. And partly because of that lack of context, much of what he played that afternoon struck me as very strange. (As it happens, the concert was recorded, and eventually released on the album Blues in Chicago 1955, so I can place memories alongside what actually occurred.) Young was not in good shape on the1955 JATP tour, physically or emotionally . He would be hospitalized for several weeks that winter, suffering from alcoholism and depression, though he would recover sufficiently to make two of his best latter-day recordings, Jazz Giants ’56 and Pres and Teddy, in mid-January 1956. But in the gladiatorial arena of Jazz at the Philharmonic, the wan, watery-toned Young I heard seemed to speak mostly of weakness, even of an alarming inability or unwillingness to defend himself. And yet this state of being was undeniably, painfully being expressed, though at times perhaps only out of dire necessity; the brisk tempo Gillespie set for the piece the two of them shared was one that Young could barely make.

'Then toward the end came a ballad medley, which began with Young’s slow-motion restatement of “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” That he seemed to be more in his element here was about all I realized at the time, though even that fact was provocative. And the recorded evidence confirms this, as Young bends a bare minimum of resources to the task --as though he were saying “This is all I have” and asking “Is this not enough?” Admittedly, that is largely an adult response to a performance that now seems remarkable to me. Yet something of that sort must have been crystallizing back then, because I was immediately eager to find out more about Lester Young.'

[fasstrack]

I watched an Art Ford broadcast from '58 featuring Pres yesterday. Playing Mean to Me he didn't sound bad, just uninspired and kind of spent. He looked way worse than he sounded. But he was together enough to take the horn out of his mouth in mid-solo, turn to the drummer and say 'Just some titty-boom, please.'