A few months ago I found a copy of Lester Young’s Complete Studio Sessions on Verve at half.com for a price I couldn’t refuse. Even so, as is the typical tack for me on box set purchases, I did a ton of research prior to taking the plunge. I read at length about Young’s diminishing capacity, his propensity for the bottle & brooding ennui. The downward spiral in quality & coherence that supposedly characterized the sessions included. I hemmed & hawed, already having several single albums in my collection (Trio, w/ Oscar Peterson Trio) that were prized possessions, but noticeably flawed in either fidelity or content. Finally after much deliberation I shelled out the cash & the set arrived about a week later.
Thus far I’ve only made it through the first three discs. But so far the set is worth every penny spent. The Nat Cole-Buddy Rich trio material that shares disc one w/ another rhythm section of John Lewis, Gene Ramey & Papa Jo Jones is absolutely sublime. Young has slight trouble in spots, but his lithesome phrasing and ethereal tone are largely intact. Even more involving is the manner in which his sound has fleshed out & aged. It’s still billowy soft much of the time, but there’s a threading rasp injected that gives his lines a fulsome weight (some might say weariness). Cunning melody and harmonic development are near servants at his beck and call. Disc two continues with the Lewis-led rhythm section and leads into meetings with the Oscar Peterson Trio. The results here are less satisfying on the whole, but tune lengths are stretched to make room for more spontaneously spun soloing. Nowhere do I hear anything resembling a going through the motions.
Later discs in the set highlight a quintet with trumpeter Jesse Drakes (a very entertaining set on Savoy- Pres: Jazz Immortal Vol. 2- that documents a live gig from 50’ w/ Drakes, Kenny Drew, Aaron Bell & Jones is also worth looking up) & all-star conclaves with Teddy Wilson, Vic Dickenson, “Sweets” Edison and Roy Eldridge. I’m looking forward to finding the time to devote to all of them. But in spite of a morbid curiosity, I haven’t been able to bring myself to visit the final session on disc 7, where Young’s malaise is purportedly at its zenith, fronting a French pick-up band with Kenny Clarke, failing audibly & generally coming off as a shell of his former self.
Listening to Pres in these twilight years uncovers what a consummate artist he was. Even with a legion of stressors & demons closing in on him, he was able to marshal his faculties and continue in his work. Judging these later sides against his Basie heyday is both unfair and in many ways moot. He influenced innumerable players in his youth and his stature was secure on the boon of those earlier years alone. By the Fifties (the bulk of this set) he was a different player & a different person. As such & in various ways his music resonates on levels previously inaccessible. It’s a condition hearkening back to what Joe was suggesting about Lucky Thompson in an earlier thread. Life’s tragedies as misfortunate muse. I can wish things had gone better for Young. That the self-destructive habits hadn’t continued to sap at his strength and resolve. That he’d found a means to escape his ever more obvious fate. But such wishful thinking begs the selfish question- would the music on this set still sound the way it does had the black clouds lifted?
I've never had much of a taste for Young, aside from the early Basie stuff and a few sides from the Aladdin Sessions. What am I missing?
Chu Berry on the other hand...
Posted by: al at November 5, 2003 2:23 PMMmm, lots. Believe it or not, I sort of prefer this later Pres stuff to the classic Basie sides. Same holds for the Aladdin sessions- technically great, but somehow how lacking in that ‘grab-you-by-the-lapels’ emotional girth. There’s a vulnerability here that contrasts markedly with the brazen virtuosity he displayed alongside Herschel Evans in the Count’s horn section. Back then he was the cool new thing & he knew it. He could school just about anyone, even those in the upper echelon of his peer group on occasion, & often with ease. Here he’s taken some heavy licks from life & though left standing, has been buckled (even crumpled) in the aftermath. There’s something deeper & more difficult going on as a result. Not entirely explainable, just something you gotta to hear.
I’m down with Chu too, especially his Commodore sides w/ Roy Eldridge & “Hot Lips” Page. Though for my money he pales in the presence of Pres, Bean & Byas. But then again, I’m a sucker for tenor saxophone of just about any persuasion. For a recent time capsule of those earlier tenor times the new Prestige reissue of Budd Freeman’s ALL-STAR SWING SESSIONS is extremely enjoyable & instructive.
I like the session with Nat Cole and Buddy Rich a lot, but never warmed to the Teddy Wilson sides (a few years later). I don't have the Aladdins or the stuff with Basie - I passed up the Basie set a while ago, went back to buy it a day later and it was gone, haven't seen it cheap since.
Posted by: Nathaniel Catchpole at November 6, 2003 2:20 PM(re: Al's reply) Why, what's wrong with the early Young? I can think of few better places to learn _how_ to improvise in jazz--I think I probably learned more from getting down his choruses on things like "Pound Cake" & "All of Me" than just about any other player. (E.g. take a look at some of his blues solos to get an idea of how to play blues without resorting to conventional "blue notes": if memory serves, there's only one in the entirety of the "Pound Cake" solo. A solo given, incidentally, a spirited unision reading on the Konitz/Marsh reunion discs from the 1970s. -- Or the right way to place non-chord tones: try that twist, up from the root to the 2nd, to end a seemingly finished phrase on that "Pound Cake" again.)
I don't know the later stuff that well--some I've heard has sounded surprisingly untarnished & enjoyable, some has been desperately bleary or (ballads) mawkish. But listen to something like the classic early "Shoe Shine Boy"--it's still a knockout, 70-odd years since it was set down.
Posted by: Nate Dorward at November 6, 2003 7:06 PMHey, Nate. When I learned blues it was through entirely different channels. And I heard Lester Young well after I had Duane Allman, Cannonball Adderley, Wes Montgomery and so on. So Pres' music was nothing new to me in that respect. His tone and delivery, on the other hand, are something else entirely. Normally it's those other aspects that you latch on to anyway. Young never knocked me *completely* on my ass probably because I'd heard all of his emulators do it just as well, only prior. Though he's a major part of why I love those Basie Decca sides so much. I've just never been inspired to run out and hear more of his own music.
But wait! I remember about three years ago that his Kansas City (5? 6?) boxed set was at the top of my short list. Just some shit I really wanted to hear, though nobody had ever recommended it. Maybe I read about it in the Penguin guide. I guess other things took priority and he fell off the radar.
Posted by: al at November 6, 2003 8:43 PMWho did Pres “just as well” as Pres? Inquiring minds want to know.
The ‘tarnish’ is a big part of the appeal of the later stuff for me. His flaws bring out other facets in the story-telling nature of his solos. The sporadic technical errors are sometimes difficult to stomach, but the effect on his tone, the tainting of the youthful purity of it, can be pretty intriguing. Certain folks say the same thing about ‘early’ versus ‘late’ Billie Holiday & I can see where they’re coming from.
IMHO, there is no more graceful improvising in this music than can be found in those "pre-war" Lester Young recordings. At times, his playing from this era reminds me of nothing so much as Mozart: so perfect in its proportions we may initally think it bland. Asymmetry tends to call more attention to itself than symmetry. But this work was incredibly innovative, as Nate notes, even revolutionary. I'm just not sure revolution is easily reconstructed by the contemporary imagination that has heard Young opined upon by a legion of younger (not necessarily Young-er) tenor saxophonists
The Verve material still has tremendous appeal, of course. Derek is absolutely correct is stating that, after his discharge, Lester Young was not a dimished Pres, just a different Pres. You can really here this as well on the 1956 Washington D.C. recordings (Pablo) and the various air shots collected on the Jazz View label (and robably elsewhere). No matter how slack and blunted he may sound on those last European recordings, Pres still knew how to cut deep. Its just that he fumbled every now and then and cut himself as much as he cut, well, "you" and "me".
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at November 7, 2003 6:56 AMAl--haven't been paying attention to reissues much--I think though you're thinking of The "Kansas City" Sessions, which reissues his work for Commodore (from 1938 & 1944). A useful one-CD demonstration of Young pre- & post-War (the heaviness of tone in the latter compared to the lightness & litheness of the former is striking), & it has the fillip of his playing a lot of clarinet on it (which he did very well). There's also 3 takes of "I Got Rhythm", of which, rather oddly, the first is played in a minor key.
Posted by: Nate Dorward at November 7, 2003 8:12 AMNate- that's the one, thanks. Derek- Jug, for starters. Young also reminded me a lot of JR Monterose when I first heard him.
Posted by: al at November 7, 2003 6:34 PMJug? He was certainly influenced by Pres, but the influence was only one among a many. Jug’s sound/music was comprised of other elements that were just as important. He may have had perfect pitch, but I don’t think his improvisatory facility was on par with Young’s (at least Young in his prime). Also, he had a much heavier, fulsome sound (Ben Webster) and more muscular attack (Coleman Hawkins). I think Stan Getz would make for a better example to support your argument. Maybe this is just a problem of semantics. If you mean these guys could play a ballad with as much feeling/emotion? Then I’d agree with you (at least in regard to Jug, but beyond that... My point is no one did Pres as well as Pres did himself. No one could.
Posted by: derek at November 8, 2003 1:53 PMBro-man, there is no argument to support. No one does Jug better either, but does that even matter here? Getz may be applicable for you, and that's fine. Ammons is the first that came to mind, then Monterose, and I could go on and on. Point is that while Young is certainly unique I'd already heard so many of his followers that there really was nothing for me to latch on to. The second disc of his Aladdin sessions are full of jumpy and beautiful timeless tracks. Beyond that, I've never been too inspired to follow through on his work. Though Nate has me ticking again on that Kansas City disc.
Posted by: al at November 8, 2003 3:22 PMRight on, man. I’m mostly just crowing to hear myself crow. There’s so much out there that it pays to pick & choose. And that KC disc is a winner.
On a sidenote unrelated to this thread, it sho’ is good to see so much activity on the site. Lots of killer stuff to read & comment on the last day or so.
Does anyone know which year Jesse Drakes (tpt) died? Many thanks.
He;mut
Newbury, NH
I've been looking for a version of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" with Dexter Gordon on the sax for years I'm sure I heard it in the radio. Can anybody help?
Posted by: Sue James at January 8, 2005 9:37 AMhttp://www.jazzdisco.org/dex/dis/c/
Happy hunting, Sue!
Posted by: Dan Warburton at January 8, 2005 11:36 PMYeah, but it's not there. Nor is it on AMG. I think that either it was an "unofficial" Gordon recording, or else you misheard & it was someone else.
Posted by: N.D. at January 9, 2005 7:17 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................
