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Lester Young: The Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions 1936-1940
by AAJ Staff
By Duck Baker No doubt most of the people buying this box know that the music it contains is necessary to any serious jazz collection (if not to life itself). But to spell it out for any who haven't got the word yet, Count Basie's pre-war band epitomized that core quality in jazz called swing. And saxophonist Lester Young was the first soloist who showed that it was possible for others to reach the incredible heights achieved by ...
Continue ReadingBeing Prez: The Life & Music of Lester Young
by J. Robert Bragonier
Being Prez: The Life & Music of Lester Young Dave Gelly Hardcover; 170 pages. ISBN: 978 0195334777 Oxford University Press 2008 A New History of Jazz, arguably the seminal jazz history text, was written in 2001 by Alyn Shipton, a Brit. Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia, from 2006, previously reviewed by this writer here, and in my view the most interesting and current of available jazz ...
Continue ReadingLester Young: Live at Birdland
by Graham L. Flanagan
Whenever a label decides to blow the dust off of a live Lester Young recording, the results are unlikely to disappoint. Such is the case with Live at Birdland, which fits on one disc three different live radio broadcasts. The first of the three sets was recorded January 15, 1953 and broadcast on NBC radio. Of the three performances heard here, this set curiously features the finest audio quality, though the second two were recorded three years ...
Continue ReadingLester Young: The Complete Studio Sessions On Verve
by AAJ Italy Staff
In un mercato discografico in cui si assiste al paradosso quotidiano di migliaia di uscite che nessuno [o quasi] comprerà, alla corsa alla ristampa - poco importa la qualità - di qualsiasi cosa sia uscita da pochi minuti dal “giogo" dei diritti d'autore, ma anche allo stesso tempo di cofanetti costosi, atti più a solleticare l'impulso feticista del collezionista che non a portare la musica a conoscenza delle nuove generazioni, l'iniziativa della Universal Italia di rendere nuovamente disponibile - a ...
Continue ReadingJazz Slang
by AAJ Staff
From just about its inception, Jazz has had a (spoken) language all its own. Though most words haven't seen the light of day outside of a jazz club, quite a few have found their way into the mainstream American lexicon, and are still bandied about today. Words like, hip, cat and daddy-o have helped contribute to Jazz's “cool" mystique. This list contains a few of those colloquial gems; if you know of any others, please send ...
Continue ReadingLester Young: The Complete Savoy Recordings
by Jim Santella
Savoy’s complete compilation travels through two and a half hours of Lester Young’s studio sessions and rehearsal time. There are several takes for many of the numbers, and the listener has the opportunity to weigh which takes really matter. They all sound great. Some amount to false starts, and others appear to have minor balance differences. Each track comes from an all-star ensemble or big band that features – alongside the revered tenor saxophonist – soloists Billy Butterfield, Hank D’Amico, ...
Continue ReadingLester Young: The Complete Savoy Recordings
by Charlie B. Dahan
Savoy Jazz continues to celebrate it’s revival by releasing a complete anthology of Lester ‘Prez” Young’s recordings for Savoy. This collection is divided into two separate and distinct periods in Young’s life. The first to be explored is the recordings he did in a two-week period in 1944 as both a sideman and as a bandleader. The first twenty tracks are culled from sessions he did on April 18th of 1944 with the Johnny Guarnieri All-Star Orchestra ...
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