Young Lester Young

EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that Lester Young is in fact not the saxophonist on the Jerry Kruger tracks.  It is likely either Ernie Powell or, most likely, Kermit Scott.  I have omitted that part of the article.

This record from CBS Netherlands is subtitled "The Real Lester Young Featured on Recordings from 1936, 37, 38, 39" and it's well put.  At the time of its release in 1972, it must have knocked people out because it consists of some rare material: alternate takes (that presumably were not easy to get or previously unavailable) and some recordings of Young with some long forgotten musicians.  But he is on fire.  He basically plays the same no matter who he plays with and that's a big lesson for all aspiring (and professional) jazz musicians.  On this record, he's playing with some of the best in the business and some of the bizarrest!

Side one starts Count Basie small groups with alternate takes of "Shoeshine Boy", "Dickie's Dream" (two of them) and "Lester Leaps In".  "Shoeshine Boy" is from Young's first recording session with Jones-Smith, Incorporated.  Basie's opening piano is similarly constructed to the other take.  Same with Young's first chorus, where the hits on beat four on the bridge are not as well executed as on the final take.  On the second chorus, he anticipates them beautifully.  Walter Page on bass and Jo Jones on drums were the hardest grooving rhythm section in the business and they propel the rhythm forward.  

The Lester Young Story, Vol.3

The next session from November 5, 1939, features Count Basie's Kansas City Seven.  The first take of "Dickie's Dream" is taken at a medium tempo and the minor theme sounds positively mysterious and dark with a very cool edge.  Buck Clayton on trumpet (he's muted here and on all of his solos) sets the tone with a nice flow and even gets in the natural six on the minor chord.  Young continues the set up from Clayton (along with the natural six tone on the minor chord) and showcases his wonderful eighth-note feel and his dancing around the beat phrases.  Trombonist Dickie Wells sounds wonderful here, playing simple lines and phrase that showcase his big sound.  Count Basie's solo is so sparse and teasing sometimes the way he plays just a few lines in the upper register of the piano.  With that amazing rhythm section, he realized that he didn't need to play, he could just ride on what they were doing and he might be the first jazz musician to do that---or the first one to exploit that fact.  He gives enough space to let Page shine on his walking bass line.  

It's a wonderful performance, but then just ends abruptly. The second take is quicker and some of Clayton's licks from the first take appear again (the one where he is enclosing a note).  Young's solo is equally good but different as is Wells'.  The piano solo is omitted and instead there is a repeated riff that also ends the tune abruptly.

The Lester Young Story, Vol.4

The alternate take of "Lester Leaps In" is equally good.  Young has a more pronounced eighth-note line at this tempo.  Basie is in teasing again, playing these humorous double octave, bass line-type ideas behind Young's solo and through the performance.  Basie's teasing arpeggios in the piano's upper register compliments Page's powerful sound and beat.  

There's an excerpt of "Honeysuckle Rose" from Benny Goodman's January 16, 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert.  The band is Basie meets Goodman and begins with some collective riffing (not collective improvisation, but something like it) for two choruses.  Young takes two choruses and his solo is just genius.  It's taken at a medium-up tempo and Young's manipulation of the time feel is masterful.  He likes to play repetitive two-note phrases that change every two beats, thus creating a half-note feel.  Then he'll play some phrase that lays way behind the beat.  He goes back and forth on these ideas often and it's really effective as one offsets the other.  Feeling the half-note too at fast tempos would become part of the language.  

The next two tracks on side one feature Young and Clayton on a pair of small group sides by vocalist Jerry Kruger and her Orchestra from April 25, 1939.  "Rain, Rain, Go Away" is a silly song for a jazz musician to play, but somehow it works here.  Part of it is the era, but also vocalist Jerry Kruger has an anonymous sounding voice, but sings with attitude and a bit of growl.  Sounds like she's holding back a bit and the ending is good with those hits on beat four.  Lester Young is the other reason as is deeply melancholy sound greatly diminishes the impact and silliness of the song.  Maybe it's because he sometimes plays so beautifully as if he's hamming it up in some way.  Hard to explain, but in his own way, Young is also teasing when he improvises.  Here, he plays so quietly and sensitively that he reminds me of Coleman Hawkins on his ballad playing.  

Everything I heard did not prepare for me the six songs on side two with Glenn Hardman and his Hammond Five.  These recordings were the first small group recordings for the Hammond organ (which came out in 1935), making them historically significant.   Later Jimmy Smith, would use a fat, dark tone, but here Hartman seems to be content exploiting the novelty effects of the instruments and so it sometimes sounds like carnival or merry-go-round music!  And then there's Lester Young taking solos on every track playing as is he were completely unaffected by his surroundings and this features some of his best work!  I can't imagine what it sounded like to them at that time.   

With trumpeter Lee Castaldo, the music is played as dixieland with Castaldo on the melody and Young playing some magical counter-melodies.  They are backed by Freddie Green on guitar, Jo Jones on drums, and of course, Hardman on organ.  Maybe it's because I like the unusual  but Young's playing really makes these tracks very listenable.  If not, then I imagine that these tracks would not see the light of day,

Excellent early compilation on streaming

Since the Hammond organ was new, Hardman is exploring a bunch of ideas, but Young is always there to elevate the performances..  The organ's mellow, vibrato sounds on "Exactly Like You" make me feel like I'm at the ballpark between innings, but then Young's solo comes in and his sad, soulful sound changes everything.  On a swinging "Sunny Side of the Street" Hardman resorts to straight eighth-note lines, but Young comes in with a surprise solo on clarinet!  It sounds just like him with the same phrasing and even the sound despite the timbral differences.  After a short organ solo, Young comes back on tenor and all of a sudden the music sings harder.  

Young's background lines behind Castlanado are simply magical.  His sound, choice of notes, phrasing, etc. remind me so much of Gerry Mulligan's groups.  He must have heard the future in these Hardman sides.  But a highlight in an album of highlights might be his performance on "Jazz Me Blues" where he plays killer breaks on each eight-bar section of the opening chorus.  The first two are dirty---he plays the same note technique with false fingerings the first time and then the second break, he moves chromatically.  It's all the more amazing considering Hardman's square feel alternating straight eighth-notes and ridiculous sounding double-time lines.  

Young sounds especially inspired on this track, but all of the performances from that day in 1939 are excellent.  He was born in 1909, so the older-style setting must have appealed to him.  He sounds comfortable creating counter-melodies and he seems completely unfazed by the presence of the organ.  Hearing him in this context, I can almost imagine him in his younger days, and his varied experiences with small pickup bands, vaudeville shows, and the like.  Seems like he was quite the wanderer in his days before Basie, so he must have enjoyed the challenge of making music work no matter the situation.  This is my rose-colored assessment, but then again, perhaps he enjoyed the unusual because he recognized a bit of himself in the situation.  

The uptempo "Who?" is strong with a brush solo from Jones (he does the same on "China Boy") and, get ready for it, a solo for Freddie Greene!  Yes, he takes a short chordal-type solo based off of his regular pattern and it might be the first I've ever heard from him.  

This is a must have for any Lester Young fan, but is not national jazz news.  Volume three and four of the Columbia two-fers from the 1970s' covers this material, but otherwise JSP's Count Basie compilation Away From Base from 2005 is the lone available CD with the Jerry Kruger and Glenn Hardman tracks.