Product description The entire 1946 sessions with Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich and an unreleased bonus track! Also here is the legendary Nat King Cole/Dexter Gordon Mercury session. .co.uk There are some that still maintain that Lester Young suffered such traumas during his World War Two military service that he never again produced the joyous form that marked his playing during his Count Basie period. The trio titles on this collection give the lie to that story, for in the Spring of 1946 when the recordings were made he played brilliantly. The unusual instrumentation of just tenor, piano and drums meant that Young could not phrase behind the beat to the extent of his earlier work and this gives his playing a new impetus. He produces long, serpentine lines over the pulsating drive of Buddy Rich's expert brushwork and the glittering piano backing of Nat King Cole. (Cole had signed a contract with Capitol Records and had to appear on the original LP issue as "Aye Guy"). The trio date comes complete with a couple of alternative takes while the relaxed "Peg O' My Heart" is a tenor-piano duet produced casually while Rich left the studio temporarily in search of food. To increase the playing time to a respectable 60 minutes, four 1943 vintage Dexter Gordon Quintet titles have been added featuring another ex-Count Basie soloist, trumpeter Harry Edison. --Steve Voce
R**N
Relaxed trio session lead by the saxophone master.
The fourteen tracks here all feature Nat King Cole on piano (though on tracks 1 - 10 he is under the alias Aye Guy). Lester Young features on the first 10 tracks only. These ten tracks are the unusual trio format of tenor saxophone (Young), piano (Cole) and drums: Buddy Rich. These excellent tracks date (probably) from 1946 soon after Lester Young had been demobbed from the U.S. Army.Despite his recent return to the music scene Lester plays as well as ever: serenely, laid back and thoughtfully; beautiful. Nat Cole shows what a loss he was to jazz piano when he followed his popular singing career. He is outstanding. Drummer Buddy Rich completes the trio and complements the work of Young and Cole perfectly; indeed Cole and Rich work in such unison that the absence of a bass is not noticeable.Ten wonderful tracks of relaxed, almost "after hours" jazz.Tracks 11 - 14 are "bonus tracks" which feature an early session by Dexter Gordon (tenor) probaly recorded in 1943. The rest of the group are Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet), Nat Cole with bass and drums. Four enjoyable tracks which represent the work of a very youthful Dexter Gordon.
J**N
Lester Young Trio
Good album, interesting background, bought on the strength of a Julian Joseph recommendation in BBC Music Mag. Perhaps not what one might expect when one reads the informative sleevenotes / booklet, and recorded quality not 100% - could do with a clean-up. Nevertheless, a welcome addition to the shelves, and swift supply from USA.
A**R
Beautiful music
I can't stop playing this CD since it arrived. Heard of them through Iggy Pop's Friday Night show on BBC6 music, and I adore their sound. Drums, piano and sax combined to create beautifully evocative and uplifting pieces.
J**L
Great music
What a lovely sound. Perhaps I would like a bit more variation in tempo but that aside this is great value
P**Y
Five Stars
Terrific CD and top notch service/delivery as usual
D**L
Great music - appalling sound
It would be redundant to say how good Lester Young was and here he plays wonderfully with Nat King Cole who was such a brilliant piano player. I had heard a few of these tracks on a compilation CD and was really looking forward to hearing the whole session (or sessions). What a disappointment: first of all the CD wouldn't even play and when it did the sound was truly awful. How could Verve put out such a substandard recording - the tracks from this session I'd heard previously, on another label, sounded fine and had obviously been well cleaned up.So 5 stars for the music but none for the recording!
S**N
Music to die for but poor remastering
I agree completely with most of the other Amazon reviewers in the USA: The music Lester Young made together with the Nat King Cole Trio on 15 July 1942 is among some of his best. However, it's a great shame that Verve did such a poor job mastering the music for CD. All is not lost, however! I recently discovered that six of the songs from this CD are also available on the CD "Lester Young: Exercise in Swing" by the Italian label Giants of Jazz. The remastering excellent. To boot, the CD is available on Amazon and also on Ebay. In addition, there are also another 10 classic Lester Young songs, like "Afternoon of a Basie-ite". If you love Lester and his great music, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this CD. You won't be disappointed.
Trustpilot
1 month ago
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