Lester Young - Lester Leaps In (2018) [DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC]

One of the great originals in the jazz hierarchy, Lester Young was without doubt the most influential tenor saxophonist after Coleman Hawkins. A highly sensitive, graceful player, and an enigmatic personality, Young had a winning sense of time and space and a most engaging gift for improvising on songs rather than chord sequences. He played with great feeling for the lyric of a song with a very special, bittersweet brand of melancholy. There are some jazz exponents whose recorded work is worth preservation and close attention. Lester is one such jazz exponent. 2xHD are proud to bring present this historic recording to the digital high resolution world.

The material here consists of air shots from club dates in New York and Washington. On all but three of the tracks, front-line duties are shared with a trumpet player – either Idrees Sulieman, a vigorous bebop exponent who has worked with Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, the Clarke-Boland Band and Dexter Gordon, or Jesse Drakes, a fiery, staccato player from New York who played regularly with Lester between 1949 and 1955. It is highly appropriate that the opening track is Lester Leaps In, Young’s celebrated theme on the chords of I Got Rhythm which he first recorded with Count Basie’s Kansas City Seven in 1939. The middle eight of the opening chorus is delivered in typically rousing style by Sulieman, but after this it is Lester all the way. He plays the customary stop-time chorus after the theme and builds a solo full of characteristic Pres elements – lazy, laconic lines, reiterated notes and a lovely, loose swing.

Tracklist:

01 - Lester Leaps In
02 - These Foolish Things
03 - Three Little Words
04 - Pennies From Heaven
05 - Polka Dots And Moonbeams
06 - Indiana
07 - Jumpin' With Symphony Sid
08 - D.B. Blues
09 - A Ghost Of A Chance
10 - Up And Atom
11 - Blues In G
12 - Tea For Two

Tracks "1-3" - Recorded at Café Bohemia, New York City, probably on December 29, 1956.
Lester Young (ts); Bill Potts (p); Norman Williams (b); Jim Lucht (dr)

Tracks "4-5" - Recorded at Café Bohemia, New York City, on December 22, 1956.
Lester Young (ts); Bill Potts (p); Norman Williams (b); Jim Lucht (dr)

Track "6" - Recorded at Café Bohemia, New York City, on December 22, 1956.
Lester Young (ts); Idrees Sulieman (tp); Bill Potts (p); Norman Williams (b); Jim Lucht (dr)

Track "7" - Recorded at Olivia’s Patio Lounge, Washington, December 8, 1956.
Lester Young (ts); Bill Potts (p); Norman Williams (b); Jim Lucht (dr)

Tracks "8-9" - Recorded at Birdland, New York City, May 19, 1951.
Lester Young (ts); Jesse Drake (tp); John Lewis (p); Gene Ramey (b); Jo Jones (dr)

Tracks "10-12" - Recorded at Birdland, New York City, January 15, 1953.
Lester Young (ts); Jesse Drake (tp); Horace Silver (p); Aaron Bell or Franklin Skeets (b); Lee Abram or Connie Kay (dr)

Contains high-resolution digital transfers of material originating from an analogue master source.
2xHD Mastering: René Laflamme. 2xHD Executive Producer: André Perry.


Thanks to the Original customer!