Take 5 With Lester Young With Billie Holiday

A few months ago I posted a Take 5 of Lester Young during his time with Count Basie. At the time of his first recordings with the count, he was also on many recordings the great singer, Billie Holiday made. This Take 5 focuses on the music they made together.

First up is "Without Your Love."

Next up from 1937 is "All of Me."

Then there is "When You're Smiling."

Here is "I Must Have That Man."

All of those above recordings were small group sessions led by the great pianist, Teddy Wilson. to close this edition of Take 5, we have this celebrated video clip from the legendary TV show "The Sound of Jazz," with Holiday singing "Fine and Mellow" with a band that included Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Ben Webster.

There is so much great Billie Holiday with Lester Young, I will be doing another playlist soon.

Take 5 With Lester Young With Count Basie

For this installment of Take 5, we have a brief playlist of Lester Young, the great tenor saxophonist who was not merely a great tenor saxophone stylist, but also a significant influence on saxophonists who came after him. This is limited to his early sides with Count Basie. First up is Lester Young as part of the Jones-Smith Five date for Vocalion with Count Basie on piano, Young on Tenor sax, Carl Smith on trumpet, Walter Page on bass, and Jo Jones on drums. The song is "Lady Be Good."

The original "Boogie Woogie" was recorded at the Jones-Smith date. Here it is done by the full Basie Band with Jimmy Rushing handling the vocal as he did on the original. Besides his brief intro and obligattos, Prez takes a simply sublime solo. Incidentally, this number would be performed by a variety of Jump Blues acts, including Wyonnie Harris and Roy Milton. Redd Foxx's "Shame on You" is musically a cover, although Foxx's recording has different lyrics. Chicago blues pianist Little Johnnie Jones also recorded this with Elmore James on guitar.

There are so many Count Basie recordings that one can choose. "Taxi War Dance" is an outstanding one.

Young is, of course, featured on some of the Basie classics, including "Jumping at the Woodside." Herschel Evans is the clarinetist on this track.

Finally, here is the original recording of his blues that became a jazz standard, "Lester Leaps In."

I will be posting some of Lester Young's recordings backing Billie Holiday in a few weeks.

Being Prez Is Concise Look At Life And Music Of Lester Young

Being Prez: The Life & Music of Lester Young
Dave Gelly
Oxford University Press (2007)

Its been nearly five decades when Lester Young passed away and while he has been served by a few very scholarly biographies, the level of detail and technical discussion of his music may have put off some which is a shame since Young was a major innovator in jazz history. At a time when Coleman Hawkins was the man on tenor saxophone, Lester created a totally new style that influenced countless subsequent tenor players but saxophonists of all styles including the musical revolutionary Charlie Parker. British music journalist and saxophonist Dave Gelly has provided us with a concise consideration of Young’s life and music making use of the important works of Frank Büchmann-Muller, Louis Porter and Douglas Henry Daniels among others. Gelly takes us from Young’s youth, his father’s “abduction” of him from his mother’s home and growing up in the family band his father led to the last days as his health was failing him and his passing.


Lester Young’s journey includes playing as part of a circus in a minstrel show and also on the T.O.B.A. circuit. Then in 1926-27 the winter was spent in Minneapolis and while he later went back on tour with his father’s show, he dropped out rather than another tour in the Jim Crow south. Eventually he hooked up with Art Bronson’s Bostonians, and then the Blue Devils, Bennie Moten, a tour with King Oliver and eventually Bill ‘Count’ Basie. Lester established himself in the Kansas City scene and was a feared competitor in a jam session as recounted in the legendary one when Coleman Hawkins came to Kansas City. Not that long thereafter he was recruited for Fletcher Henderson’s Band but was never accepted there as the band wanted someone more in the line of Hawkins’ style.


A return to Kansas City led to his being back with Basie and the emergence of the Count and his band, who had their own travails to go through, including being induced to sign a horrible contract with Decca. But finally it led Lester into a recording studio where he waxed four sides for the American Record Combination under the name of Jones-Smith, since Basie was signed to Decca. Gelly writes: “This was the moment when Lester Young finally sidled out of the shadows, the moment when he ceased to be just a name, a rumor from the territory, a set of tall tales concerning jam sessions in bars and hotel lobbies and shoeshine parlors, and became a sound. For the first time, his music was caught, frozen onto shellac grooves and sent out into the world…”


About the first recording, Shoe Shine Boy, “Basie and the rhythm section play the introduction, setting tempo and mood, and then, after forty-five seconds, Lester young bursts forth. The first impression is of blazing energy and complete self-assurance. He plays with all the confidence and poise of a young man fully aware of his powers and in complete control of them. … Faced with such unhesitating fluency, it is easy to understand why other musicians at jam sessions would simply lay down their instruments and look goggle-eyed. … Here, constrained by the three-minute limit of the ten-inch, 78 RPM record, he confines himself to two choruses, sixty-four bars, lasting exactly one-minute, but it is obvious that he has barely hit his stride. The take was a perfect one… .”


From there on we follow Lester with the Basie Band as it plays various hotel rooms that the band perhaps was not suited for and start to make their marvelous recordings. He meets and begins a life-long friendship with Billie Holiday (some under Teddy Wilson’s name) and participates on a number of her finest recordings as well as plays behind her when she sings with Basie. Then there is his relationship with Texas tenor saxophonist Herschel Evans, whose style was more akin to Hawkins and while Basie exploited the contrasting styles on many recordings and performances. Evans alas was one of many jazz artists who died so prematurely. Lester would leave Basie and lead his own group, although as an individual he lacked the temperament and relied on assistance of others while producing more wonderful recordings.


There was the reunion with Basie and then the disaster of his army experience when he should never have been inducted and which he became the victim of southern racism. The army experience shaped his sensitive personality even more and after the war he would resume his career which Gelly traces while interweaving a thoughtful dissection of pertinent recordings, taking us to the legendary couple bars he played behind Billy Holiday at The Sound of Jazz television show and some final performances at the Blue Note Café in Paris (His time at the Blue Note was part of the inspiration for the character played by Dexter Gordon in the movie Round Midnight).


Gelly’s concise and lively written biography certainly presents Young’s formidable musical legacy to us as he notes, “The beauty of Lester Young’s music endures.” Included is a thoughtful selected discography of Young’s recordings that add to the value of this biography of one of the seminal artists of jazz history.

I wrote this review in late 2007 for Jazz & Blues Report but do not believe the review was published.  I may have  received a review copy from the publisher.

Solid Swinging Zoot Suite

One of the albums that gives this writer much pleasure is Zoot Sims’ Pablo release, If I’m Lucky, which had a terrific band of Jimmy Rowles on piano, George Mraz on bass and Mousey Alexander on drums. A wonderful, swinging album, Sims sounds so warm on his tenor and the band complements him like the band has been together all of their lives.


The same band is heard on what is believed to be a 1973 Caribbean recording that HighNote has just released, Zoot Suite. Its not a high fidelity recording and Rowles piano and the rhythm section especially comes off a bit tinny at times. Despite any audio limitations, Sims plays energetically on the opening Jitterbug Waltz with echoes of Lester Young in his playing before Rowles handles a solo with repeated ascending lines. The sound quality perhaps lends a somewhat harsh tone to Sims’ reading of Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me, while Lester Young’s influence is again evident on Young’s Tickle Toe, with a rollicking solo from Rowles before Sims trades fours with Alexander. Other ballads like I Want It Bad and That Ain’t Good and My Old Flame are wonderfully handled, while the band gets rocking on Honeysuckle Rose and Rockin’ in Rhythm (with Sims playing soprano on the latter number).


Plenty of fervor in these performances even if this recording lacks some of the wistful romanticism that made If I’m Lucky so special. If one can get past the tinny recoding, there is some fine music here.


This review originally appeared in the October 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 298), from whom I received my review copy.

Roy Haynes. Still Hip After All These Years

Roy Haynes is of course one of the greatest drummers in the history of jazz who has about played with everyone the past 60 odd years. In the March 2008 issue of Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 302) I reviewed the Dreyfus Jazz Box Set, A Life in Time: The Roy Haynes Story.  This fabulous set is still available.  My review, from three years ago, follows.

This writer can still remember that weekend in late fall 1976 in Buffalo when this publication’s editor brought Roy Haynes & the Hip Ensemble in to the original Tralfamadore Cafe, a basement jazz room that featured fine local talent as well as brought in a variety of jazz greats of the time. Haynes led a terrific band that included Marcus Fiorello on electric guitar and Hannibal Marvin Peterson on trumpet. What sticks out in my memory over three decades later was not only the sheer joyfulness of the music, but the joyfulness that Haynes played with. I have remarked over the years that if I were a young boy who had been at the gig with my parents, I would have wanted a drum kit the next day.


Dreyfus Jazz, Haynes label for the past 15 years, has just issued this box set with 37 performances (over 3 and 1/2 hours) over three discs with a bonus DVD of interview and performance. Starting with 1949 recordings with Lester Young and Bud Powell, the music on the box takes us up through his contemporary recordings with his Fountain of Youth quartets in 2006. One wonders if even a decade ago one company would have found other recording companies cooperating and licensing the material for this set. Through the musical journey we find him with nearly every major jazz performer of the past six decades including Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughan, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Jack DeJohnette, Stan Getz, Roland Kirk, Eric Dolphy, Chick Corea and Andrew Hill; as well as see him nurse such young talents as Hannibal Marvin Peterson, George Cables, Donald Harrison, and Christian McBride. It perhaps should not be surprising that when Rollins wanted a drummer to help him celebrate the 50th Anniversary of his Carnegie Hall Debut, he called on Haynes to fill that chair; or that he was John Coltrane’s drummer of choice when Elvin Jones was unavailable.


As for the music, what can one say listening to his sizzling cymbal work behind Lester Young on the opening Ding Dong, or his crisp work on the classic Bouncin’ with Bud, and the call and response type playing behind Coltrane in Newport on My Favorite Things. And while that track, like Monk’s Rhythm-A-Ning from Monk’s Live at the Five Spot (with Johnny Griffin on tenor sax), and Oliver Nelson’s Stolen Moments from The Blues and the Abstract Truth will be familiar to many, there are sure to be surprises like the marvelous 1997 reunion with Gary Burton (and Dave Holland and Chick Corea) Question and Answer, or the support behind vocalists Sarah Vaughan (How High the Moon) and Etta Jones (her original Don’t Go the Strangers). The more recent recordings include a remarkable rendition of Greensleeves by his Fountain of Youth Ensemble. The DVD includes a video from an Ashley Kahn interview of Haynes who talks about his drum sound, playing with Coltrane and other matters of interest followed by a marvelous video of Haynes and his Fountain of Youth Ensemble in performance followed by Haynes doing a drum solo from a 1973 Highlights of Jazz Concert.


Ashley Kahn provides succinct and astute commentary in the accompanying booklet. Perhaps the only negative may be the folding digipak for the CDs which feels a little flimsy, but otherwise this collection provides us with an overview of one of the premiere drummers of the past several decades and is highly recommended.

I received a review copy either from Jazz & Blues Report or a publicist for the record label.

Riffin' CD Set Shows Why Nat Cole Was a Jazz King

Nat Cole's musical contributions and career need little elaboration. It should be noted that Hip-O-Select has put together a three CD set, Nat King Cole & Friends "Riffin': The Decca, JATP and Mercury Recordings.” The performances contained here, with the exception of five from 1936, come from the forties when Cole was emerging as a National star. This set comes in a 5 X 7 book that includes an essay by noted author David Ritz about the music contained on this disc. The book also includes full discographical information and has hard sleeves for each of the three CDs. One CD contains 17 tracks by the classic King Cole Trio along with the 1936 selections from Eddie Cole's Solid Senders, and the 1946 sessions by The Keynoters. The middle CD contains Cole’s performances at the legendary Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, while the final CD includes his sessions with Dexter Gordon and Lester Young and alternate takes of selections with the Keynoters.

Among the 17 selections from 1947 the King Cole Trio are such iconic performances as “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Hit That Jive, Jack,” with Cole’s deft, sophisticated piano, warm vocals, and Oscar Moore’s sparkling guitar runs. Then there are instrumentals like the bouncy “This Side Up,” with Cole and Moore playing off each other. “Honeysuckle Rose,” shows Cole’s ability to spin a horn-like solo on Fats Waller’s stride classic as Moore responds with a similar guitar solo, before Cole’s piano provides a setting for bassist Wesley Smith. “Gone With a Draft,” has a lyric dealing with the wartime military draft, while “Early Morning Blues,” is a low-key, jazzy blues instrumental. and “Scotchin’ With Soda,” is more hip jive, while “That Ain’t Right,” is a vocal blues that perhaps anticipates the similarly uptown piano blues of Cecil Gant (and Charles Brown although Cole’s vocals are much less morose than those of Brown) several years in the future.

The 17 tracks by the Cole Trio are followed by 1936 recordings by Eddie Cole’s Solid Senders, a small group led by Nat’s brother on bass and occasional vocal. As Ritz notes, Nat’s playing is in the manner of Earl Hines on a swinging combo while brother Eddie sings “Honey Hush,” a jive lyric about Sadie Green with punchy horns (trumpet and two saxophones) and a full rhythm section. The other four selections (including an alternate take) are peppy instrumentals including “Thunder” that has nice solos from trumpeter Kenneth Roane as well as Nat and the two saxophonists both of whom display a fair amount of vibrato in the tenor sax solos. Cole’s playing sounds quite modern against the horns. These tracks are followed by the four issued 1946 sides by The Keynoters that featured alto saxophonist Willie Smith along with Cole (as Lord Calvert), bassist Red Callendar and drummer Jackie Mills. Compared to the wobbly playing of the saxophonists with Eddie Cole, Smith is a more modern player and was along with Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges among the finest swing alto saxophonists with a nice tone that hints at the blues. After a wonderful performance of “The Way You Look Tonight,” a torrid instrumental, “Airiness a La Nat,” opens with some wonderful Cole playing before some splendid playing from Smith. This is swing at its finest.

The second disc contains all of Nat King Cole’s performances at the legendary 1944 initial Jazz at the Philharmonic Concerts, that in contrast to the cool trio Cole Trio, was wide open jam sessions. In July, 1944 Cole helps anchor a rhythm section of Les Paul on guitarist, either Johnny Miller or Red Callendar on bass and Lee Young on drums with saxophones by Jack McVea and Illinois Jacquet, and trombone by J.J. Johnson. McVea robustly kicks off “Lester Leaps In,” followed by hot buzzing from Johnson and Cole’s hot playing who is followed by Jacquet. Jacquet's incendiary solos starts off with a hint of Lester Young before he gets down with a hot solo that would set the template for all the bar walkers and honkers as he bellows on the tenor. Les Paul follows with strong single note runs mixed with chords before Cole takes a brief solo chorus as the horns take the song out. McVea sets the table for the swinging “Tea For Two,” with his Coleman Hawkins’ influenced playing followed by Cole with a solo that mixes his virtuosity and restraint. It is followed by Jacquet’s gutbucket tenor before another scintillating Paul solo.

After “Tea For Two” come perhaps the most celebrated performance from the initial concert, “Blues.” Jacquet’s solo on this track is legend as are the  percussively rooted solos of Cole and Paul as Lee Young and Miller anchor the rock solid in-the-pocket-groove before the solos of McVea, Johnson and Jacquet. The blues playing here is as good as it gets and Jacquet’s solo is one of the greatest blues solos played by anyone on any instrument. The ballad “Body and Soul,” takes the tempo down with more marvelous playing. Cole is heard singing “Sweet Lorraine,” with Les Paul taking the spot usually held down by Oscar Moore. The performances of “I Found a New Baby,” “Rosetta,” and the brief rendition of “One O’Clock Jump,” provide more opportunity for the aggregation to raise the roof with their exuberant playing, and Cole is marvelous whether comping and trumpeting out a piano solo. Most, or all, of this specific disc has been available on a Verve reissue although that may be long-out-of-print. In any case, the JATP performances here never sound stale to these ears.

The final disc finds Cole primarily in the role of accompanist as he backs Dexter Gordon on a session that includes Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison on trumpet and this 1943 or 1944 session opens with Long Tall Dexter showing a strong Lester Young influence on a group of swing-based tunes including “I Found a New Baby,” “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Rosetta.” The small combo instrumental rendition of “Sweet Lorraine” contrasts with the two vocal renditions presented in this set. Dexter’s session closes with a jumping blues, “I Blowed and Gone.”

The Gordon session is followed by another legendary session, The Lester Young Trio, with the great saxophonist and pianist Cole joined by drummer Buddy Rich. From the opening of “On the Waterfront,” these are, in essence, magical duets between Young and Cole as Rich generally displays a light touch, even on the swinging tempo found on “Somebody Loves Me.” The trio romps on “I Found a New Baby,” while Rich sits out “Peg ‘O My Heart,” a marvelous display of Cole and Young’s magic together. Alternate takes from The Keynoters session are the final performances issued in this compilation.

Fans of Nat King Cole who are interested in the jazz side of this American master certainly will love the music here, although they may already own a good portion of the music released here. The packaging is first-class and includes full discographical and session information and the mastering sounds fine to these weathered ears. This might make a marvelous gift for the holidays or special occasions and should be readily available from a variety of sources. This was a present for myself.

Van Der Elksen's Jazz Has Vintage Jazz Performance Photos

I have a penchant for books on music (especially blues and jazz) and photography. Books of photographs of blues and jazz musicians have a specific place in my heart, so when I saw on amazon the description of “Jazz” by Ed Van Der Elsken, I added it to my shopping cart but it wasn’t only until recently that I purchased the book. It is published in Amsterdam and it does include some introductory text which I am unable to understand since I do not read Dutch, but it contains a number of black and white photos from the fifties that look like they were taken during European tours by touring American Jazz Masters.

If the technical information on camera equipment and such matter is provided, it must be in portions of the text that I cannot decipher. In addition to the covers, there are 79 pages of photographs in this 7.2 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches hardback that weighs just under 15 ounces. I give the physical dimensions because most of my recent photo book acquisitions are not easily transportable, and despite being a hard cover, this is readily transportable. Their are audience pictures showing some showing unbridled enthusiasm and others more restrained. Notable groups include the Modern Jazz Quartet, Oscar peterson, Duke Ellington (one picture has him jubilant as he conducts the Orchestra) , Art Blakey with Lee Morgan, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, Miles Davis on stage with Lester Young and with a big smile as Lester plays in one picture and Jimmy Rushing with Benny Goodman. Of course there is more here, but this gives some sense of who is included here. There is a grittiness in part from the grainy reproduction of many of these wonderful shots and there is a nice range of views including some from above like a two-page spread of Armstrong & the All Stars with the concert hall audience clearly visible. Van Der Elsken marvelously captures much of the flavor of the music in his images here. I have no regrets about purchasing this book and suspect lovers of vintage jazz photography will share my enthusiasm for this.

Bird and Prez Live

Sunday August 29 will be (I believe) the 90th Birthday of one Charlie Parker, a musical trail brazer, who life and music has been recounted, celebrated and mythologized. The Jazz Blog, jazzwax.com has been running an interview with Phil Schaap who has been doing a show devoted to Parker’s music for over thirty years and well worth reading. http://tinyurl.com/schaaponbird5
Also this weekend WKCR in New York is broadcasting its annual Lester Young and Charlie Parker Birthday celebrations. All Lester Young Friday and all Charlie Parker on Saturday.  http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/wkcr/

Bill Savory's Incredible Jazz Collection

One of the most interesting pieces of news this week was the NY Times article on the donation of the Bill Savory collection of nearly 1000 discs that he recorded in the hey dey of swing music to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Bill Savory was an audio engineer who was a friend of a number of jazz musicians and made recordings off the the radio for his own enjoyment, using 12 and even 16 inch aluminum or acetate discs, sometimes recorded at 33 1/3 rpm which in the words of the NY Times article, "allowed Mr. Savory to record longer performances in their entirety, including jam sessions at which musicians could stretch out and play extended solos that tested their creative mettle." 


The Times ran a separate story by Times Jazz Critic Ben Ratliff and describes some of the performances and describes what was a remarkable Coleman Hawkins performance of “Body & Soul” that was made several months after Hawkins’ classic commercial recording. Included with this story is a video that provides an overview and an interview with Doug Pomeroy who discussed the state of the discs, some of which could not be recovered at all and the steps taken to restore and digitize the music from other discs.


Finally, the Times has on their website some short audio-clips of performances including Hawkins, Lester Young and a blues jam by Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Jack Teagarden.  


The Jazz Lives blog has their own overview of this story.   Their blog notes that the National Jazz Museum will be presenting four programs on these treasures as part of their Tuesday evening JAZZ FOR CURIOUS LISTENERS series, held from 7:00 – 8:30PM at our Visitors Center, 104 E. 126th Street, NY, NY 10035.  


September 7 – You Won’t Believe It – An Overview
September 14 – Tenor Madness – Lester Young/Coleman Hawkins/Chu Berry/Herschel Evans
September 21 – Trumpet Titans – Louis Armstrong/Roy Eldridge/Harry James/Bunny Berigan
September 28 – Jam Sessions – Benny Goodman/Bobby Hackett/Lionel Hampton/Slim and Slam

Classic Commodore Reissues

The introduction of the compact disc had a definite benefit in allowing the reissue of vintage jazz and blues material, including much that had never been reissued on vinyl LPs. Back in June 1997, Jazz & Blues Report, issue 222, ran my review of several reissues of material from the legendary Commodore label. Amazon does show some of these as still available.

GRP Records recently acquired the Commodore label catalog of classic jazz recordings from the thirties and forties. Founded by Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore Record Store, and later an important figure at Decca Records, it was among the most important of the early jazz independent labels that started to flourish during the swing era. GRP has launched an important series of reissues from the label with a collection celebrating Commodore, along with five albums devoted to artists.

The Commodore Story (CMD-2-400) is a double disc survey of the label which presents an overview of many of the artists represented on the label. It opens with a segment called Commodore Highlights, with six selections starting with Eddie Condon’s Chicago style jazz group on a rousing Love is Just Around the Corner, and Billie Holiday’s famous reading of Abel Meeropool’s powerful protest song, Strange Fruit. The remainder of the first disc is broken into segments - A Handful of Stars; A Handful of Guest Stars, and Revival and Reminiscence; while the second disc has segments devoted to Trumpets (and Cornets); Trombones; Reeds; and Pianists. It would take far too much space to list all of the performers, much less discuss all of the music, but highlights include Lester Young on Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, a rare sample of his clarinet playing, Roy Eldridge with Chu Berry on a take of Body and Soul that predates Coleman Hawkins’ classic recording, Jelly Roll Morton’s solo rendition of Mamie’s Blues, Bunk Johnson’s Franklin Street Blues, an early recording in the New Orleans revival, Will Bill Davison’s That’s a Plenty, the unique clarinet styling of Pee Wee Russell on Keeping Out of Mischief, Art Hodes’ wonderful blues piano solo, A Selection From the Gutter and Willie ‘the Lion’ Smith’s accurately entitled masterwork of stride piano, Finger Buster. This is a terrific sampler of the breadth of the Commodore catalog which is centered mostly on pre-bebop styles of jazz.

Billie Holiday came to Commodore after Columbia refused to record her singing the topical Strange Fruit in 1939. Commodore allowed her to do a four song session which included that song, the ballad Yesterday, her blues Fine and Mellow, and I Got a Right to Sing the Blues. After Columbia dropped Holiday, she returned to Commodore in 1944 with pianist Eddie Heywood for three sessions. Commodore’s Milt Gabler would soon produce more Holiday for Decca which would involve a shift from the swing combos that predominated on her many recordings. Holiday only recorded sixteen songs for Commodore, and these are presented with a a number of alternates for several titles on The Complete Commodore Recordings (CMD-2-401). Given the number of alternates (Only Fine and Mellow and On the Sunny Side of the Street are heard by single recordings), the chronological presentation of the material (alternates and all) does not serve a casual listener well. Holiday remains the jazz vocalist supreme, phrasing her vocals like a Louis Armstrong trumpet solo (to cite Tony Bennett and others). However, the studio bands anchored by Eddie Heywood’s piano suffer (as do any latter Holiday) when compared to the exquisite backings of the Teddy Wilson led combos, particularly those with Lester Young. The accompaniments, particularly a series of trios, get a bit lugubrious, an effect emphasized by the sequencing of the alternate performances together. But whatever her limitations, Holiday’s ability to turn a phrase, deliver her lyrics, and project her vulnerability and hurting still haunts over fifty years after these recordings were waxed. A single disc containing all of the performances along with the best alternates would be a near essential purchase. As good as the music is here, it is more for the jazz collector as opposed to the generalist.

Lester Young had been in New York when the recordings on The “Kansas City” Sessions (CMD-402) were made. The Kansas City refers to the Kansas City Five (or Six), the title for the small group ensembles that were recorded. After John Hammond recorded a Buck Clayton session with the Basie rhythm section with Eddie Durham’s electric guitar replacing the Count’s piano, Columbia rejected the session. Hammond brought three of the four sides to Gabler (he couldn’t find the fourth), and Gabler arranged to bring back the group, along with Lester Young, for five titles and released them as being by The Kansas City Six or The Kansas City Five (the tracks without Young). The sides with Young are particularly sublime, with Young and Buck Clayton playing with a mute for the heads before either of them or the fleet Durham would take a solo. The rhythm trio of rhythm guitarist Freddie Greene, bassist Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones define swing with their playing while Young, whether soling on tenor with a feathery, ethereal tone or a similarly velvety clarinet (as on Countless Blues and Pagin’ the Devil), is at the height of his melodious, lyrical, yet always earthy approach, with Clayton’s trumpet and Durham’s fleet single note guitar adding distinctive touches. Like Young’s recording debut on the Jones-Smith small group sides for Columbia, several of these recordings approach perfection, and if Freddie Greene cannot come close to his then girl friend Billie Holiday as a vocalist on Them There Eyes, Young’s tenor break certainly elevates it. Young would lead another Kansas City Six, five and a half years later with Jo Jones returning, along with trombonist Dickie Wells trumpeter Bill Coleman, pianist Joe Bushkin and bassist John Simmons for four tunes in which Young’s tenor saxophone dominates, but Wells provides more than a few delights including’ solos on the various takes of I Got Rhythm. Round this off with the four 1938 sides led by Buck Clayton, and you have a classic collection of small group session from swing’s heyday.

Last sessions (CMD-403) from Jelly Roll Morton collects a series of solo piano and small group recordings the pioneering jazz pianist and composer made for the General label shortly after making his famous Library of Congress Recordings (of which the music has been reissued on Rounder). By the time these were made, Morton’s career had fallen quite a bit from the days he was quite a dandy, as when he made the legendary Red Hot Pepper recordings for Victor. Constantly reminding others of his status as the creator of jazz, his solo pieces include a terrific rag, renditions of Winin’ Boy, Heard Buddy Bolden Say, the amusing children’s lyric on Animule Dance and Mamie’s Blues. Morton adds to the charm of several numbers with very amiable vocals and some commentary. The remainder of the album are small groups sessions, all of which have trumpeter Red Allen among others. If not having the precision of the Red Hot Pepper recordings (among the jazz masterpieces of the twenties), they all are spirited performances that show that even shortly before his passing, Morton could play and sing with vitality, and even have a little fun at the expense of the swing bands that had adopted his King Porter Stomp.

Perhaps not essential Jelly Roll, but still an important collection. Wild Bill Davison’s fiery trumpet graced many a “Dixieland” record date or jam session with his full speed ahead, take no prisoners uncompromising attack. The Commodore Master Takes (CMD-404) has the 24 sides Davison recorded as a leader in the company of such traditional jazz players as guitarist Eddie Condon, trombonist George Brunies and clarinet players Pee Wee Russell, Edmond Hall and Albert Nicholas. Many of the tracks are traditional jazz flagwavers, like That’s a Plenty, Muskrat Ramble, Original Dixieland One Step and High Society. The group can mute the energy level a bit for Baby Won’t You Please Come Home and Someday Sweetheart, while they get playful on Fats Waller’s Squeeze Me, which sports a particularly appealing solo by Russell on clarinet in addition to Davison’s wide open horn. This is not music for the head, and some of the ensemble playing lacks some of the charm of the better New Orleans ensembles (like those of George Lewis), but this is music for the heart and the feet, and he was still blowing strong until he passed away in 1989.

Clarinet Pee Wee Russell’s Commodore collection is titled Jazz Original (CMD-405) and accurately suggests his individuality. The Commodore recordings compiled here include several under Eddie Condon’s nominal leadership, an alternate of Squeeze Me from a Davison session, four selections with the Three Deuces (Russell, pianist Joe Sullivan and drummer Zutty Singleton), and the closing four titles by Pee Wee Russell’s Hot Four (heard on a total of eight takes). While the backing might suggest a traditional jazz backing, he was equally at home in the company of Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins and Red Allen, and with Allen appeared with Ornette Coleman’s rhythm section. Unlike Wild Bill Davison, Russell’s playing can’t be pigeon-holed as a traditional jazz or Dixieland. He’s too much a swing player as well as a helluva blues player, as he shows on two takes of Serenade to a Shylock which offer Jack Teagarden’s persuasive singing as well. The trio sides with Sullivan and Singleton are a particular delight, and display the melodic quality characteristic of his playing. The ensemble playing here is generally stronger than on the Davison collection, as can be heard on the spirited alternate take of a Muggsy Spanier-led rendition of Rosetta. This album will probably be the biggest revelation for many. After all, Pres, Lady Day and Jelly Roll are among jazz’s greatest legends. Pee Wee Russell’s music may not reach the Olympian heights of their finest work, but he soars fairly high.

For purposes of FTC regulations, I was provided the review copies by Jazz & Blues Report.

Redd Foxx Channels' Basie's "Boogie Woogie"

Listening to my ipod this morning (It has been reissued on several collections including The R&B Years 1947), I was startled by a solid jump blues, Shame On You" that clearly was based on the Jones-Smith Unlimited recording "Boogie Woogie. Jones-Smith Unlimited was a small group taken from Count Basie's Band that John Hammond recorded for Columbia after Hammond found out that Dave Kapp signed the Count Basie Orchestra to Decca Records. Jones Smith was named after drummer Jo Jones, and trumpeter Carl 'Tatti' Smith, but also included Count Basie, bassist Walter Page and tenor saxophonist Lester Young along with vocalist Jimmy Rushing in what is now viewed as all-time classic record date with one of the sides waxed being "Boogie Woogie." When I checked my ipod for the song title I discovered it was by Redd Foxx. Foxx's recording has a tenor saxophonist playing in a manner inspired by Lester Young with trumpet riffing in support (echoing Tatti Smith's playing on the original). Of course Redd Foxx would be best known as a raunchy comedian who pioneered with his raunchy party albums and then as George Sanford on the classic television comedy series, Sanford & Son (Foxx's real name was John Elroy Sanford). While Foxx may not have been a Jimmy Rushing or Joe Turner, this solid recording showed him to be a more than credible blues shouter. An intriguing footnote for a person who would become iconic as a comedian.