Customer Reviews

Kansas City Sessions

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hey - there are great moments here - such as Lester playing clarinet, and playing the hell out of it: BUT BUYER BEWARE...the Kansas City Five sessions Do NOT even have Prez on them! That's right. Commodore Records released this as an LP in 1979, and while many tracks are in fact really well recorded, and Buck and Lester, and Freddie play great, many of the tunes are marred by Eddie Durham's totally out-of-place electric guitar "work". That's why there are so many alternate takes - and he never does get them right. How frustrating! "Good Mornin' Blues", "Laughing at Life", "I Know That You Know", and "Love Me or leave Me" are all minus Lester - now that is simply unacceptable when the CD is titled Lester Young. They do include some other tracks not on the original LP...they better, to make up for the lack of Prez on the others. There are some great moments here, but you really need to preview them. Maybe you'll like Eddie durham's quirky playing, but it ruins an otherwise wonderful line-up for me.

These are superb recordings by the master musician Lester Young and his Kansas City friends. When Young plays the blues on clarinet he reminds me so much of Billy Holliday - the transition from each note to the next is so full of musical emotion that it gets right inside my soul. The 1938 recordings with the clarinet are a high point in all Jazz - along with the Hot Fives and Sevens, Johnny Hodges small groups from 1939-40 etc. Young's beautiful sensitivity is displayed, along with the members of the group who afford Young the best support one could ask for. The 1944 sessions with Young on Tenor are great and complement the earlier sessions perfectly. I would heartily recommend this CD to any human being.

Who could ask for better than good recordings from mature, consummate professionals at (or near) the height of their powers? Young, Clayton, et al. had been around more than one block more than a few times by 1938, when the earlier session was recorded, and a few more by 1944, when the later session was recorded. All are exceptional here, especially Clayton's trumpet work and Eddie Durham's electric guitar work. Some say Lester lost his fire after his unpleasant army experience. His earlier stuff is undoubtedly livelier, even the slow blues, but the later recordings, which seem so port-wine-and-reefer slurred, will simply break your heart. All of the recordings here are ample evidence that Young always played what he felt, and that no matter how it came out, there was greatness in it. High points are "Countless Blues," "Pagin' the Devil #2," "Three Little Words," and "Good Mornin' Blues."

historically important, but not necessarily my favorite; Lester Young recorded much greater music, both with Basie and on his own, later..Buck Clayton is in good form; Jo Jones sounds great, it's good to be reminded how great Walter Page could be; the two takes of
"Pagin' the Devil" are extraordinary. And Freddie Green, of all people, sings, and very nicely. but Eddie Durham's trombone playing is annoying, frankly; though, again, it's extraordinary to hear Durham's electric guitar work, before Charlie Christian got rolling.

This is a historic session, I am talking about the 1938 set. One thing here is that this about the first, if not the first Jazz recording, and among the first ever recordings to feature an electric 6 string standard guitar, or an electric guitar as we say in English (all that other stuff is just for certain record keepers i dialog with who claim wanna county amplified Hawaiian guitars). This is loose and mellow, a jam session of the finest kind, made for a record shop label that back in that day was only going to be discovered by the hippest of the hip, musicians and their true lovers.

Lester is superb and more understated and relaxed than on Basie tracks from the same period. The clarinet playing is a gem. Lester complained that Basie tried to minimize clarinet playing by himself and Herschel Evans, the band's soloists on the sax, although they trade clarinet solos on some of the Decca Sides, Jumpin' at the Woodside and Texas Shuffle, I think.
Lester played clarinet wonderfully all the way to his clarinet blues on his last Verve session when he was too weak to lift the tenor.

Getting back to this CD, what is also outstanding here is the rhythm. We have the Basie's All-American rhythm session without Basie for contractual reasons--Freddie Green, Joe Jones, and the great Walter Page. They are augmented here and there by Eddie Durham's electric guitar that comes back into rhythm mode when he is not soloing. (Eddie had been playing solos on a National steel guitar in the Moten, Lunceford, and Basie bands until he went electric. He passed the idea of playing electric lead guitar on to a young former drummer he had known in Oklahoma and convinced to switch to guitar. The man's name was Charlie Christian!)

Everything is the quintessence of swing, where how the band rides the rhythm and dances with it and the rhythm dances back with them is more important than the excellent solos and the not bad mellow singing Mr. Clayton contributes.

The 1944 sides are part of the great work that Lester recorded in small group settings in the mid 1940s including some with Basie sitting in on piano that are attributed and a few where it is obvious Basie is playing piano even if the liner notes claim otherwise. They swing and jumb and move, but there is nothing else that really relates them to these sessions other than Lester and the name.

If you like this music, check out the newest multi CD version of the Spirtuals to Swing Concerts. It seems that a number of the cuts that John Hammond put on the original LP and Tape releases of the "concerts" were really from similar small group sessions of Basieites he recorded in 1938 and faked onto the concert records together with introductions by Hammond with Hammond's voice sped up to sound higher and younger. The new edition removes them from the concerts, but includes the whole batch, about 6 or 7 songs, as a separate heading that swings just like these sides.

Thank goodness for the record shop owner who wanted to put these sides out.

These recordings are one of the keystones of the Lester Young discography and were for a long time only available on rather poorly pressed vinyl cutout albums. The tracks with the Basie rhythm section are the best, and this is one of those rare situations where it's actually WORTH having every alternate take. Also, if Young had kept on with the clarinet, he'd probably be as acknowledged a master of that instrument as on the tenor sax.

To the reviewer below who thought Durham's guitar "work" (as he put it) was out of place, I say step back and listen carefully. Durham was working in a new medium, and carefully chose his notes. In fact, I would say that his playing is some of the best of that era: tasteful, emotional, and completely aware of the importance of every individual note. Hmmm, kind of sounds like Young himself, huh?

Anyway, this is a great record, not just for the historical significance, but just because it is a great swinging record. I can't get enough of it.

p.s. BTW, Mr. Thomas, Wanna County was a double bass player. Bob Dunn, the lap steel guitar player, was the first to record an amplified instrument. The first to amplify an instrument, as far as I can determine, was Durham.

I've had this CD over a month now. The fun part is, I still can't decide which take of "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" I like better. I hope I never do figure it out. Each version has something the other doesn't. Buck Clayton and Lester Young are amazing throughout - but the high point for me is take #2 of "Them There Eyes" - a joyous, exuberant, finger snapping gem that swings you into places you've never been. Buck and Lester's improvisational talents are primal, heady and exciting. Great early electric guitar by Eddie Durham and rare vocal by pure voiced Freddie Green make this small group session sizzle-with thrilling solo's from all.

this small group sound is absolutely charming. Young on clarinet was a marvel -- no-one else ever sounded as good on that instrument (imho). The rhythm section is great. Don't miss Laughing at Life, without Lester, but a muted Clayton playing magnificently.

Lester's tenor solos on "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" and "Them There Eyes" are amongst the handful of greatest musical passages I've ever heard - in ANY form. They say everything about poetry, economy, sound and swing. They alone are worth the price of this or any record! I'd take it to my isle of musical exile....