Customer Reviews

Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Lester Young

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

 

 

Being a Lester Young fan,I rushed home after buying this new CD.Even before playing it-I admired the handsome,nicely designed case it came in.When hearing the very first track"Oh,Lady be Good"-I couldnt believe how much hiss and crackling noise there was.The next few tracks sounded great-but then came the 3 tracks with Billie Holiday-also lots of hiss and noise.Then a few more songs-same distracting pops and cracks.I figured a high profile release like this,celebrating Ken Burn's upcoming documentary-proper care would certainly be taken in assuring clean(or as clean as possible)cuts. Sure,these are old songs from whatever source they had available-but I have most of these tunes on other CD's-particularly the "Quintessential Billie Holiday"series and various "Lester Young cd's-in which they sound fantastic.So,obviously clean sources exist.Perhaps it was the cleaning up process where they screwed up.Whatever the reason,it's a shame.BTW,I also bought the Louie Armstrong and Benny Goodman in this series and every song sounds great. That being said,I still enjoyed this CD.There were several songs that did sound great.I have no beef with the selection of songs-but c'mon-shouldn't they have taken better care with quality?

The sound is not that bad really, there is some hiss, but nothing out of this world, its listenable. If you are not used to the sound of old 30's 40's recordings, it may sound rough at first. Charlie Parker once said to have leraned some of Lester solos note sby note, and when you hear Lester, you can certainly hera a lot of what Bird later developed. But Lester is undoubtely one of the originals and a giant in jazz.

The music on this collection is great for an introduction to Lester Young, but unfortunately there seems to have been no effort taken to remaster the cuts here and everything sounds as if you were playing it on the original 78s. I know some people say you can't give this disc a low rating due to the fact that these are recordings from the 30's and 40's. Well, I say you can when there are other discs out there of the same material with sound quality that is far superior to what is offered here. If you want a good introductory disc of Pres that has a lot of material and is not too expensive check out the album "Lester Young: From A Cool Perspective." You get over 40 songs on two discs for around $17 and the sound quality is excellent on all the cuts, especially by 1930's and 40's standards.

I own many CDs of 30s and 40s jazz. Usually the sound has been cleaned up nicely, so you can concentrate on the music. This one is so scratchy, it's hard to listen to. Pity, because the music is terrific and plentyful. Yet, because of the noise, I recommend buying something else (Verve's Jazz Masters #30 is nice, for example).

I am glad to have bought this CD because I wanted to get a good handle on Lester Young's general sound. It's a happy, fun CD to listen to with interesting, diverse material: tracks with Billie Holliday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, etc., as well as Lester Young trio and quartet. The first 12 tracks are from the late 1930's. The 16th track is form 1956, and tracks 13 to 15 are from the 1940's. The terrible, awful hiss is only on the first few of the 1930's tracks. After that the sound is okay but nothing to write home about. I really don't understand why the hiss was not eliminated. Oh well. I'm still glad I bought it, but I subtract one star soley on that basis. Otherwise it would have gotten 5 stars.

Darn those old recordings! Yeah folks they have hiss. If there are better masters out there as some have contended, then they should have been used for this pressing. However, to knock this disc and give it one or two stars because of sound quality is ridiculous. First of all, the tunes are all great! Just think of the hiss as adding atmosphere to the listening experience. I am new to Lester Young, but I refuse to be too hard on a collection that culls most of its material from the 1930's! Get realistic people.

I am tapping my foot as I type this review and let me say, "If you like feel good music, this is a CD that you MUST purchase." For those who love jazz, (real jazz, not the bubble gum played on contemporary jazz stations) consider it an investment. Lester Young doesn't miss a beat.

For those who are just starting to appreciate jazz, this CD is a great starter. To name just a few artists, Billie Holiday does a fab performance on "A Sailboat In The Moonlight." Lester Young and Count Basie and His Orchestra, lay it down on "Taxi War Dance." Two of my personal favorites (as if I could choose one) are "Oh, Lady, Be Good" and "D.B. Blues." "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie," is simply magical. I can't forget, " I Found A New Baby." This piece features Nat "King" Cole on piano and Buddy Rich on drums. FANNNNTASTIC!

Now, if I could just learn to Lindy Hop...(giggle).

ONE WOMAN'S ADVICE: GET IT and be sure to check out JAZZ, a film by Ken Burns in January of 2001 on your local PBS Station. I know I will be watching.

***Let's stop accepting mediocrity as an artform. Buy this CD and let your voice be heard.

Despite what you may have heard from some writers, Lester Young was basically a shadow of his former self throughout most of the '50s. There were moments, of course, when he was relatively straight and sober and capable of getting to you--providing you remembered the Lester of old. But he didn't come close to regaining his former glory, or playing in a manner that would demonstrate to newcomers why many consider him one of the greatest soloists of all time, perhaps the "missing link" between Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker.

So this album may be a better start than a '50s LP such as the Verve date with Oscar Peterson. At the same time, the mastering--or lack of it--is frankly quite puzzling throughout the Burns' series. It's one thing to leave in the surface noise of the miraculous find of the complete Goodman Carnegie Concert from 1938, but many of the Lester dates were commercial studio recordings that not only were not noisy but demonstrated quite impressively his smooth and mellow, light and graceful sound. Like a number of other recordings in the Burns' series, this one tends to overdo the treble and, as a result, "pinch" Lester's unique sound. Also, while the inclusion of Billie Holiday and Lester's "Sailboat in the Moonlight" is to be applauded, the thin, anemic and distant quality of Lady Day's voice is inexcusable (hadn't the engineers heard of equalizers?), vitiating the efforts of both performers. Still, if you can't get Verve Jazz Masters Vol. 30, this one can be recommended, at least as a start.

It should be noted that the first paragraph above applies as much to Billie Holiday, Lester's musical companion and soulmate. You haven't really heard Lady Day until you can "get" what she was doing when Benny Goodman hired her in 1934 and in the definitive recordings thereafter--the vintage years for both artists are 1935-1949 (unlike some listeners, I don't hear the dramatic decline in Lester's playing immediately following his army experiences, though his late '30s-early '40s recordings are certainly pick of the crop).

Everyone seems to be all over the poor sound quality on some of the cuts on this disc. I can't disagree, because I have 10 others of this series and they all sound much better than this one. I also have some of the rarest stuff (like all 4 Jones-Smith tracks) on an early 70s Hammond produced 2 LP Columbia Basie comp "Super Chief" (if you like Basie and have a turntable, BUY THAT - YOU NEED IT!) I am having mixed feelings about the track selection myself. All the music is wonderful, but over half of this disc is Basie material! I also understand that a complete overview of Young is impossible without some Billie Holiday, but there are 4 Holiday numbers. Once you account for that there's not much room for *Lester Young* material. He recorded prolifically for Alladin and Lamp among others in the 40s but that stuff is barely represented. The beauty of many of these Ken Burns comps is that they usually dig up a handful of "off the beaten path" recordings, but that's not the case here. Most of it is pretty easily available. They also usually sound really good, too, despite the age of the master recordings. If this were the first Ken Burns Jazz comp I bought I would (wrongly) assume that the rest of them are this poorly conceived. Luckily I know better.

This is the worst sounding CD I've ever heard. And I own hundreds of CDs of music from this era. Obviously Ken Burns rushed this product to market to cash in on his PBS series, without spending any time or money to find the best sources for this music, or to digitally clean up the sound. You will find much better sounding collections of this music on other CD reissues of music by Lester Young, Count Basie, and Billie Holiday. I have some of this same music on old scratched up vinyl LPs and those stll sound much better than this messed up disc. Obvoid this disc at all costs, but do search out this music elsewhere. These tunes are monumental achievements in the history of jazz. Too bad Ken Burns was content to put out such a horrible sounding product.