You can play the Notes, every one of them, on a piece of sheet music, but matter how hard you try, it will never sound the way pres played them. I saw Pres at JATP at the Academy of music in Philadelphia. He played a ballad, one Chorus--I couldn’t identify right what it was, but it didn’t make any difference- because the sound of his horn soared through the Academy of music, and I will never forget the beauty of that moment.
Wonderful to hear this. The 'usual' account of Prez in steady decline after '45 is disproved again. Here he shows a fluid, sinuous sound and flowing improvisation. The unevenness of his later years is a mystery.
Thank you, Loren. This reminded me: I read an interview with guitarist George Benson recently, talking about how he improvised. He said that sometimes he let the 'guitar' (the instrument) take the lead and sometimes let his 'voice' (as if he was singing/scatting) take the lead -- and that the former was usually more 'interesting' and appealed more to the cognoscenti jazz-heads (because the instrument allowed for and lent itself to all manner of intricate and harmonically complex runs etc.) while the latter was usually more pleasing and popular to a general music-loving audience (because the voice naturally gravitated towards clean melodic lines and natural/logical phrases). And I thought: yes -- Lester Young was a great instrumentalist who usually let his 'voice' take the lead, and so we get these wonderful horizontal lines; while someone like the great Coleman Hawkins usually let the 'instrument' take the lead, so we got those amazing/intricate vertical lines. And then Bird, of course, somehow managed to combine-balance the two almost all the time! I love Benny Goodman, but I can see why people say that he played the clarinet while Lester used the saxophone (and clarinet) as a means to music-making ends. That line from Artie Shaw comes to mind (paraphrasing): Lester Young played better clarinet than all the guys who played the clarinet better.
This is an extraordinary performance. I've always marveled at Pres' ability to come in for, in some instances, a measly eight bars on a Basie band vocal record or a Lady Day side and make an encapsulating statement, but I trust the great Mary Lou Williams' observations and have myself heard on-location recordings in which he just gets better and better as the choruses roll out rather than running out of steam. That's what we find in this take on "DB Blues." Lester deserved the sobriquet bestowed upon him by his pal, Billie.
The US Army really should have left him alone. He was barely within the range of draft age in 1945. Then after the Army got him they didn't treat him with respect as a world-class musician like they did white guys. Then they busted him with marijuana and booze in his footlocker. After several months in the detention barracks they gave him a dishonorable discharge. He wrote this in response. I imagine he had a few curse words for the military too. RIP Lester Young.
You can play the Notes, every one of them, on a piece of sheet music, but matter how hard you try, it will never sound the way pres played them. I saw Pres at JATP at the Academy of music in Philadelphia. He played a ballad, one Chorus--I couldn’t identify right what it was, but it didn’t make any difference- because the sound of his horn soared through the Academy of music, and I will never forget the beauty of that moment.
Wonderful to hear this. The 'usual' account of Prez in steady decline after '45 is disproved again. Here he shows a fluid, sinuous sound and flowing improvisation. The unevenness of his later years is a mystery.
Tank you so much, Loren. If it's possible, open the accurate date and the venue, please.
great late Prez!
Thank you, Loren. This reminded me: I read an interview with guitarist George Benson recently, talking about how he improvised. He said that sometimes he let the 'guitar' (the instrument) take the lead and sometimes let his 'voice' (as if he was singing/scatting) take the lead -- and that the former was usually more 'interesting' and appealed more to the cognoscenti jazz-heads (because the instrument allowed for and lent itself to all manner of intricate and harmonically complex runs etc.) while the latter was usually more pleasing and popular to a general music-loving audience (because the voice naturally gravitated towards clean melodic lines and natural/logical phrases). And I thought: yes -- Lester Young was a great instrumentalist who usually let his 'voice' take the lead, and so we get these wonderful horizontal lines; while someone like the great Coleman Hawkins usually let the 'instrument' take the lead, so we got those amazing/intricate vertical lines. And then Bird, of course, somehow managed to combine-balance the two almost all the time! I love Benny Goodman, but I can see why people say that he played the clarinet while Lester used the saxophone (and clarinet) as a means to music-making ends. That line from Artie Shaw comes to mind (paraphrasing): Lester Young played better clarinet than all the guys who played the clarinet better.
This is an extraordinary performance. I've always marveled at Pres' ability to come in for, in some instances, a measly eight bars on a Basie band vocal record or a Lady Day side and make an encapsulating statement, but I trust the great Mary Lou Williams' observations and have myself heard on-location recordings in which he just gets better and better as the choruses roll out rather than running out of steam. That's what we find in this take on "DB Blues." Lester deserved the sobriquet bestowed upon him by his pal, Billie.
The US Army really should have left him alone. He was barely within the range of draft age in 1945. Then after the Army got him they didn't treat him with respect as a world-class musician like they did white guys. Then they busted him with marijuana and booze in his footlocker. After several months in the detention barracks they gave him a dishonorable discharge. He wrote this in response. I imagine he had a few curse words for the military too. RIP Lester Young.