Lester Young


I like all the elder statesmen of jazz,Coleman Hawkins/Ben Webster/Bird/Dexter Gordon,you get the picture,well I need some advice on which Lester Young cd's to buy-I was intrigued by a cd of him and Oscar peterson I was looking at today,anyway you fans of 'The Prez' point me in the right direction,Thanks guy's
mingus77079
Lester Young with the O.P. Trio is a classic, a very good start. Another one of my fav's is Lester along with Harry Edison (trumpet)- "Pres & Sweets". From your list of preferred saxmen, I think you'd really enjoy some Johnny Hodges. Check out Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges - "Back to Back" ...an absolute scorcher, which also features Edison blowing it hot on trumpet.

BTW, these all sound oh so sweet on vinyl. ;)
Anything from 38-39 which he himself considered his best work.Get the CD of the Kansas City 5,6,7's (on the Classics label of France).His experience with racism durring war and heavy drinking could be to blame but maybe this was just his time.But that KC stuff maybe the most sublime jazz ever recorded.
Lester's recorded work falls into two fairly distinct periods: when he was a member of Count Basie's band, and when he was the leader of the Lester Young - Teddy Wilson quartet in the 1930's and into the 1940's; and the post-World War II period when his playing had deteriorated following his experiences in the military. Rather than give you a laundry list of recordings with my subjective evaluation, I suggest you take a look at AMG's music service which rates most of Lester's better recordings. Here is the link to AMG's page on Lester:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=B0ud7yl6jxpsb