“This is what dreams are made of”
Humphrey Bogart
“The Maltese Falcon”
Do you want to know what is right about jazz and wrong about most of what is being confused for as jazz these days? Just pop on ANY tune on this limited edition 8 cd boxed set by Mosaic Records, and you’ll get a 3 minute dissertation. Swing, melody, drive, swing, energy, joy, lyricism, inspiration, swing, tone…did I mention swing?
This is the material that made Count Basie, well, COUNT BASIE,starting from his original recordings in 1936 with an unknown tenor saxist by the name of Lester Young who went against the prevailing tide and refused to sound like Coleman Hawkins. You get those quintessential pieces like “Oh, Lady Be Good” and “Shoe Shine Boy” (with never before heard unissued takes that were just discovered-can we thank God in unison right now?) to Lester Young’s 1947 small group sessions with his gloriously desultory and breathy tone on “DB Blues” and “Confessin’.” In between you get some of the most important music from the swing era which was essentially defined by this band from Kansas City. Mosaic released a boxed set that had the pick of the litter of Young’s term with Basie when they recorded for Columbia Records. Here, it’s culled from the Decca sessions and post Columbia Records except for the famed Smith-Jones Inc sessions because there are some pleasant surprises involved.
Things get started here where everyone’s virgin ears should be introduced to jazz; the “Smith-Jones Inc” that essentially introduce the world to not only Count Basie’s deft and minimalist piano and Jo Jones’ prototypical high hat and brushes that made him the Fred Astaire of the drums, but the wonderful and earth shattering world of Lester Young’s irresistibly light and airy tenor that changed the direction of jazz forever. His workings of “Shoe Shine Boy”, “Boogie Woogie” and, above all, “Lady, Be Good” are not only the foundation of the Swing Era, but they are arguably the apotheosis of 20th Century Western Civilization. What this set also includes are the unissued takes which have Young’s completely different solos reveal the fertile imagination of this musical genius. I have new transcriptions to memorize!!!
After the four Desert Island Discs by Basie, Young, Jimmy Rushing and Jo Jones (who only had a high hat and snare for the session), you then get the entire Basie Orchestra with the All American Rhythm Section of Basie, Jones, Walter Page/g and the all time rhythm guitarist Freddie Green. Together with Young’s best counterpart on tenor, Herschel Evans, a trumpet section including Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and a sax team anchored by Earl Warren’s alto, you’ve got the most exciting and exhilarating big band anywhere. Instrumental pieces like “John’s Idea” or Chu Berry’s tenor solo on “Blue and Sentimental” are essentially the definition of swing and blues, whereas the simple but effective idea of saxes soloing over brass riffs and vice versa makes for an irresistible formula that never wears out its welcome. Jimmy Rushing’s earthy voice resonates on “Sent For You Yesterday” and is joyful on novelty tunes like “Now Will You Be Good” while the sax and brass sections go back and forth like a ping pong match on “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” and “Texas Shuffle.”
Besides the big band charts from their Decca Years of the late 30s, you get some of the most lithe small band recordings that will send shivers up your spine. Basie makes silence and space a sound in itself on exquisitely intimate pieces like “How Long Blues” and “When The Sun Goes Down.” In 1941, Young sits in with Sam Price and his Texas Musicians for a hip “Just Jivin’ Around,” while his gig with Una Mae Carlisle is a hoot on “Blitzkrieg Baby.” His definitive trio with Red Callendar and a cat named Nat Cole create an zenith of sounds on “Body and Soul” and the incomparable “I Can’t Get Started.” Can we bottle and sell this?
A couple of years later Young gets together with some Basie alumni in small combos. John Guarnieri/p, Slam Stewart/b and Sid Catlett created a nascent bop era with delightful reads of “I Never Knew,” “Just You, Just Me” while his Kansas City Six and Kansas City Seven in the early to mid 40s with Clayton, Green, Jones, Dickie Wells/tb and others mixing and matching shoot the tube as they long board on “Three Little Words” “I Got Rhythm” and “Lester Leaps Again.” This is the tenor sound that launched a thousand ships as well as influenced an entire generation of tenor saxists ranging from Stan Gets to Zoot Sims to Dexter Gordon. The ripples continue to this day.
Young fully enters the bop era which he initially influenced with a snappy 1946 session which included Howard McGhee/tp and Curtis Counce/b on “Lover Come Back to Me,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon” and a smoke ringed “Jamming With Lester.” A year later with Buddy Rich at his heals and Nat Cole at the 88s, Young creates jazz’s first Power Trio on “I Found a New Baby” and “The Man I Love.” This is going to make you swoon with delight!
By the time 1947 came around, Young’s tone had gotten deeper, and his inherent insouciance had been sucked dry. Replacing it was an attractively moribund desolation that oozes for reprieve on “East of the Sun” and “Avalon.” All eras and styles come to an end. This is one that needs revisiting for this present era of mindless long solos of cacophony. Listen to the prophets of old!!
Mosaic Records