Uptown Records is a small label in PA that puts out historically vital sessions that need to be part of everyone’s collection. They only release about 2-4 things a year, which is so frustrating, as all that they release is tantalizingly wonderful. But then, would you turn down dating Rita Hayworth if you knew you’d only see her twice annually? Think about it…
When you listen to a disc like this 1950 recording of tenor saxist Lester Young performing with his “Orchestra” of Jesse Drakes/tp, Kenny Drew/p, Joe Schulman/b and Connie Kay/dr, the first thing you just might ask yourself is “why do I ever listen to anyone other guy?” Look, I LOVE Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. Dexter Gordon has a tone and sound that just KILLS on ballads. Coltrane’s Atlantic and early Impulse! releases are inspiring; Sonny Rollins is arguably the best living tenor titan. And Stan Getz is someone that’s always on my musical mind-but the reason I like Getz so much is because he reminds me of Lester Young. My ears were made for his kind of style and sound, and whether it comes from Getz, Sims, Quinichette, Gray, Phillips or Ventura, there’s nothing like the founder of that cool and lithe tenor.
Emcee’d by the hipster Steve Allison, the Hi-Hat gig has Young in luscious form on pieces like the flowing “Too Marvelous For Words” and the glowing “On a Slow Boat To China.” No one’s horn agonizes on a ballad like Prez-just let the palpable textures of “TheTalk of The Town” overwhelm you like a warm balm. And, of course, if you want to swing, the hipper than hep behind the beat of “Indiana” and the temptingly incomplete “How High the Moon” will make you offer a king’s ransom for transcripts of these solos. Drakes’ nifty and tidy trumpet is a nice foil for the tenor, and Drew has some nice concise bopping solo spaces, but what you want here is Young, and his finger snapping “Four Flats Unfurnished” is more enjoyable than ANYTHING that’s been put out on Blue Note Records for the last decade.
A pair of songs from the same place in 1953 has Young with almost the same band. Horace Silver/p and Franklin Skeete/b are the only replacements. And, while you could argue that Prez is starting his slow decline as he sounds a bit more desultory on “Blue and Sentimental,” you will still want to learn his take note by note. This is what dreams are made of, sweetheart!
Uptown Jazz Records
www.uptownrecords.net