Track Listing

1. Shoe Shine Boy
2. Oh Lady Be Good
3. This Year's Kisses
4. Easy Living
5. Me Myself And I
6. A Sailboat In The Moon Light
7. One O'Clock Jump
8. When You're Smiling
9. Every Tub
10. Swinging The Blues
11. Doggin' Around
12. Jumpin' At The Woodside
13. I Can't Get Started
14. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
15. Countless Blues
16. I Want A Little Girl
17. Shorty George
18. Pannassie Stomp
19. You Can Depend On Me
20. Cherokee Part 1 & 2
21. Jive At Five
22. Taxi War Dance
23. Pound Cake
24. Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie
25. Dickie's Dream
26. Lester Leaps In
27. Tickle Toe
28. Ad'Lib Blues
29. I Never Knew
30. Lester's Dream
31. Broadway
32. Tickle Toe
33. Taxi War Dance
34. Blitzkrieg Baby (You Can't Bomb Me)
35. Beautiful Eyes
36. Things About Coming My Way
37. Just Jivin' Around
38. Al Of Me
39. I Can't Get Started
40. Tea For Two
41. Body And Soul
42. Hello Babe
43. Just You Just Me
44. Afternoon Of A Basie-Ite
45. Sometimes I'm Happy
46. After Theatre Jump
47. Six Cats And A Prince
48. Lester Leaps Again
49. Destination KC
50. I Got Rhythm
51. Poor Little Plaything
52. Exercise In Swing
53. Salute To Fats
54. Blue Lester (Lester's Blues)
55. Ghost Of A Chance
56. Jump Lester Jump
57. Midnight Symphony
58. DB Blues
59. Lester Blows Again
60. These Foolish Things
61. Jumpin' At Mesner's
62. Back To The Land
63. I Cover The Waterfront
64. I've Found A New Baby
65. I Want To Be Happy
66. It's Only A Paper Moon
67. Lover Come Back To Me
68. You're Driving Me Crazy
69. Lester's Be-Bop Boogie
70. She's Funny That Way
71. Sunday
72. SM Blues
73. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid
74. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
75. Sax-O-Be-Bop
76. Just Cooling
77. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
78. East Of Sun
79. The Sheik Of Araby
80. Something To Remember You By
81. Ding Dong
82. Blues'N'Bells
83. Lester Leaps In
84. Embraceable You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28083 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-28
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Import

Album Description
84 tracks, 52 page illustrated booklet. 4 CD set presents the life & times of the influential jazz musician. 4 hours of tenor magic from his earliest recording through the Basie Band with Billie Holiday, in his own group & right up to the 'Jazz At The Philharmonic' period. Includes material with Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman, Nat King Cole, Buddy Rich & more.Each disc comes in it's own standard jewel case & come housed together in a deluxe slipcase.

Amazon.com
The Lester Young Story is a masterly, four-disc box set of classic recordings that follows Lester Young's career from his very first session, a small band date with Count Basie in 1936, to a star-studded live concert with, among others, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, and Buddy Rich in 1949. This isn't the whole story, of course, because Young lived and worked for another 10 years, but it covers the period when he was at the height of his Powers, and it is packed with glorious music.

To pick out just a few gems: the amazing "Lady Be Good," the record that first announced Young's arrival to an astonished jazz world, and five numbers in which he partners the young Billie Holiday with exquisite delicacy and taste. Elsewhere, there are most of his show-stopping solos with Basie's band, in numbers like "Tickle Toe" and "Taxi War Dance," and a generous selection from his informal small-band sessions with players such as Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, and Charlie Christian, including a rare extract from the soundtrack of the 1944 movie Jammin' the Blues.

The last disc consists of tracks from Young's early post-war career, when, unlike many of his contemporaries, he was enjoying the stimulus provided by the younger generation of bebop musicians. Because the tracks are arranged in chronological order, it is fascinating to follow him through his life during these 13 years and hear him responding to the rapidly changing world around him. The 15 months he spent in the U.S. Army affected him badly, but they certainly did not destroy his talent, as some commentators have claimed. The final, joyful rendition of "Lester Leaps In" with Charlie Parker and the Jazz at the Philharmonic team proves that beyond a doubt. --Dave Gelly

Customer Reviews

The Amadeus of Jazz.
No-one could have invented Lester Young. He just emerged with perfect, unique sense of both phrasing and timing. (His father BTW was a tough teacher -- who also taught Ben Webster). Lester Young was badly misunderstood in his early band days -- notably by the wife of Fletcher Henderson who berated him harshly for his easy, smooth tone and his way of laying out just behind the beat. The style of the day was the heavy stampeding sound of Coleman Hawkins. It was a revolution in the making and Mrs Henderson missed it. That's one reason why his first record session -- the one that produced the miraculous solo of "Lady Be Good" -- was recorded when he was already 27 years old. Oh, what we have missed!!
Lester Young turned the tide of jazz toward a more laconic, laid-back style, and ultimately toward bebop. But until he began to fade in the late 1950s he was one of America's unsung geniuses. It is amazing how few people -- even some musicians -- have heard of him today. You really must, if you haven't!!
These are the tracks that only a few got to hear in their day. Listen to him on the tracks with Benny Goodman and guitarist Charlie Christian -- Ad Lib Blues, I Never Knew, etc. The entire structure of "Lester Leaps Again" with Basie and his rhythm section is breathtaking. So is his floating entry into "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" -- i.e., IF ITS THE MASTER TAKE. Does punk, or hard rock or any of today's popular musics have anyone with this genuinely original style. Frank Sinatra would not have had the sense of timing that became his by the 1950s had Pres not shown the way in the 1930s. Listen to his haunting, sexy, loving phrases behind Billie Holiday toward the end of "Me Myself and I" and you will have witnessed someone at the peak of an American art that few have scaled -- even in their own fields. His solo on Basie's "One O'Clock Jump" is a classic.
Reviewer Mahlser has got to spend some more time on the other three disks -- and then with all the Clef and Verve sessions that followed. He'll get it. And you should have this set at home, for yourself, for your kids and grandkids. Visitors will love it too. Oh yes, I recommend this set!!

Almost all of early Prez is here, and what a package!
Proper is a newer label out of the U.K. that focuses on boxed-set compilations of some great American music - and not just jazz. This Lester Young compilation is amazing, especially for the price. Mostly all of Prez' classic early stuff is included - with Basie, Holiday - but what floored me was the inclusion of some of the 1943-44 (immediately before Lester had to go into the war) material with the small Basie groups including Slam Stewart, Sid Catlett, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, and the "Kansas City Seven, Six, and Five": namely "Afternoon of a Basie-ite", "Destination K.C.", and more. I have most of this stuff scattered on various LPs ("The Lester Yong Story Vols. 1-5" on Columbia, and the aformentioned tracks with alternates on the Emarcy label) but to have a set like this on CD for this low of a price is a dream come true for anyone interested in Prez' best stuff. Yes, his post-war material is still good and valid, but there can be no doubt that this is the cream. I have only a few complaints: Where is "Evenin'" with Jimmy Rushing and the Count? That is one of Lester's classic solos and a classic Basie tune. I could easily do without "Blitzkrieg Baby", an RCA recording with Una Mae Carlisle in 1941. But that is nit-picking. Proper has many other great box sets of Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and more, with great pictures and presentation. Someone has the right idea. It will be interesting to see which takes of some of these they have chosen. As a huge fan of 'alternate takes' myself, that is an important part of a great compilation. I see no way to go wrong with this set.

A no brainer...
Hard to argue with this one. 4 CDs of timeless, brilliant music, cheap, with good liner notes and, most importanly, nicely remastered. All of Lester Young's most important tracks are here and some harder to find gems as well. If you are looking for a first Lester Young purchase, this is a "no brainer" as they say...