Polygram Records
1999
The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions On Verve
About This Album
All too often, jazz critics have promoted the myth that Lester Young's playing went way downhill after World War II--that the seminal tenor man was so emotionally wounded by the racism he suffered in the military in 1944-45 that he could no longer play as well as he had in the 1930s and early 1940s. To be sure, Young went through hell in the military, and his painful experiences took their toll in the form of alcohol abuse, severe depression and various health problems. But despite Young's mental decline, he was still a fantastic soloist. This eight-CD set, which gathers most of the studio recordings that he made for Norman Granz's Clef, Norgran and Verve labels from 1946-1959, underscores the fact that much of his post-War output was superb. At its worst, this collection is at least decent, but the Pres truly excels on sessions with Nat "King" Cole and Buddy Rich in 1946, Oscar Peterson and Barney Kessel in 1952, Roy Eldridge and Teddy Wilson in 1956 and Harry "Sweets" Edison in 1957. Disc 8 contains two recorded interviews with the saxman--one conducted by Chris Albertson in 1958 for WCAU radio in Philadelphia, the other by French jazz enthusiast Francois Postif in Paris on February 6, 1959 (only five or six weeks before Young's death on March 15 of that year).
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 3,4,11,12,13,15,17,19 and 22)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,14,15,17 and 19)

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Disc 3 (try tracks 1,7,8,13,14,16 and 18)

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Disc 4 (try track 5)

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Disc 5 (try tracks 2,5,6,7,8 and 11)

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Disc 6 (try tracks 3 and 5)

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Disc 7 (try tracks 1,3,10,11 and 13)

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Disc 8 (try tracks 3,4 and 5)

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