New photos Basie and Lester Young 1944. Check this link:
newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/cb/columbia.htm

New Link:
dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2-oh-lady.html

New information about Lester Young:
dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2-oh-lady.html

Looking for Lester. A journal about the process of making a documentary film about the jazz legend. See more, follow this link

Lowell Blues - 30 min documentary
Check this link

An amazing live clip of Lester with the Basie band at the 17th Regiment Armory in Brooklyn, April 16., 1944: check this link

And, the wonderful "Mean to me" from Art Ford´s jazz party.

Released on november 4: The Jazz aux Champs-Élysées CD.
Highlights from a cult French radio programme featuring previously unreleased recordings by legendary jazz musicians. Follow this link for more information

Check out this link to newsweek for some audio exclusives - Especially video 2: Count Basie's playing "Bugle Call Rag". Enjoy

The Savory Collection” consists of 975 discs with recordings of live performances broadcast by radio stations in the late 1930s, the height of the swing era, and into 1940. Recorded by audio engineer William Savory, the discs feature Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Bunny Berigan and Lester Young, playing in the relaxed setting of a nightclub or ballroom, rather than the confines of a recording studio, where songs could not exceed three minutes in length. For that reason, and the quality of the music played, Loren Schoenberg, the executive director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, describes the Savory collection as “one of the greatest finds” in the history of jazz.

Below here you will find a sample of Lester Young - Tea for Two, which was recorded alongside with trumpeter Roy Eldridge and members of the Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw bands. The sudden and unexpected key changes in "Tea for Two" have always appealed to jazz musicians, and the top-flight ensemble assembled here really takes the song for a ride. Top honors go to Young's, free flowing solo, which is capped by a second chorus that Mr. Schoenberg calls "a wild, spontaneous moment of abandon".

Follow the below here to NYtimes articles on more about the greats of Jazz

Jazz lost and found

National Jazz Museum acquires Savory Collection

 

Storyville recently released a new album with new exclusive material - you can find it here.

thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/08/lester-young-centennial.html
"DO THE MATH" – Lester Young Centennial

Here are some other Lester web links for you:

Read Will Friedwald's tribute to Lester Young:
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574356562790622616.html

The well-known Kansas City Six session with Lester Young made for the Commodore label is listed everywhere as recorded on September 27, 1938. It was made by Columbia for Commodore, and Columbia master numbers were assigned to those titles (P23421-25).

Strangely enough, those numbers seem to come from an earlier date: Masters 23415/18 (Leighton Noble Orchestra) are from September 7. 23419/20 are not known and 23428/33 (Al Donahue) are from September 9. Futher, 23426 (presumably not issued) was listed in Columbia cards as made for Commodore on September 8 (details unknown). (23427 was assigned to a remastering of a Rev. Gates 1929 recording).

From the above, I incline to think that the actual date of Kansas Citi Six session might have been held on September 7 og 8.

Michel Ruppli

Later: According to Rust the date is September 8.

The new Lester Young celebration e-card added. Make sure to send them to your jazz-loving friends.