Lester Young | Centennial Celebration (Coming Aug. 4th, 2009)
CONCORD MUSIC GROUP SPOTLIGHTS
SAXOPHONIST LESTER YOUNG
IN THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF
THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION SERIES
LESTER YOUNG: CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
MARKS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF YOUNG’S BIRTH
COLLECTION TO BE RELEASED AUGUST 4, 2009
By
the time he reached the height of his powers in the 1950s, Lester Young
had single-handedly redefined the role of the tenor saxophone within
the jazz idiom. Standing apart from the blustery style of his
contemporaries, he seduced generations of fans and fellow musicians
with a sound that was smooth, relaxed and even-flowing. His tone was
perfectly suited for slow ballads, and yet he handled uptempo swing
numbers with ease. His influence on the evolution of jazz – not just
among horn players but across the entire spectrum of voices – is
immeasurable. “You listen to him,” Billie Holiday once said, “and you
can almost hear the words.”
The Concord Music Group, home to one
of the largest jazz catalogs in the world, celebrates the legacy of
Lester Young with the August 4, 2009, release of Lester Young: Centennial Celebration.
The ten-track compilation of some of Young’s finest moments on record
is the latest installment in CMG’s ongoing Centennial Celebration
series, which honors the 100th birthdays of some of the most iconic and
influential figures in jazz history.
“This collection celebrates
the mature Lester Young of the 1950s, a reminder of a time when he
would blow into town for a week performing with a local rhythm section,
or for a one-night appearance as part of an all-star Jazz at the
Philharmonic tour,” says music historian and journalist Ashley Kahn,
author of the liner notes for each of the releases in the Centennial
Celebration series. “A time when his powers of eloquence and subtlety
remained undiminished, while his tone had developed a mature – one
could say darker – edge.”
Compiled and produced by Nick Phillips, Concord Music Group’s Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R, Lester Young: Centennial Celebration draws
primarily from recordings made in December 1956, during Young’s
week-long run at Olivia Davis’ Patio Lounge in Washington, DC. He is
accompanied in these first seven tracks by the Bill Potts Trio, the
house band at the Patio Lounge: pianist Bill Potts, bassist Norman
Williams and drummer Jim Lucht. All three were in their mid-twenties at
the time, and thrilled to be accompanying the 47-year-old master in
residence (Potts called the gig “our six-night labor of love.”)
The
final three tracks in the collection – “Undecided,” “I Cover the
Waterfront” and “Lester Leaps In” – are taken from the Jazz at the
Philharmonic tours of the early ’50s. Kahn writes: “Produced by Norman
Granz with a penchant for teaming up older swing-era veterans with more
modern jazz and/or R&B-inspired players, the JATP traveling jam
sessions proved on a nightly basis that jazz was essentially jazz, and
that all great improvisers spoke the same language.”
Even during
his lifetime, Lester Young’s approach had become highly imitated in
jazz – by such luminaries as Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz,
Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and John Coltrane. A half-century after his passing
in March 1959, his sound continues to cast its influence far and wide.
“It is one of the most recognizable of the jazz tradition,” says Kahn,
“one part of the primer every creative musician should hear and must
acknowledge. On the centenary of his birth, Young is deserving of top
praise not only for the enduring template he created, but for
maintaining a singular voice when others would have him be someone he
was not.”
The Lester Young collection is the third installment
in CMG’s Centennial Celebration series that runs through 2009. The
series began with the Ben Webster collection released on March 10,
followed by the Lionel Hampton released on April 12. Other artists
scheduled to be showcased in the series include pianist Art Tatum
(October 6) and songwriter Johnny Mercer (November 3).
DL Media