[Dixielandjazz] Lester Young/Count Basie

[Stephen G Barbone]

For the Lester Young / Count Basie / Swing fans, this release from  
Mosaic.

Cheers,

Steve Barbone

www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

LESTER YOUNG WITH COUNT BASIE - Review by BEN RATLIFF

Classic Columbia, Okeh and Vocalion (1936-1940)

Some of the tenor saxophonist Lester Young’s greatest playing happened  
under the hand of Count Basie in the 1930s, a large body of work with  
a lot of other things going for it. Here, too, were the sounds of Buck  
Clayton, Harry Edison, Dicky Wells, Freddie Green, Charlie Christian,  
Walter Page, Jo Jones, Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes and Billie Holiday.  
In these sessions, with bands numbering between 5 and 17 musicians,  
Young (above in 1940) found dramatic ways to be original: luxurious —  
though never smarmy or ingratiating — legato tracings through subtle  
and unusual harmony. His solos weren’t typical, in either their timbre  
or their logic; he seemed like someone with an impossibly beautiful  
interior life. And I love the sound here, too: cleaned, detailed, but  
not too bright. (Mosaic, four CDs, $68 via mosaicrecords.com.)