Lester Young: An Astounding Unreleased Solo, 1938

Of the people who had the biggest impact on jazz, Lester “Pres” Young (1909-1959) is, sadly, the one whose music is the least known. His recordings of the late 1930s and early 1940s probably had as much impact on all of jazz (not only saxophonists) as Bird and Trane did later—including their impact on young Bird and Trane! But in my experience, if people know Young’s music at all, it’s the Verve recordings of the 1950s, which—let’s face it—are in a quite different style than his early works, and often capture him in very poor shape. (There are also some high points, including some of my favorites. I’ll post more on this later.) If you are one of the many who only know those Verves, you are in for a shock—but a very pleasant one! And if you already know and love Pres’s early music, this might become your new favorite recording.

You have probably heard of the news-making collection of the late audio engineer William “Bill” Savory. I hope you’ve picked up the three digital albums on iTunes or the six CDs from his library of mostly unreleased music by Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins, and others, including quite a lot of Count Basie featuring Lester Young.

Well, here’s one that wasn’t released, and it’s a doozy. This is from a broadcast of Martin Block’s popular Make Believe Ballroom radio program on November 16, 1938. We will hear Young’s three-chorus solo on “After You’ve Gone,” excerpted from a jam that also featured Benny Goodman (a Pres fan, he cries out “One more!” as Young goes into his third chorus at 1:22), and Roy Eldridge, whose solos are not included here. Behind Young you’ll hear Teddy Wilson on piano, Ben Heller strumming rhythm guitar, Sid Weiss on bass, and Jo Jones on drums. Jones and Young had a special rapport, right through the 1950s, and the impact when Jones switches to the ride cymbal at the start of Young’s second chorus (at 0:45) is tangible.

We’re listening to this courtesy of musician and jazz historian Loren Schoenberg, Senior Scholar at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. His multi-part series discussing and playing pieces from the Savory Collection (as well as many other videos) can be found at the Museum’s YouTube channel. Other tracks from this same jam session broadcast are presented during this discussion.

You’ll find a link to the original sheet music to “After You’ve Gone” in C major on my friend Ethan Iverson’s terrific Substack series. The chart below is from the iReal Pro play-along app (which most jazz musicians now consider to be a “must”), and it’s closer to what the musicians actually play on this performance. As usual, jazz musicians do not play the intro or “verse,” only the chorus:

The form is A (the first line), B (second line, ending with an optional “break”), A (third line, same as the first), C (third and fourth line, different from the second and with an additional 8 bars “tagged on,” therefore called a “tag” or “tag ending”). The structure of this song challenges the improvisor to come up with connections before each A section, regardless of whether the rhythm section actually stops for the “break.” Roy Eldridge made a specialty of this with his hair-raising breaks on several fast versions of “After You’ve Gone.” There is an astounding “live” performance by Clifford Brown (with a transcription in the trumpet key of F). And to my mind, one of the greatest jazz recordings ever is Sonny Rollins’s version, which is called “Come, Gone.” (Kevin Sun has transcribed the long opening solo.) Well, Pres is right up there with Sonny—prepare to have your mind blown!

Young was famous and influential for, among many things, focusing on the construction and flow of his gorgeous, perfectly-phrased melodies, and he did this partly by addressing the most important chords, and not getting bogged down in details. For example, he somewhat ignores the change from Eb major to Eb minor at the start of the first (0:03) and third chorus (1:27), but he clearly addresses it in the second (0:45). Likewise, he is well aware of the harmonic movements of the extended 16 measures at the end of each chorus, but he navigates them in an elegant, unfussy manner.

Perhaps most significant, Young was, in his quiet way, daring and strikingly adventurous. Here is where his approach to the lead-in to each A section comes into play. Every one of them is wild and unpredictable. After your first listen, go back and focus on those passages: 0:15 (chromatically descending), 0:40 (even more chromatic, sailing through clashes with the guitar), 0:57 (an alternate-fingering effect that he adapted from Jimmy Dorsey), 1:19 (driving on one note), 1:36 (a kind of “half-speaking,” then more “one-noting”), and 2:06 (some low “honking” to wind up). All of these sounds became “fair game” after Pres played them. It’s no accident that he influenced avant-gardists as well as mainstream musicians.

I want to stress that this recording is in no way an anomaly! Young’s early work is at a consistently incredible high level. This solo is unusual in its length—most of Young’s early solos consist of only one or two choruses, not three as in this case—but the melodic invention is quite on a par with his other recordings (to be discussed another time). The best overview of Young’s early recordings is, again, by Ethan Iverson, in several parts (check out especially Ethan listening to 18 Pres solos with the late Lee Konitz).

If you are as delighted as I know you must be with this performance, please consider joining Schoenberg’s Lester Young Appreciation Society on Facebook, where people share Young’s recordings and photos. It has over 7,800 members and is growing every day.

See you again soon!

All the best,

Lewis