Bop and Beyond’s Lester Young Centennial Tribute is now available for download…

Download Bop and Beyond’s Lester Young Centennial Tribute here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8WA2RENK

The Smithsonian salutes The President, Lester Young — plus a fabulous on-line Pres Mix-Tape:

Smithsonian Magazine has a great article up about Lester Young’s centennial, how important it is to jazz and how sad it is that it’s hardly being celebrated. The article mentions WKCR and Phil Schaap — whose marathon of Pres’s music continues this weekend. I’ll be uploading my Pres tribute tonight: two hours of fantastic Lester Young, from his work with Lady Day through to his Jazz Giants recordings. There’s also a neat little on-line mix-tape that someone made over at 8Tracks featuring a live version of “I Cover The Waterfront” that is spine-tingling!

Here’s a link to the Smithsonian article:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Lester-Young-Turns-100.html

Mix-Tape is available here:

http://8tracks.com/faust/lester-young-s-100th-birthday

Happy Birthday, Lester Young!

Today marks the centennial of Lester Young’s birth. WKCR is doing a multi-day tribute broadcast and I’ll be recording my own Lester Young Centennial tribute show later this evening. I hope to have it posted late tonight or tomorrow. Unlike Benny Goodman, whose centennial earlier this summer was widely feted, not much is happening to celebrate the legacy of Lester Young — one of the greatest, most influential tenor players to have ever lived.

There have been many outstanding tenor players, too many to count, but of the true immortals, there are only a handful, one of which is Lester Young. Don’t let your day pass today without enjoying some of this man’s vital and outstanding music.

Salon has an article: Hail to the Pres; so does the WSJ.

EDIT~! Do The Math just posted a fantastic series of articles on Young as well.

Lester Young – Indiana (1942)

Lester Young (tenor sax) / Nat “King” Cole (piano) / Red Callender (bass)

Jackie McLean – A Fickle Sonance

Jackie McLean – Alto Sax / Tommy Turrentine – Trumpet / Sonny Clark – Piano / Butch Warren – Bass / Billy Higgins – Drums

This is the album were McLean started steppin’ out from Bird’s shadow and he’s helped by a great band. Tommy Turrentine was a wonderful trumpeter who just couldn’t seem to catch a steady career. All of his handful of performances on record are excellent. Clark, Warren, and Higgins were the Blue Note house rhythm section at this time and they sparkle behind McLean’s acid improvisations — like the sheen of chrome behind a spreading speck of rust. No one could accuse McLean of having a pretty tone. It’s his inventiveness that makes him interesting.