Lester Young Trio

The Lester Young Trio
Studio album by Lester Young
Released	1951
Recorded	March, April 1946, Radio Recorders, Hollywood
Genre	Jazz
Label	Mercury (Verve CD re-issue in 1994)
Producer	Norman Granz
Lester Young chronology
Lester Swings (1945) The Lester Young Trio (1951) Carnegie Blues (1955)
The Lester Young Trio No. 2
1953 Clef Records release
CD combination / re-issue cover
1994 Verve CD re-issue

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The Lester Young Trio and The Lester Young Trio No. 2 are jazz trio albums recorded in Hollywood, California in March - April 1946 by Lester Young with Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich.

Release history

The recordings were produced by Norman Granz and the first 4 tracks were released in 1951 on a Mercury Records 10 inch LP, The Lester Young Trio.^[2] Another 4 tracks were released in 1953 on Norman Granz' Clef Records label as The Lester Young Trio No. 2.^[3] All 8 trio tracks were combined on a 12 inch Norgran LP, The Lester Young Buddy Rich Trio^[4] released in 1955. Nat King Cole was under contract with a different record label at the time so was credited only as "Aye Guy" on the original Mercury / Clef / Norgran releases.

In 1994 Verve Records released a CD version of The Lester Young Trio which combined all 8 tracks from the 1946 Hollywood trio recordings, plus an alternate take of "I Cover the Waterfront" and an additional shortened version of "Back to the Land", together with 4 additional tracks recorded earlier by a quintet with Nat King Cole (but without Lester Young or Buddy Rich).

Track listing

The Lester Young Trio

LP side A

1. "I Cover the Waterfront" (Green, Heyman) – 4:05
2. "Somebody Loves Me" (MacDonald, DeSylva, Gershwin) – 3:54

LP side B

1. "I've Found a New Baby" (Palmer, Williams) – 4:07
2. "Back to the Land" (Young) – 4:05

The Lester Young Trio No. 2

LP side A

1. "I Want to Be Happy" (Caesar, Youmans) – 3:58
2. "Peg O' My Heart"^[5] (Bryan, Fisher) – 4:06

LP side B

1. "Mean To Me" (Ahlert, Turk) – 4:15
2. "The Man I Love" (Gershwin, Gershwin) – 3:58

Bonus tracks on Verve 1994 CD re-issue

2 tracks from the original 1946 Young-Cole-Rich trio recording sessions:

• "I Cover the Waterfront" (alternate take) – 3:56
• "Back to the Land" (edited version) – 3:54

4 tracks from earlier Nat King Cole sessions (without Young or Rich):

• "I've Found a New Baby" (Palmer, Williams) – 4:40
• "Rosetta" – 5:09
• "Sweet Lorraine" (Burwell, Parish) – 4:55
• "Blowed and Gone" – 4:41

Personnel

• Lester Young – tenor saxophone
• Buddy Rich – drums
• Nat King Cole (credited as "Aye Guy" on the original releases) – piano

Personnel on 4 of the CD re-issue bonus tracks

• Nat "King" Cole – piano
• Harry "Sweets" Edison – trumpet
• Dexter Gordon – tenor saxophone
• Clifford Owens – drums
• Red Callender or Johnny Miller – bass

References / notes

• Verve Records Discography: 1944-1946 at jazzdisco.org
• The Lester Young Trio (Mercury LP) at microgroove.jp

Sources

Gridley, Mark C. Jazz Styles: History & Analysis. 9th N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2006. Print.