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

1. Allmusic review
2. The Lester Young Trio (1951) Mercury MGC 104, re-issued as Clef MGC 104
3. The Lester Young Trio No. 2 (1953) Clef MGC 135
4. The Lester Young Buddy Rich Trio (1955) Norgran MGN 1074, re-issued as Verve MGV 8164
5. Young / Cole duo - no drums

• 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.