Midnight Miles
When Miles Davis assembled the first of his legendary quartets for a residence at Cafe Bohemia in New York's Greenwich Village in the fall of 1955, the trumpeter stood at a career crossroads. Though...
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Count Basie's Kansas City Seven, featuring Lester Young
Lester Leaps In
  Billie Holiday dubbed Lester Young "The President." This was in 1934 when the sitting President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was widely popular, and when the office was more universally revered. "Prez" was the supreme soloist in the Count Basie Orchestra, a band of stylists. These individuals often made combo records which nominally and musically reflected the Basie band's Kansas City roots. "Lester Leaps In," one of the few K.C. dates on which the Count actually plays, helped make Lester Young, the first President to play tenor saxophone, a major national figure.

(L. Young); Lester Young, tenor saxophone; Count Basie, piano; Buck Clayton, trumpet; Dicky Wells, trombone; Freddie Green, guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jo Jones, drums. Solos: Basie; Young; Basie exchanges with Young, they continue exchanges with ensemble; Rec. New York, September 5, 1939. Vocalion 5118 (mx. B.25297-2); Originally Released 1939