Count Basie & Lester Young Mosaic Classic Studio Sessions 1936-1947 Box Set

Count Basie & Lester Young Mosaic Classic Studio Sessions 1936-1947 Box Set
Count Basie & Lester Young Mosaic Classic Studio Sessions 1936-1947 Box Set

Count Basie & Lester Young Mosaic Classic Studio Sessions 1936-1947 Box Set

On Our Top 25 Mosaic CD Box Sets. Its a universally acknowledged truth that great music never sounds out-of-date, and Count Basie is remarkably evergreen. His Old Testament band epitomizes the big-band swing era-the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic devices that made 1930s America dance. But in practice that band epitomizes swing itself.

Count Basie and Lester Young Studio Sessions. And thats without even mentioning Lester Young, Basies tenor saxophonist during his glory years.

Hes not just timeless-hes still downright progressive, still pointing the way forward for the tenor tradition. Sleek, lyrical and at once muscular and lightweight, Youngs sound was revolutionary when it first appeared on the 1936 session by Jones-Smith Incorporated (a Basie/Young small group) that begins this Mosaic box. On the 1947 bebop-ified quintet date that closes it, Prez still seems to know something his bandmates dont: His laidback slyness on Tea for Two says to his juiced-up bandmates, as pointedly as words, Relax, fellas.

Whereas Mosaic Records boxes tend toward very specific archival presentations-other recent releases include Gerry Mulligans. The Complete Dial Modern Jazz Sessions-Classic Studio Sessions. It does take as its centerpiece the Basie Orchestras 1936-39 Decca recordings, the leaders first and still largely his most famous, and includes the alternate takes plus a previously unissued one of the classic Honeysuckle Rose. But these constitute only 68 of the mammoth sets 173 tracks. The rest of the box comprises the Jones-Smith session; the famous Kansas City Six and Seven (more small-group Basie/Young) dates of 1938 and 1944; the Basie trio records issued as Basie at the Piano; several scattered Young freelance dates, including work with Benny Goodman, Una Mae Carlisle, Sam Price and Dicky Wells; and more than 50 tracks under Youngs own name, leading various ensembles between 1942 and 1947.

The music is canonical, and the remastering is as bright and clean as 80-year-old recordings can be. These, too, include the alternate takes, and again there are a handful of unheard ones-namely, three of the four tunes from the Jones-Smith date. The previously released Lady Be Good from that day is one of Youngs most heralded solos, an example of how much brawn he could flex within that nonchalance. The alternate is equally revelatory, not as lean in its phrasing but every bit as steeped in lyricism and rhythmic horsepower, even as each note still floats away.

As always, Mosaics production is superlative. The music-parsing liner notes by Loren Schoenberg are sharp-eared and insightful. The sequencing, though, is a mess. Why start with Jones-Smith, fill the first disc with freelance odds and ends from years later, then go back to the beginning of the Basie Orchestra sides and continue chronologically from there?

It doesnt leave the Basie or the solo Young sides uninterrupted; both have Kansas City Six cuts, among others, coming in the middle. The item "COUNT BASIE & LESTER YOUNG MOSAIC CLASSIC STUDIO SESSIONS 1936-1947 BOX SET" is in sale since Sunday, December 20, 2020. This item is in the category "Music\CDs". The seller is "sights4sound" and is located in Oak Ridge, North Carolina.

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Count Basie & Lester Young Mosaic Classic Studio Sessions 1936-1947 Box Set