Includes Lester Young recordings from 1946 with Nat Cole on piano, Oscar Moore on guitar, Johnny Miller on bass, and Buddy Rich on drums, plus his quartet with Kenny Kersey on piano, Billy Hadnott on baritone, and Rossiere Shadow Wilson on drums; and Coleman Hawkins recordings from 1945 and 1946, with his quintet and quartet, with Howard McGhee on trumpet, Charles Thompson on piano, Oscar Pettiford on bass, and Denzil Best on drums; and the Jubilee All Stars with Irving Ashby on guitar. LP, Vinyl record album

Includes "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good", "Spang", "Frog & Mule" and a few more by Webster, "Lover Come Back To Me" and "Blues Changes" by Hawkins, and "I'm Fer It Too", "I Got Rhythm", and "Hello Babe" by Young. LP, Vinyl record album

Tracks include "Just You, Just Me", "Sunday", "I Cover The Waterfront", "Lester's Bebop Boogie", "The Man I Love", and "I Cried For You". 16 tracks total. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

A great little 15 track CD that compiles some of Lester Young's small combo work for Savoy – featuring backing by players that include Count Basie, Freddie Green, Shadow Wilson, Cozy Cole, Roy Haynes, and Junior Mance. Titles include "June Bug", "Blue Lester", "Blues N Bells", "Basie English", "Jump Lester Jump", and "Ding Dong" – and the album comes with a great cover image! CD

A great little 12 track LP that compiles some of Lester Young's small combo work for Savoy – featuring backing by players that include Count Basie, Freddie Green, Shadow Wilson, Cozy Cole, Roy Haynes, and Junior Mance. Titles include "June Bug", "Blue Lester", "Blues N Bells", "Basie English", "Jump Lester Jump", and "Ding Dong" – and the album comes with a great cover image! LP, Vinyl record album

Featuring Count Basie, Jo Jones, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, and Nat King Cole. CD

Features Count Basie, Dod Marmarosa, Howard McGhee, and Nat King Cole! CD

... CD

Music from the Lester Young quartet and the Kansas City Seven. CD

Essential stuff! This set collects all of Pres' studio sessions for Norman Granz and Verve and features John Lewis, Buddy Rich, Nat King Cole, Teddy Wilson, Roy Eldridge, Oscar Peterson, and Barney Kessel. The whole thing is comes in a cool hardbound, accordion fold package and includes a great 100 page book packed with great photos, notes, and essays. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

Great early work from Lester Young – an Imperial Records collection of early material from the 78rpm days of Aladdin Records! The work is a great bridge between swing and pop – and Lester Young's tone is superb throughout – on titles that include "One O'Clock Jump", "Easy Does It", "East Of The Sun", "No Eyes Blues", "The Sheik Of Araby", "Confessin' That I Love You", "Something To Remember You By", "On The Sunny Side Of The Street", "Jumpin' At Mesners", "It's Only A Paper Moon", "Lover Come Back To Me" and "Jumpin' With Symphony Sid". LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Midnight Symphony", "DB Blues", "The Man I Love", "Blues For Marvin", "Sweet Georgia Brown", and "I Got Rhythm". CD

Nice small combo work from Lester Young – recorded with the obscure Jessie Drakes on trumpet! Titles include "Lester Warms Up", "Body & Soul", "Up & Atom", "Lester's Blues No 2", and "How High The Moon". CD

Nice small combo work from Lester Young – recorded with the obscure Jessie Drakes on trumpet! Titles include "Lester Warms Up", "Body & Soul", "Up & Atom", "Lester's Blues No 2", and "How High The Moon". LP, Vinyl record album

Features John Simmons on bass, Jo Jones on drums, Joe Bushkin on piano, Dicky Wells on trombone, and Bill Coleman on trumpet. LP, Vinyl record album

Features Young on tenor – with Bill Potts on piano, Norman Williams on bass, and Jim Lucht on drums. CD

A 60s album that brings together sides recorded by Young in earlier years for Savoy – put together as a "memorial" album after his death. Players include Junior Mance, Roy Haynes, Freddie Green, Count Basie, Shadow Wilson, Buddy Tate, and Joe Newman – and most of the material's in a small group swing style. Titles include "Ding Dong", "Ghost Of A Chance", "Crazy Over Jazz", and "Basie English". LP, Vinyl record album

Great material from that pivotal year of 1939 – a time when Lester Young's horn set a tone for a whole new generation! LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic early stuff from Muhal – and one of his most beautiful albums! Side one of the LP, and first up on the CD is an extended performance of Sinatra's big hit "Young At Heart" – but the track's played solo by Abrams, and it's completely transformed into a long contemplative work of beauty. Truly georgeous – and a piece that utilizes open spaces in a way that's nearly unequaled! "Wise In Time" is a heavier work done by quintet with Leo Smith on trumpet and fluegalhorn, Henry Threadgill on alto sax, Lester Lashley on bass, and Thurman Barker on percussion – totally brilliant work! CD

One of the earliest albums as a leader from tenorist Scott Hamilton – definitely the young talent promised in the title, but already one with a very traditional sense of tone and timing! Hamilton's horn takes the lead, but gets strong support from Warren Vache on trumpet – whose well-crafted, economical lines never overwhelm the solos of the leader! The group's also got very deft piano work from John Bunch – who may well be the secret hero of the record – plus bass from Michael Moore and drums from Butch Miles. Scott's got this great rasp in his tone on some of the best numbers – a quality that hardly belies his age at all – and which has echoes of Lester Young and Ben Webster at their best. Titles include "Scott's Idea", "Thru For The Night", "Imagination", and "Warren's Rush". LP, Vinyl record album

Incredible early work from Lorez Alexandria – the kind of albums that instantly set her apart from other singers of the 50s, reissued here properly for the first time in years! On This Is Lorez, the singer is working with sublime small combo backings from the group of pianist King Fleming – an unusual Chicago ensemble that includes Wilber Wynn on guitar, Ronald Wilson on flute and oboe, Vernel Fournier on drums, and Audrey Jones on bongos – a musical lineup that brings in a different sort of sophistication to the record, shading tunes with moody colors on flute and oboe that perfectly support Alexandria's soulful and sensitive interpretations of the tunes. The whole thing is pure genius, and a key look at the new levels of sophistication that were bubbling everywhere on the Chicago scene during the years of Jamal and Sun Ra. Lorez Sings Pres follows in a very similar mode – with backing by a Chicago group that again includes King Fleming piano, plus Charles Stepney on vibes, Paul Serrano on trumpet, and Vernel Fournier on drums – an extremely hip lineup that makes the record far more than just the Lester Young tribute promised in the title! But despite the instrumentalists, the real star on all sides is Alexandria – who sings with dark tones and deep colors that go far beyond conventional jazz vocals – all carried off with that slightly breathy mode that was one more unique aspect of her work! CD features all tracks from both albums – a total of 22 titles that include "Snowstorm", "I'm Glad There Is You", "The Sky Is Crying", "I'm Making Believe", "Necessity", "Penthouse Serenade", "DB Blues", "This Year's Kisses", "Easy Living", "No Eyes Blues", "Jumping With Symphony Sid", and a key early reading of "Baltimore Oriole". CD

Includes 25 tracks recorded for V-Disc and the Armed Forces Radio Service – with Lester Young, Buddy Rich, Jimmy Rushing, and others! CD

Early Basie material, packaged in a nicely done 50s LP format – supposedly with some remixing to improve the sound quality of the tracks. Players include Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Herschel Evans, Freddy Greene, Walter Page, and Jo Jones – and titles include "Jumpin At The Woodside", "Every Tub", "Out The Window", "Shorty George", "Doggin Around", "Texas Shuffle", "Cherokee", and "Topsy". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest Art Blakey Blue Note sessions of all time – and perhaps one of the greatest to realize the genius of the Jazz Messengers lineup that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Bobby Timmons on piano! The trio of young talents are at the height of their early soulful powers here – working with Blakey and bassist Jymie Merritt in a set of tunes that are overflowing with expressive solos, unusual timings, and the Blakey genius for mixing bold statements with personally introspective moments. Nearly every track on the record's a classic – and titles include an early version of Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere", plus Wayne Shorter's beautiful tunes "Lester Left Town", "Chess Players", and "Sakeena's Vision". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest Art Blakey Blue Note sessions of all time – and perhaps one of the greatest to realize the genius of the Jazz Messengers lineup that included Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, and Bobby Timmons on piano! The trio of young talents are at the height of their early soulful powers here – working with Blakey and bassist Jymie Merritt in a set of tunes that are overflowing with expressive solos, unusual timings, and the Blakey genius for mixing bold statements with personally introspective moments. Nearly every track on the record's a classic – and titles include an early version of Bobby Timmons' "Dat Dere", plus Wayne Shorter's beautiful tunes "Lester Left Town", "Chess Players", and "Sakeena's Vision". CD

A classic from the young James Carter – really coming on strong on tenor, plus some baritone and bass clarinet too – with players who include Craig Taborn on piano, Harry Edison and Lester Bowie on trumpet, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone, Jaribu Shahid on bass, and Tani Tabaal on drums! CD

2 wonderful late 50s sessions from arranger Gil Evans – both of which we'd rank right up there with his best work with Miles Davis, or the albums under his own name for Impulse in the 60s! The first half of the CD is from the album New Bottle Old Wine – a record of swinging modern backdrops, used to showcase both the solo talents of a young Cannonball Adderley, and the dynamic energy of Evans himself! Cannon's sharp-edged early tone is a really great sound for the record – far more modern than you might expect from later funk and soul sides of the 60s – and perfectly poised next to Gil's larger back drops to reignite a host of older tunes with new energy! And while the titles are familiar, the readings certainly are not – as the Evans pen has really changed things up beautifully – as you'll hear on numbers that include "St Louis Blues", "King Porter Stomp", "Willow Tree", "Struttin' With Some Barbeque", "Lester Leaps In", "Round About Midnight", "Manteca", and "Bird Feathers". Great Jazz Standards is equally great, a fantastic lost set from Evans – and one that features Mingus trumpeter Johnny Coles as the lead soloist in front of Evans-led modern groups that include players like Elvin Jones, Ray Crawford, Steve Lacy, Budd Johnson, Rod Levitt, and Chuck Wayne. Despite the "standards" in the title, most of these numbers are modern tunes from the 50s – like "Joy Spring", "Ballad Of The Sad Young Men", "Django", "Straight No Chaser", and "Chant Of The Weed" – all given Evans' unique style of arrangement, tweaked up a few notches to give them a really edgey quality. Coles is clearly standing in for Miles here, but the format works well overall! CD features 15 tracks in all, including some newly-improved versions of a few tracks, correcting mistakes in the original records! CD

Nice backing on most tracks by a small combo that features Oscar Peterson on piano and Herb Ellis on guitar – and a larger group on a few more, with Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, and Lester Young on tenors! Titles include "Stompin At The Savoy", "Goody Goody", "Ill Wind", and "Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered". CD

Features Benny Golson, Branford Marsalis, James Carter, and fellow tenor Harold Ashby performing tracks made famous by Lester Young, Stan Getsz, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, and others. CD