**** Lester Young

THE "KANSAS CITY" SESSIONS

(Commodore/GRP)

The 1930s is known as the Big Band Era, yet some of the greatest small-combo sessions in jazz were made then. These dates by sextets and quintets led by Lester Young are not only some of the best of the period but among the all-time best in jazz.

The Kansas City Six session of September 28, 1938, gently propelled by Count Basie's peerless rhythm section (drummer Jo Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and bassist Walter Page), swings with a merciless and tasteful drive rarely equaled and never excelled. The session offers a rare glimpse of Young's brittle, vulnerable clarinet playing on "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," "Countless Blues," and "Pagin' the Devil." His relaxed delivery and seemingly bottomless melancholy were never more affecting.

Buck Clayton's dapper trumpet solos are masterpieces of economy, pacing, and melodic improvisation. The historical significance is heightened by Eddie Durham's guitar solos, some of the very first (if not the first) amplified guitar ever recorded. The rest of the album features a different band, with trumpeter Bill Coleman and Basie trombonist Dickie Wells joining Young in another superior session recorded in 1944.

-- Ed Hazell