FS:The Alternative Lester: Original 1936-39 Recordings

[skeith]

$25 delivered to a US address.

[BeBop]

I can't remember seeing this on CD before. Cool. I think I'd seen later stuff (1939-46 or 47) on Neatwork. And I've got a Tax on vinyl. Someone should pick up this priceless music.

[skeith]

Well just to make it clear, as the name implies these are alternate takes of Lester Young performances, from various labels.

There is "Lester Leaps In", "Dickie's Dream" and "Shoe Shine Boy", on this one of course but when I picked it up what it seemed to have the most were unique alternates from the Commodore sides: "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "Countless Blues", "Pagin' the Devil", "I Want a Little Girl" and it didn't seems these alternates were easy to come by .

Sound is quite good and would probably appeal most to someone who has only the master takes.

[Big Beat Steve]

but when I picked it up what it seemed to have the most were unique alternates from the Commodore sides: "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "Countless Blues", "Pagin' the Devil", "I Want a Little Girl" and it didn't seems these alternates were easy to come by .

Don't know how many alternate takes there actually were but two takes each (takes 1 and 2 of each tune) of Way Down Yonder ..., Countless Blues, Them There Eyes, I Want A Little Girl and Pagin' the Devil are on the "Kansas City Six and Five 1938" LP in the Commodore Classics series reissued around 1980. A disc I've seen surprisingly often in the secondhand bins through the years.

But of course that's old-fashioned vinyl ...