Latest update:

Newly discovered: The DownBeat interview with Lester Young, DB from May 6, 1946:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9yk9ofYRv8

March 21.,2016

Latest from www.mosaicrecords.com:

Lester Young’s Greatest Rare Solo?

Facebook has outstanding groups on a number of subjects, and jazz is no exception. The Lester Young Appreciation Society page is one well worth visiting, and a recent topic dealt with a rare soundtrack that never made it to the glorious Jammin’ The Blues. In posting this clip to the Lester Young Appreciation Society Facebook page, Loren Schoenberg writes:
“This might be the greatest almost unknown 16-bar solo of Lester’s career - it’s a match to the Mili LIFE photo of Lester and Big Sid.
"Trombonist Dicky Wells was in the Basie band with Lester, Jo Jones and Sweets Edison when they began recording the soundtrack for JAMMIN’ THE BLUES during the summer of 1944. By the time they shot the film, Wells was out, but some of the tracks have survived. Harry "Sweets” Edison (tp) Dicky Wells (tb) Lester Young (ts) Marlowe Morris (p) Barney Kessel (g) Red Callender (b) Sidney Catlett (d) Marie Bryant (vcl)“

-Scott Wenzel

Visit mosaic records.com

February 16.,2016

Earliest interview with Lester Young: 1947 WMEX Radio Station between May 26. and June 8. From Savoy Ballroom Boston.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao5WzUExmL8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCxZ5YIBTfA

- B.B. King reflects on Lester Young!

Lester Young in an extended 1951 interview with Leonard Feather.
It starts with him responding to recordings we don't hear for a Blindfold Test but then it opens up. A friend of Lester's (probably his manager Charlie Carpenter) says that when Lester talks to HIM, he talks English, not what he's doing now. But there are many treasures to be found in everything Lester says and HOW he says it.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9yk9ofYRv8

July 16, 2015:

Link to a fine tune "Sometimes I'm Happy":

http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2015/06/getting-happy-with-lester-young.html

- listen and enjoy!

February 4, 2015:

Any additional information on this YouTube-clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKlZ5sqL7YM

- the original sound is missing, but the filmclip may be original from JATP Tour 1953 to Helsinki, Finland

Don’t miss Ferrini’s filmclip.
Take a look here:

Wayne Shorter meets Lester Young.
Listen here

Lester Young & Charlie Parker Birthday Celebration.
Read more

New film:
See more

Lester Young-blog:
Read more

Article in the New York Times:
Read more

Last Lester Young Session - now on Vinyl:
Read more

SENSATIONAL NEW PRES FROM 1950:
Read more:

Brandnew CD set "Dinnertime for Hungry Collectors"
- 50 years Doctor Jazz Magazine CD-set -
3 unissued performances with Lester Young
Read more

Minnesota Historical Society
North Side Jazz: Lester "Pres" Young in Minneapolis: The Formative Years.
Read more

New Release: Lester Young at Birdland 1951 CCD79560
read more

New Savory: Jumping At the Woodside/Basie Orch. & Lester Young 1939.
Check this link: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2010/aug/24/savory-recordings/

New: Photos of Lester Young.
Please visit
http://blogs.voanews.com/jazz-beat/tag/pork-pie-hat/

and

http://www.philsternarchives.com/archive/jazz/artists/lester-young/

New photos Basie and Lester Young 1944. Check this link:
newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/cb/columbia.htm

New information about Lester Young:
dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2-oh-lady.html

Looking for Lester. A journal about the process of making a documentary film about the jazz legend. See more, follow this link

Lowell Blues - 30 min documentary
Check this link

An amazing live clip of Lester with the Basie band at the 17th Regiment Armory in Brooklyn, April 16., 1944: check this link

And, the wonderful "Mean to me" from Art Ford´s jazz party.

Storyville recently released a new album with new exclusive material - you can find it here.

Check out this link to newsweek for some audio exclusives - Especially video 2: Count Basie's playing "Bugle Call Rag". Enjoy.

The Savory Collection” consists of 975 discs with recordings of live performances broadcast by radio stations in the late 1930s, the height of the swing era, and into 1940. Recorded by audio engineer William Savory, the discs feature Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Bunny Berigan and Lester Young, playing in the relaxed setting of a nightclub or ballroom, rather than the confines of a recording studio, where songs could not exceed three minutes in length. For that reason, and the quality of the music played, Loren Schoenberg, the executive director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, describes the Savory collection as “one of the greatest finds” in the history of jazz.

Below here you will find a sample of Lester Young - Tea for Two, which was recorded alongside with trumpeter Roy Eldridge and members of the Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw bands. The sudden and unexpected key changes in "Tea for Two" have always appealed to jazz musicians, and the top-flight ensemble assembled here really takes the song for a ride. Top honors go to Young's, free flowing solo, which is capped by a second chorus that Mr. Schoenberg calls "a wild, spontaneous moment of abandon".

Follow the below here to NYtimes articles on more about the greats of Jazz

Jazz lost and found

National Jazz Museum acquires Savory Collection

Tea for Two

Jazz Museum Sample

Released on november 4: The Jazz aux Champs-Élysées CD. 
Highlights from a cult French radio programme featuring previously unreleased recordings by legendary jazz musicians. Follow this link for more information

thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/08/lester-young-centennial.html
"DO THE MATH" – Lester Young Centennial

thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2009/08/lester-young-centennial.html
"DO THE MATH" – Lester Young Centennial

Here are some other Lester web links for you:

Read Will Friedwald's tribute to Lester Young:
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574356562790622616.html

The well-known Kansas City Six session with Lester Young made for the Commodore label is listed everywhere as recorded on September 27, 1938. It was made by Columbia for Commodore, and Columbia master numbers were assigned to those titles (P23421-25).

Strangely enough, those numbers seem to come from an earlier date: Masters 23415/18 (Leighton Noble Orchestra) are from September 7. 23419/20 are not known and 23428/33 (Al Donahue) are from September 9. Futher, 23426 (presumably not issued) was listed in Columbia cards as made for Commodore on September 8 (details unknown). (23427 was assigned to a remastering of a Rev. Gates 1929 recording).

From the above, I incline to think that the actual date of Kansas Citi Six session might have been held on September 7 og 8.

Michel Ruppli

Later: According to Rust the date is September 8.

The new Lester Young celebration e-card added. Make sure to send them to your jazz-loving friends.