Naacp in Washington, D.c.: From Jim Crow to Home Rule

This third volume furthers explores the marvelous cache of tapes that have surfaced from Lester Young's 1956 engagement at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, D.C. With the swinging but unobtrusive Bill Potts Trio, he provides the same empathetic support heard on the other volumes in this set, always playing the right changes without overt bop embellishments just for the sake of embroidery. Potts soloing is always in the pocket and his comping behind drummer Jim Lucht and bassist Norman Williams is equally fine and telling in what it leaves out. By laying down a simple beat with simple chord changes, you can actually hear Prez loosen up with each chorus, digging in and finding fresh ideas even in tunes that he had played hundreds of times over…

While many critics have written off Lester Young's recordings from his last years leading up to his death in 1959, this previously unissued collection of material recorded at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, D.C. in December, 1956 proves that he was still very much in command. Joined by a local rhythm section consisting of pianist Bill Potts, bassist Norman Williams and drummer Jim Lucht, the tenor saxophonist is still swinging mightily and in full control of his chops. There aren't really any surprises among the selections, which draw from Young's favorite standards and a few of his most requested compositions…

The second installment of four projected volumes, this once again captures latter-day Lester Young in top form, relaxed and playing with impeccable phrasing and swing. Ably backed by the Bill Potts Trio during his week-long stand at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, these live tapes put the lie to the longstanding jazz myth that Young was well past his prime in the final decade of his life…

One of the great myths of jazz history is that by the final decade of his life, Lester Young was a burnout case, too drunk to stand up and play his horn, much less attain the creative flights of fancy that marked his groundbreaking work with Count Basie in the late '30s. But when these live recordings of Young playing with the Bill Potts Trio in Washington, D.C., were first released on LP in 1980, the jazz world had to re-evaluate its thinking. These privately recorded tapes revealed that not only was Prez far from being a broken shadow of his former self, he was blowing his heart out, obviously inspired by the playing of the trio behind him and the relaxed setting of the date itself. Kicking off with an uptempo take on "A Foggy Day," Young shows he's in full command of his chops, and the trio backs him buoyantly…