1957 Live At Newport [Original recording remastered, Live]

In the late 1940s and early 1950s Lester Young toured and performed with the Basie New Testament band quite often. In fact, at times he would simply show up for a rehearsal or stage performance unannounced and just blow. Basie always kept the door open for him and his chair in the section was his whenever he showed up whatever other combos Prez had.

However, even though THE PRESIDENT was in rough shape that weekend (he wasn't dying that happened 3 years later), there are no later day recordings of Prez with the band that capture the swing that the reunion sides do here.

I think it had to do with having Joe Jones and Mr. Rushing present. A lot of his Basie band mates from the 1930s used to say that the big diffeence in Lester Young's 1950s performances was that he really needed a swing rhythm section, despite the excellence of Roy Haynes and other bop influenced young drummers Prez employed in his own combos. Papa Jo, Jo Jones the great drummer of the Basie band, is reunited with Freddie Green and Count Basie, with only Walter Page the original bassist in the 1930s All American Rhythm section being missing.

One of the great things here is hearing Jimmie Rushing--who was a bit more of a stranger to Basie in these years than Prez--swinging the band. The New Testament band reacts to his singing by swinging back at him like they would any other master soloist. You can also pick up on some of the other cuts where Jimmie isn't singing, where his hand clapping and shouting is adding to the fury of the bands swing. If you are lucky enough to be familiar with air checks of the 1930s and early 1940s live performances by Basie, you can hear Jimmie doing the same stuff then. By the way, despite his size, Rushing was renowned as a dancer. One imagines that if Jimmy just wiggled his nose to the music it would have swung a whole lot.

Even if you are so culturally deprived as not to be a Jimmie Rushing fan, you will be after you hear his sides on this CD. Despite a less than adequate microphone or recording level when he sings, you can hear him and the band thundering back and forth with each other swinging.

Illinois Jacquet and Roy Eldrige also shine on this record, on the killer rendition of One O'clock Jump. They were both at the height of their powers here and really burnt it up. Both of them are the real stars of the One O'clock Jump.

Don't forget the Count Basie Orchestra here. I have three other recordings of Bleep Blop Blues (the first with the nonette and two studio recordings). The live jumping version on this CD is the best one I have ever heard. As much as I love the other cuts on the CD, I find myself putting that on repeat and repeat and repeat. Joe Williams does show you why he is the righteous successor to Mr. Rushing, (although Joe Williams always saw himself as more of a disciple of Joe Turner than of Jimmie Rushing). I also love the interaction between the New Testament Band and some of the swing veterans as their riffs rise behind the veterans, especially on One O'clock Jump. Any idea that Basie's new band was not the leading swing organization of its time is quickly dispelled by what the band does here.

And John Hammond LOL: Oh well, at least his introductions aren't faked like he did on the Vanguard recordings of the Spirituals to Swing concerts. His introduction of the Basie New Testament band is interesting in giving you a picture of how many members of the New Testament band came out of the old swing bands even preswing organizations like Noble Sissle's outfit. His patronizing tone really takes you back to what Jazz musicians and African American artists in general had to put up from supposedly liberal (NAACP board member was Hammond) whites just to perform.

This is a one in a million special CD. This was the first CD I ever bought. It belongs in every home!

Add to this list of treasures the recording of the Basie band's set at Newport, 7 July, 1957. Basie had long been a sort of Wizard of Oz figure, blowing up a whirlwind which lifted his band from the dustbowl of Kansas in the 1930s and deposited it, first, on the national and then, ultimately, the international stage. The edition of the Basie band which played Newport that summer's night was the famed 'New Testament' band. This would have been an extraordinary night in any event but, consider, that for this concert that former alumni drummer Jo Jones, blues singer Jimmy Rushing and tenor player Lester Young were re-united there for this gig only and you have the sound of an irresistible force meeting an immoveable object!

Digitally transferred in 24-bit as all recordings are in this Verve Master series, the sound here is superb. True, there are some problems with Rushing being off-mike on one number but this only contributes to the 'live-as-recorded' ambience. So frenetic is the general atmosphere, I'm only surprised no-one ended up going home in an ambience!

Listening to this recording forty-three years later, I'm only struck, once again, by the surprise that the world ever thought to move on from this. For sound and power, sheer vitality, the Basie crew could teach rock bands a thing or two. How did we ever go from this, within a few years, to 'Basie's Beatle Bag'? As Ebenzer Scrooge was wont to remark, 'I'll retire to Bedlam'!

It is entirely appropriate that the concert should be introduced by John Hammond, the man who discovered the Basie band almost by accident, his attention taken by a remote broadcast he heard of the band on his car radio. Truth to tell, though, he makes a bit of a hash of things. He forgets musicians names, fails to recognise the players in his long-winded introduction where any excitement is in danger of dissipating before the band ever blows a note and he gets the running order wrong, building up Rushing's introduction when, in fact, it is a ballad number by Lester!

The 'Old' and 'New' Testament members sit very well together, the contributions of the thirties players grouped together into a set within a set. Lester's blowing on 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' (one of the ballads he favoured so much in his late period) is, of course, sublime. (I still find it strange to hear Lester in stereo or to see a colour photograph of him - there are several superb photographs within the accompanying booklet - since he is so associated forever with Billie Holiday and the monochrome thirties) and a souped-up version of 'Lester Leaps In' is a stand-out.

A further collection of numbers, augmenting this compact disc release from, I assume, the same performance but hitherto only issued elsewhere, feature the band's then present singer Joe Williams. Joe Williams is one of the few singers, I suppose, who is capable of getting away with following Jimmy Rushing. It is Mr Five-by-Five who steals the show for me, however - 'Boogie Woogie (I May Be Wrong)', 'Evenin' ' and, of course, 'Sent For You Yesterday.' Good advice for buying this CD. You can't buy it soon enough. Send for it yesterday!