78rpm pressing: Pagin' The Devil - The Kansas City Six, 1938 - Commodore 512

[ghb624]

An LP titled "Prez / Lester Young / The Immortal Kansas City Six" was issued as part of the Commodore Jazz Classics series, distributed by Mainstream Records (No. S/6012). Don't know the release date, I probably bought it in the mid-1960s. It has seven numbers done by the 1938 Kansas City Six and three done by a different lineup -- still called K.C. Six -- in March 1944. Nat Hentoff says that the 1938 sides are "among those half dozen collections I'd grab for if the building started to burn."

[loxodonta74]

Love it! Reminds me of Jimmy Giuffre

[tenorbanjo4]

@loxodonta74

Very good comment about one of my favourite clarinet players. He sounds so bluesy and modern !

This atmosphere reminds me of the Giuffre's album "The Train and the River".

[busessuck1]

@loxodonta74 maybe cause he also played the sax

[nathanmcmath]

Beautiful. So nice (and rare) to hear Prez on the clarinet

[SwingMan1937]

You know it, Nathan. :)

Only session I've ever seen Prez exclusively on clarinet (he'd doubled - RARELY - on clarinet PASSAGES w/Basie, but he'd never soloed until this session) - and it comes on the very first session to ever capture an electric guitar (listen closely behind Prez' solo & you can actually hear Eddie Durham pluging that guitar into his amp!).

[nathanmcmath]

Thanks again for posting this. All the early Lester stuff is fabulous.

Do you know if this session has been reissued? I looked around online and didn't find it, although some of he tracks appear to b in a collection called "The Quintessence"

[SwingMan1937]

About the only time I'd seen a cut from this 6 song session re-issued was on a "Commodore Jazz Sampler" CD from 1988, "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans". Other than that? Nothin'......

[digbop]

Lovely. Thank you so much.

[transformingArt]

Thanks for posting!

[SwingMan1937]

Wow - thanks! :)

That was QUICK! I just posted this historic beauty about 15 minutes ago.

If you listen real close during Lester's solo, you can hear Eddie Durham plugging in to/switching on his amplifier for the guitar. ;)