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

Near closing time & you don't wanna leave - neither does the band, which happens to be a real microcosm of Count Basie's band at the time. :)

Trombone man Eddie Durham made a bit of history on this session - it marks the first time an amplified/electric guitar was caught on record. It's also the only session to ever catch Lester Young on CLARINET in the studio!!!!!

The personel for this historic September 27, 1938 session are:

Buck Clayton - trumpet
Eddie Durham - trombone & amplified guitar
Lester Young - clarinet
Freddie Green - guitar
Walter Page - bass
"Papa" Jo Jones - drums

What a relaxed, flowing groove - hope you enjoy it. :)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Walter
• Page
• Buck
• Clayton
• Eddie
• Durham
• Lester
• Young
• Freddie
• Green
• Papa
• Jo
• Jones
• Kansas
• City
• jazz

[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'......

[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. ;)

[busessuck1]

@loxodonta74 maybe cause he also played the sax

[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."

[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".

[loxodonta74]

Love it! Reminds me of Jimmy Giuffre

[digbop]

Lovely. Thank you so much.