sandmanDies ist eines meiner Lieblingsalben, wenn nicht mein Lieblingsalbum überhaupt. Wunderbare Musik – mitten ins Herz.
Hier auch und danach Lesters Aufnahmen in Washington, D.C. at Olivia Davis‘ Patio Lounge die kurz nach Lester and Teddy und Jazz Giants entstanden sind.
Laut Bill Potts, war es anscheinend nicht geplant, die Sessions zu veröffentlichen:
Willie had a portable recorder in the band room and we asked Lester if we might record a few tunes for home use, and he said he thought it would be alright. During this time Lester was under contract to Norman Granz‘ record company and technically wasn’t permitted to record for anyone without his permission.
As the nights went by, the trio thought more and more of how nice it would be to set up a tape recorder and capture some of these good sounds for the years to come, and I had all the necessary professional recording equipment.
Well, on Friday, December 7th, I set up the necessary equipment to record Lester that evening.
Lester arrived at the club, took one look at the bandstand and saw three microphones, two professional tape recorders, a mixer, and a set of earphones: his mouth dropped, he looked at me and said, „Oh no Billy …no. Norman will kill me!“Willie, Jim and I put our heads together and after a brief conference agreed on a possible solution: we got the biggest bottle of Hennessy Cognac available and had it gift wrapped with a „thank you“ card. The trio thanked Lester for the pleasure of knowing him and playing with him. Lester smiled and said, „I don’t think Norman will really kill me“. We went downstairs to the bandstand, turned on the recorders and played jazz.
--