LESTER YOUNG

YOUNG, Lester (1909-1959).

Concert programme for the Birdland All Stars Tour at the Stadhalle in Freiburg, Germany, on 12 November 1956, signed on the front cover by Lester Young and Bud Powell, additionally signed by all four members of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Marking Powell’s first performing tour of Europe and Lester’s last, the stellar line-up for Birdland owner Morris Levy’s three-week tour also featured Miles Davis. ‘It is quite clear that Lester had a good time and enjoyed being on stage with Miles Davis,’ states biographer Frank Büchmann-Møller, ‘some of the photographs from the tour show him with an almost happy smile on his face’. A partial recording of the concert exists, in which Lester and Miles can be heard performing How High the Moon and Lester Leaps In. Although Powell was clearly present on this date, he apparently did not perform. As biographer Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. explains, he was ‘fighting many personal and professional battles’ at this time. Büchmann-Møller, 187. Ramsey, 187.

Original pale green printed wrappers, 249 x 148 mm. Provenance: RR Auctions, Boston, 19 November 2020, lot 5400.

[With:] a vintage gelatin silver publicity portrait, signed in blue ballpoint pen by Lester Young, 252 x 204 mm.

[And:] a small candid black and white photograph of Lester Young with a chic female companion at the entrance to the Hotel Claridge in Paris, circa 1940s, 87 x 61 mm.