After leaving Count Basie in December 1940, Lester hoped to be celebrated as the leader of his own small group, one that would give him more freedom to play. He and his group appeared at New York City’s Manhattan Center, broadcast on WNYC (soon to be shared here) and had engagements at Kelly’s Stable and Cafe Society.
Hearing that his father was ill in california, Lester went there, where his brother Lee, a drummer, had work at several clubs owned by Billy Berg in Hollywood and Los Angeles. The band made no commercial recordings but excerpts from radio broadcasts have survived. Some of this music, taped from the acetates, ended up in the garage of pianist Jimmie Rowles (rescued by Don Manning, a Seattle jazz collector) so we can have some idea of what the band sounded like. (This is the most shallow biographical sketch: readers who wish to know more could turn to books by Frank Buchmann-Moller and Dave Gelly.)
During his annual Bird-and-Pres birthday broadcasts on WKCR-FM, the late Phil Schaap would often play his copies of these tapes, and many Lester devotees have their own cassettes of this material. But the music has been issued on CD only on the French Masters of Jazz Label, admittedly years ago (1993 and 1996).
JAZZ LIVES, or Pres for the People, as a regal friend called it recently, wants to make those brief performances available online to those who might know the music well or those who are discovering it for the first time.
BROADWAY / BENNY’S BUGLE / BROADWAY / OH, LADY BE GOOD / BENNY’S BUGLE. “Red” Mack Morris, trumpet; Bumps Myers, Lester Young, renor saxophone; Jimmie Rowles, piano; Louis Gonzales, guitar; Red Callender, double bass; Lee Young, drums. Los Angeles, Trouville Club, June 1942 // BENNY’S BUGLE / SIGN-OFF. Paul Campbell, trumpet, replaces Morris. Hollywood, Club Capri, December 2, 1941.
Other performances from these broadcasts exist: BOGO JOE (with no Lester solo), SOLITUDE, and I HEAR MUSIC (Billie Holiday with the band).
BENNY’S BUGLE was, I believe, titled after the fact, because of a similarity to a Charlie Christian line of that name. These performances are not flawless: Lester and Lee, although related by blood, had different approaches to music. But these twelve minutes are for me, and I hope for you, a window into a vanished world.
More Lester and Co. to come.
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 
Michael – just to let you know, Don Manning was based in Portland, where he had a radio show on KBOO-FM for decades. He lived in New York City in the 1940s and ’50s and played drums in Claude Thornhill’s band (and likely others). He was good friends with a lot of NYC musicians of the bebop era.