Great music / poor annotation
Peter Feng | Wilmington, DE United States | 10/20/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This CD has almost all of Basie's marathon January 1944 transcription session (during the recording ban), when Lester Young was back in the band. (Unfortunately, this disc leaves off "Sent for you Yesterday" and the two versions of "One O'Clock Jump" -- you can find "Sent for You" on GOLDEN YEARS VOL. 3.) The remaining tracks come from May 25, 1944, and Feb 2, 1945, including a vocal usually reported to be Maxine Johnson (Wish You Were Waiting for Me), although Will Friedwald's liner notes report it's Thelma Carpenter. (I think it's probably Friedwald's error -- he's usually the authority on these things but would usually note his sources and explain why he offers a different attribution.) Anyway, it's great music but not arranged chronologically, no personnel are listed, etc."