1946 · Album
Lester Young Trio
Recorded March–April 1946, Hollywood, California · Not specified in verified source · Produced by Not specified in verified source
Three Giants in a Hollywood Room
A casual encounter between three master musicians that took years to reach listeners.
In March and April of 1946, Lester Young, Nat King Cole, and Buddy Rich gathered in a Hollywood studio to record what would become two trio albums. The session itself was the kind of thing that happens quietly in the jazz world—three players with different strengths in one room, no grand mission, just the work of making records. Young was already established as one of the tenor saxophone's defining voices. Cole had begun to shift from pianist to vocalist, though his touch at the keyboard was still formidable. Rich brought the kind of technical command and speed that made him one of the era's most talked-about drummers.
What's striking is that these recordings didn't see release until 1951, five years after they were made. The first four tracks came out then, and the rest followed as The Lester Young Trio No. 2. This delay meant the session existed in a strange limbo—it happened early in Young's career, but listeners encountered it much later, after his reputation had already solidified. By the time people heard these records, Young's sound and approach had moved into new territory. That gap between creation and release gives the albums an odd quality: they document a specific moment, but that moment had already passed by the time anyone could hear them.
The recording captures three musicians working without pretense or arrangement—just playing together in the way a trio does. It's the kind of session that matters less for what it proved and more for what it showed: three accomplished players in the same space, responding to each other. Young devotees will find it interesting primarily for the document it is, a snapshot of his playing during a particular stretch of his life rather than a peak moment or a turning point.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Lester Young
In Washington, D.C. 1956, Volume One 1956
Pres and Sweets 1955
Le Dernier Message de Lester Young 1959
In Washington, D.C. 1956 Volume Two 1956
The musicians on this record
After Midnight 1956
Nat King Cole
plays piano here
plays piano here
Big Swing Face 1967
Buddy Rich
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
