Lester Young Trio

The Lester Young Trio and The Lester Young Trio No. 2 are jazz trio albums by Lester Young with Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich, recorded in Hollywood, California, in March–April 1946, with the first four tracks being released in 1951.

Release history
The recordings were produced by Norman Granz and the first four tracks were released in 1951 on a Mercury Records 10 inch LP, The Lester Young Trio. Another four tracks were released in 1953 on Norman Granz' Clef Records label as The Lester Young Trio No. 2. All eight trio tracks were combined on a 12-inch Norgran LP, The Lester Young Buddy Rich Trio released in 1955. Nat King Cole was under contract with a different record label at the time so was credited only as "Aye Guy" on the original Mercury / Clef / Norgran releases.

In 1994 Verve Records released a CD version of The Lester Young Trio that combined all eight tracks from the 1946 Hollywood trio recordings, plus an alternate take of "I Cover the Waterfront" and an additional shortened version of "Back to the Land", together with four additional tracks recorded earlier by a quintet with Nat King Cole (but without Lester Young or Buddy Rich).

The Lester Young Trio
LP side A LP side B
 * 1) "I Cover the Waterfront" (Green, Heyman) – 4:05
 * 2) "Somebody Loves Me" (MacDonald, DeSylva, Gershwin) – 3:54
 * 1) "I've Found a New Baby" (Palmer, Williams) – 4:07
 * 2) "Back to the Land" (Young) – 4:05

The Lester Young Trio No. 2
LP side A LP side B
 * 1) "I Want to Be Happy" (Caesar, Youmans) – 3:58
 * 2) "Peg O' My Heart" (Bryan, Fisher) – 4:06
 * 1) "Mean To Me" (Ahlert, Turk) – 4:15
 * 2) "The Man I Love" (Gershwin, Gershwin) – 3:58

Bonus tracks on Verve 1994 CD re-issue
Two tracks from the original 1946 Young-Cole-Rich trio recording sessions: Four tracks from earlier Nat King Cole sessions (without Young or Rich):
 * "I Cover the Waterfront" (alternate take) – 3:56
 * "Back to the Land" (edited version) – 3:54
 * "I've Found a New Baby" (Palmer, Williams) – 4:40
 * "Rosetta" – 5:09
 * "Sweet Lorraine" (Burwell, Parish) – 4:55
 * "Blowed and Gone" – 4:41

Personnel
Personnel on 4 of the CD re-issue bonus tracks
 * Lester Young – tenor saxophone
 * Buddy Rich – drums
 * Nat King Cole (credited as "Aye Guy" on the original releases) – piano
 * Nat "King" Cole – piano
 * Harry "Sweets" Edison – trumpet
 * Dexter Gordon – tenor saxophone
 * Clifford Owens – drums
 * Red Callender or Johnny Miller – bass

References / notes

 * Verve Records Discography: 1944-1946 at jazzdisco.org
 * The Lester Young Trio (Mercury LP) at microgroove.jp