SwingDJs

Someone asked me the story behind the title of Lester Leaps In and I didn't have a good answer. Does anyone know the story behind that particular title? Which version would you consider the definitive version?

Shana

The song is based off the changes in I Got Rhythm, one of Lester Young favorite songs. You could actually play them on top of each other and hear how similar they are.

Personally, The best is the original from 1939 with the Basie small groups. There have been a lot of version since and it has become a jam standard but with out Pres they just don't cut it for me. Also in 39 Pres was at his prime.

main_stem wrote:The song is based off the changes in I Got Rhythm, one of Lester Young favorite songs. You could actually play them on top of each other and hear how similar they are.

That's true for a large number of jazz tunes.

But what I want to know is why the song is called "Lester Leaps In." Was there some instance where he lept in (literally or figuratively) to the tune? Or was it just another random name that he chose when he came up with the tune?

I think Douglas McDaniel's biography "Lester Leaps In" would be sure to mention any such anecdote, but there is no such anecdote, so I don't think there is any real story.

edit:
By the way, this is the 5000th post in Swinging Music.

Thanks Julius and Kevin.

In general, do you have a good source of anecdotal stuff like this? You can sometimes get it in liner notes, but those aren't indexed anywhere that I know of.

Musician biographies are the sun source of anecdotes. Oral jazz histories are good too. As far as specific sources for stories behind the titles of songs, the only thing I know is to go up to an old jazz musician or fan and talk their ear off.

Shanabanana wrote: In general, do you have a good source of anecdotal stuff like this?

Jazz Anecdotes
by Bill Crow

It's has some really funny stuff in it.

Shanabanana wrote:But what I want to know is why the song is called "Lester Leaps In." Was there some instance where he lept in (literally or figuratively) to the tune? Or was it just another random name that he chose when he came up with the tune?

I did a quick google search and only found references to the biography Julius mentions. I could make something up for you - isn't that how the best stories happen? Perhaps "leaping in" was slang for taking a turn to solo?

I did find out what "Prez" referred to: The President of the Tenor Saxophone --- that's cool, especially since it's kind of an American take on "Count", "Duke", "Earl", etc.

djstarr wrote:I could make something up for you - isn't that how the best stories happen? Perhaps "leaping in" was slang for taking a turn to solo?

Actually, this discussion started because of a story he'd been told that sounded a little suspect. Since most song titles that include someone's name just seem to be a random statement about the person who came up with the riff, I was thinking (hoping) there was some interesting story behind it. But "leaping in" as soloing seems just as likely.

Incidentally, I heard a lyricised version of this 3 or 4 years ago, I think with Carmen McRae. I might have to track that one down.

This looks kind of interesting - hard to tell if one of the two "Lester Leaps In" has vocals, but Joe Williams is on the credits.

I was looking to see if L, H & R or Manhattan Transfer did a version, because that would be really funny to tie some threads together here, but it doesn't look like it.

djstarr wrote:This looks kind of interesting - hard to tell if one of the two "Lester Leaps In" has vocals, but Joe Williams is on the credits.

I was looking to see if L, H & R or Manhattan Transfer did a version, because that would be really funny to tie some threads together here, but it doesn't look like it.

nope, it doesn't have vocals. But the sax section plays Lester Young's solo. Only some of the tracks on the cd are vocal.

Kevin, is this Complete Keynote the version you mean?

djstarr wrote:This looks kind of interesting - hard to tell if one of the two "Lester Leaps In" has vocals, but Joe Williams is on the credits.

Strangely enough, I just listened to that disc for the first time on Monday. It's really good.

No vocals on Lester Leaps In, but I'm starting to wonder if that's just some false memory. I can't find any vocal version on Allmusic.

too bad - I'm sure someone will chime in here if they've heard a vocal version of Lester Leaps In.

I almost pee'd my pants when I heard Manhatten Transfer's version of King Porter Stomp - I might play it some night at Travis' dance for a joke sometime [Travis, this is your early warning].

Anyhow, that made me think, well maybe somebody did a vocal version of Lester Leaps In.

Shanabanana wrote:

djstarr wrote:This looks kind of interesting - hard to tell if one of the two "Lester Leaps In" has vocals, but Joe Williams is on the credits.

Strangely enough, I just listened to that disc for the first time on Monday. It's really good.

Strangely enough, I just played "Jumping With Symphony Sid" from this album on Sunday night at the dance in Colorado Springs after convincing John Dyer to buy a copy of the album the day before.

Jesse

PS. It is a great album!

JesseMiner wrote:

Shanabanana wrote:

djstarr wrote:This looks kind of interesting - hard to tell if one of the two "Lester Leaps In" has vocals, but Joe Williams is on the credits.

Strangely enough, I just listened to that disc for the first time on Monday. It's really good.

Strangely enough, I just played "Jumping With Symphony Sid" from this album on Sunday night at the dance in Colorado Springs after convincing John Dyer to buy a copy of the album the day before.

Jesse

PS. It is a great album!

Even more strange, at Summit Jazz on Saturday before you played the album, the leader announced the song as "Jumping with Symphony Sid" and then corrected it as being "Lester Leaps In." Some kind of cosmic jazz connection happening here.