An Introduction to America’s Music

380 PART 3 | FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II

composer: Lester Young

date: 1939

performers: Count Basie, piano; Lester

Young, tenor sax; Buck Clayton, trumpet;

Dicky Wells, trombone; Freddie Green,

guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jo Jones, drums

genre: Kansas City swing

meter: duple

form: series of 32-bar aaba choruses

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• fast, energetic tempo with walking bass


• the head: a new melody, built from riffs and
  based on rhythm changes


• Young’s relaxed yet intense saxophone
  sound and melodic ingenuity


• various ways of distributing solos, including
  trading fours

timing section comments

0:00 introduction 4 bars; rhythm section sets the quick tempo. Underneath Basie’s melodic line,

Page marks four beats per bar with walking bass.

0:03 chorus 1 a Composed melody played in sax with harmony lines in trumpet and trombone.

Two nearly identical riff statements.

0:11 a

0:19 b Melody instruments drop out. Guitar and hi-hat contribute to the rhythmic drive.

0:27 a

0:35 chorus 2 Young’s solo heats up in the second a (0:42), which begins on the blues seventh.

Phrase lengths are uneven and unpredictable: phrases often end with a long note

played with thick vibrato, in contrast to Young’s generally vibrato-less sound.

1:05 chorus 3 Rhythm section plays the fi rst 6 bars of each a section in stop-time; for the fi rst

a, Basie plays melodic counterpoint against Young’s ragtime-inspired melody.

1:37 chorus 4 Basie and Young trade fours.

2:09 chorus 5 A different way of trading fours: the band plays a syncopated repeated-note

fi gure (4 bars), Young solos (4 bars), band repeats the syncopated fi gure

(4 bars), Basie solos, carrying his solo through the bridge (4 + 8 bars). The fi nal

a (2:32) alternates band and Young.

2:40 chorus 6 Similar to chorus 5, now with Basie taking all the solos in spare signature

style. An improvised full-ensemble tag fi lls the last 4 bars (3:07).

Listen & Refl ect

1. Listen to a vocal performance of “I Got Rhythm” on CD or online. Then try singing the
   words and melody of “I Got Rhythm” over Lester Leaps In. How easy is it to fi t the original
   song over the Basie group’s instrumental?

Listening Guide 15.4

Lester Leaps In

CD 3.5 COUNT BASIE, LESTER YOUNG

172028_15_361-385_r3_ko.indd 380 23/01/13 8:36 PM