Gelly/Being Prez, 12. ‘Let’s review the books’

From time to time, throughout the 1950s, Lester appeared as guest soloist with Count Basie’s band. It was now a very different band from the one he had been a member of, but he always enjoyed the experience. Various recordings survive, most of them rather scrappy affairs taken from live broadcasts, but the one made at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival is much better. The date was 7 July, and there was a down-Memory-Lane flavour about the whole set, with Jo Jones and Jimmy Rushing also taking part. Lester plays his own two feature numbers, ‘Polka Dots And Moonbeams’ and ‘Lester Leaps In’, for which Basie carried fully prepared arrangements, and is then joined by Jones and Rushing for off-the-cuff versions of ‘Sent For You Yesterday’, ‘Boogie Woogie’ and ‘Evenin’’. His playing is remarkably forceful throughout and he improvises delightful accompanying lines behind Rushing.