Lester Young
Tenor Sax Solo on
I Found A New Baby

About

Lester Young's tenor saxophone solo opens the 1955 Pres & Sweets album with exuberant energy on "I Found a New Baby." Young takes three choruses over the 32-bar AABA form in F at a driving 222 BPM, establishing the session's swinging spirit from the very first track. Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams's 1926 jazz standard provides an ideal vehicle for Young's virtuosic melodic invention at speed, and his three-chorus opening statement demonstrates that even in his later years, the President retained formidable creative powers at fast tempos. Edison and Peterson follow with their own extended solos.

Lester Young was 45 to 46 years old at the time.