Blue Note recently released, October 1999, a new cd with old recording sessions.
The title of this cd:"The Lost Sessions".

Among the musicians who were present on the cd, I recognized a familiar one: Paul Weeden.
The information in the booklet learned that The Paul Weeden trio did a studio date on the 14th of May 1962 with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt. At that time Paul played in a trio with Don Patterson at the Hammond and Billy James at the drums. They were rather successful and business was booming. I had spoken with Paul concerning this period and he had told me about the sessions with Jugs (Gene Ammons), Eddie ‘Lockjaw' Davis and Sonny Stitt, but Paul never mentioned a recording session with Dexter Gordon. Strange, because Paul did play many times before and after this period with Dexter. But they never recorded.

The ‘The Lost Sessions' cd liner notes gave the following information:

"Sonny Stitt's style of making records (pick some standards, make up some blues and play your ass off) was antithetical to the Blue Note system of planning, composing, rehearsing and refining. It was no surprise that he recorded for just about every label but Blue Note. It turns out that he did, in fact, do a session for the label, but with generally disastrous results. "Lady Be Good," which first appeared in a Dexter Gordon boxed set of his complete sixties Blue Note sessions, is the single salvageable performance. Dexter remembered this session as one of the more amusing events in his professional life. Everyone was a little juiced and getting more so as the date went on. A nervous Alfred Lion was getting more and more stressed by the loose approach of Stitt and his working band. Dexter was there to play on three tunes, but after the first one, everything went down hill fast. Dex remembered, "Alfred was a wreck. When Sonny started playing "Bye Bye Blackbird," I knew that was it. Alfred jumped up, yelling 'who needs another version of this? What is he doing?' I was laughing too hard to say anything ." Session over.

Everyone a little juiced? Knowing Paul for a longer period I knew that you could say a lot about his manors but not that he was juiced. So I decided to ask him concerning this forgotten recording session. When I first contacted him, Paul was strongly surprised about the fact that Blue Note had released a cd on which he performed with his trio. He didn't remember anything concerning a recording session with Dexter. It should have been a mistake because the only thing he did for Mr. Alfred Lion should be a session with Jugs. But when I convinced him that it was unmistakably Dexter who was blowing ‘Lady Be Good' Paul started to remember vaguely the session.

"Yeah, I remember this session now. Honestly I don't want to remember it at all, because it was a disastrous one. In those days the Paul Weeden Trio was gaining a name and Alfred Lion contacted me to do a recording session for Blue Note. It should be one with two tenor players -a kind of tenor-battle idea - because that was very fashionable in those days. He invited us to record with Dexter and Sonny with whom we had played in various combinations. We came to the Rudy van Gelder's recording studio in Englewood Cliffs and were eager to record. The trio was ready for a good recording date. We were at point. That's not what I can tell about Dexter and Sonny. They were also at point but on a different level. They were pissed off. Incredibly. I can't imagine that they could save even one track from this session. We did three or four tracks and then Alfred Lion aborted the session. The two horn-blowers weren't able to perform anymore. It made me mad, because I saw it as a great opportunity to establish the name of the Paul Weeden Trio"

So far Paul's comment on 'The Lost Sessions'

Robert Rhoden.

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