Every once in a while, the discovery of a forgotten recording from the past results in the history of jazz being altered. Until now, it was believed that the hard-driving and swinging drummer Les DeMerle made his first recordings in 1969 with his debut as a leader, Spectrum. The first-time release of Once In A Lifetime, which was recorded in 1967, rewrites the history books a bit.

At the time, Les DeMerle was 20 and already had quite a bit of musical experience. Born in Brooklyn, he grew up in Queens and began playing drums when he was eight, playing at socials, proms and private parties and organizing his first band, the Capitols when he was 12. During the next three years, the group played every weekend at high school proms and socials, They appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour television show and in Tony Grant's Stars Of Tomorrow at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. At the suggestion of his drum teacher, Bob Livingston, Les' parents began bringing him to New York City to see some of the great jazz players he had been studying. "I started sitting in with a Dixieland clarinetist, Tony Parenti, at Eddie Condon's and he took me under his wing, We played at Jimmy Ryan's on 52nd Street, Nick's in the Village, the Metropole Caf�� on Broadway, and I worked with my trio at the posh New York super club Barbara Kelly's Hat and Cane on the upper East side. I also learned a lot jamming with trumpeter