Musicians - Lester Young

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	Musicians - Lester Young

Lester Willis Young, nicknamed "Prez" (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He is remembered as one of the finest of the players on his instrument and for much of the hipster ethos which came to be attached to jazz.

Early life and career

He was born in Woodville, Mississippi and grew up in a musical family. Young's father was a respected teacher, his brother Lee Young was a drummer, and several other relatives played music professionally. His family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana when Lester was an infant and later to Minneapolis. His father taught him to play trumpet, violin, and drums in addition to the saxophone. He played in his family's band in both the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 because he refused to tour in the US South, where the Jim Crow Laws were in effect.

In 1933 he settled in Kansas City after brief membership of several bands. He rose to prominence in the Count Basie band by playing in a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the aggressive approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor player of the day.

Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's band, but he received intense criticism and pressure to play like Hawkins. He soon left to play with the Andy Kirk band (for six months) and he later returned to star with Basie. His recordings with the Basie band during the pre-World War II period of 1936 to 1940 were nothing short of revolutionary -- rather than being bound by the "time" of the band, his solos "floated" above it and defined the time his own way. A true improvisor, his solos on alternate takes often differed significantly from one to the next. In fact, many view the time Young spent with the Basie band as the band's zenith. Clarinetist Frank Powers said (around 1960), "man, I haven't listened to Basie since Prez left."

Prez was also a master of the clarinet, and there too, his style was entirely his own. His clarinet work from 1938-39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, small groups both under his own leadership and that of Basie, and the obscure organist Glenn Hardman. His clarinet was stolen in 1939, and he abandoned the instrument until about 1957, when Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life - see below).

Eccentric icon

Since Jazz already had a "King of Swing" with Benny Goodman, a "Duke" Ellington, and a "Count" Basie, Lester Young was known as Prez (short for president as in "The President of the Tenor Saxophone"), a name given to him by Billie Holiday (though some sources assert that he had been called "Prez" long before meeting her). He returned the favor by dubbing her "Lady Day."

Young was viewed as an eccentric by those he chose to exclude from his circle (i.e., those he did not trust). He did so by creating his own language that his friends would understand, but those he didn't trust would not. It is interesting to see which critics of his day "got it" and which didn't. Those on the outside viewed it as a rococo and often inscrutable personal slang, famously referring to a narcotics detective or policeman as a "Bob Crosby," a rehearsal as a "molly trolley," and an instrumentalist's keys or fingers as his "people." He dressed distinctively, especially in his trademark Porkpie Hat. When he played saxophone, particularly in his younger days, he would sometimes hold the horn off to the right side at a near-horizontal angle, like a flute. He is considered by many to be an early hipster, predating Slim Gaillard and Dizzy Gillespie.

Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13th of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal, although the truth of this rumor has been widely disputed. In any event, Lester did leave the band around that time and subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, noted drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years - some very notable live and broadcast recordings from this period exist. During this period, Young accompanied Billie Holiday on a couple of great studio sessions in 1940 and 1941 and also made a small set of brilliant recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. It should be noted that his studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban during that period that reflected the war effort.

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Musicians - Lester Young

Early life and career

Eccentric icon

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