Lester Young

Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums.

Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument, playing with a cool tone and using sophisticated harmonies. He invented or popularized much of the hipster ethos which came to be associated with the music.
Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi and grew up in a musical family. Young's father, Willis Handy Young, 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, Minnesota. Although at a very young age Young did not initially know his father, he learned that his father was a musician. Later Willis taught his son to play the trumpet, violin, and drums in addition to the saxophone.
Lester Young played in his family's band in both the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 at the age of 18 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were in effect and racial segregation was required in public facilities.
In 1933 Young settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands, he rose to prominence with Count Basie. His playing in the Basie band was characterized by a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the aggressive approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor sax player of the day.

Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie. While with Basie, Young made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions. Although they were recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), they are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor in these sessions. He was a master of the clarinet, and there too, his style was entirely his own. As well as the Kansas City Sessions, his clarinet work from 1938-39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the organist Glenn Hardman.
After Young's clarinet was stolen in 1939, he abandoned the instrument until about 1957. That year Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life - see below).

Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13 of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal, although the validity of this rumor has been widely disputed. Lester left 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; live and broadcast recordings from this period exist.
During this period, Young accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in a couple of studio sessions in 1940 and 1941, and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the American Federation of Musicians' recording ban.
In December 1943, Young returned to the Basie fold for a 10-month stint, cut short by his being drafted into the army during World War II (see below). Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players).

While he never abandoned the wooden reed, he used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944, Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.
In September 1944, Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles with the Basie Band when they were inducted into the U.S. Army. Unlike many white musicians, who were placed in band outfits such as the ones led by Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, Young was assigned to the regular army where he was not allowed to play his saxophone. Based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Young was found with marijuana and alcohol among his possessions. He was soon court-martialed. Young did not fight the charges and was convicted. He served one year in a detention barracks and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945. His experience inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" (with D.B. standing for detention barracks).

Some jazz historians have argued that Young's playing power declined in the years following his army experience, though critics such as Scott Yanow disagree with this entirely. Recordings show that his playing began to change before he was drafted. Some argue that Young's playing had an increasingly emotional slant to it, and the post-war period featured some of his greatest renditions of ballads.
Young's career after World War II was far more prolific and lucrative than in the pre-war years, in terms of recordings made, live performances, and annual income. Young joined Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) troupe in 1946, touring regularly with them over the next 12 years. He made a significant number of studio recordings under Granz's supervision for his Verve Records label as well, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1946-7, where he had made the Cole recordings in 1942), and for Savoy (1944, '49 and '50) some sessions of which included Basie on piano.

While the quality and consistency of his playing ebbed gradually in the latter half of the 1940s and into the early 1950s, he also gave some brilliant performances during this stretch. Especially noteworthy are his performances with JATP in 1946, 1949, and 1950. With Young at the 1949 JATP concert at Carnegie Hall were Charlie Parker and Roy Eldridge, and Young's solo on "Lester Leaps In" at that concert is a particular standout among his performances in the latter half of his career.
From around 1951, Young's level of playing began to decline more precipitously, as he began to drink more and more heavily. His playing showed reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a "repeater pencil" (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one's own past ideas). A comparison of his studio recordings from 1952, such as the session with pianist Oscar Peterson, and those from 1953–1954 (all available on the Verve label) also demonstrates a declining command of his instrument and sense of timing, possibly due to both mental and physical factors. Young's playing and health went into a crisis, culminating in a November 1955 hospital admission following a nervous breakdown.

He emerged from this treatment improved. In January 1956 he recorded two Granz-produced sessions featuring pianist Teddy Wilson (who had led the Billie Holiday recordings with Young in the 1930s), trumpet player Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic Dickenson, bassist Gene Ramey, and drummer Jo Jones - available on the Jazz Giants '56 and Prez and Teddy albums. 1956 was a relatively good year for Lester Young, including a tour of Europe with Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a successful stint at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, DC.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Young had sat in on Count Basie Orchestra gigs from time to time. The best-known of these is their July 1957 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, the line-up including many of Lester's old buddies: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. His playing was in better shape, and he produced some of the old, smooth toned flow of the 1930s. Among other tunes he played a moving "Polkadots and Moonbeams", which was a favorite of his at that time.

On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tunes "Lady Sings The Blues" and "Fine and Mellow". It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he'd fallen out of contact for years. She was also in decline at the end of her career, and they both gave moving performances. Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion. But, Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated (except during his solo) during the performance. By this time his alcoholism had cumulative effect. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and suffering from liver disease and malnutrition. Young's sharply diminished physical strength in the final two years of his life yielded some recordings with a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rare occasions, a difficulty in getting any sound to come out of his horn at all.
Lester Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself to death. He died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49. He was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.[4] According to jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later at age 44.



Lester Young (Woodville, 27 de agosto de 1909 - Nueva York, 15 de marzo de 1959) fue un saxofonista (tenor) y clarinetista estadounidense de jazz.

Apodado Pres o Prez por Billie Holiday, es una de las figuras más importantes de la historia del jazz, abarcando el swing, el bop y el cool. Está considerado, junto con Coleman Hawkins uno de los dos saxofonistas más influyentes, sobre los que se construye toda la tradición del saxo tenor en el jazz.
Aunque vivió sus primeros años cerca de Nueva Orleans, Lester Young se trasladó hacia 1920 a Minneapolis donde tocó en una legendaria orquesta familiar. Estudió violín, trompeta y batería, empezando con el saxo alto a los 13 años.

En vez de realizar una gira por el sur, Young abandonó el hogar familiar en 1927 y se unió a una gira de los Bostonianos de Art Bronson, cambiándose al saxo tenor. Regresó con la banda familiar en 1929 y tocó durante unos años como músico independiente con gente como los Blue Devils de Walter Page (1930), Eddie Barefield en 1931, vuelta con los Blue Devils durante 1932-1933, y Bennie Moten y King Oliver (en 1933).

Tocó con Count Basie por primera vez en 1934, pero lo abandonó para reemplazar a Coleman Hawkins en la orquesta de Fletcher Henderson. Sin embargo, los demás músicos no se adaptaron a su sonido, tan diferente del de Hawkins, y debió abandonar la banda al poco tiempo. Realizó una gira con Andy Kirk, regresando después con Basie en 1936. En septiembre de ese año realizó su primera y legendaria sesión de grabación, con un pequeño grupo liderado por el pianista. Sus versiones de Lady be Good y Shoe Shine Boy causaron una profunda impresión en la comunidad jazzística. Inspirado en parte en Jimmy Dorsey y Frankie Trumbauer, Young había desarrollado un sonido muy original en el saxo tenor, contrapuesto al de Hawkins (considerado hasta ese entonces el modelo), y que sería una influencia importante en los saxofonistas de la línea denominada cool de los años cincuenta, como Stan Getz, Flip Phillips, Paul Desmond, Lee Konitz y el joven Dexter Gordon, entre muchos otros. Su sentido melódico y rítmico, y su articulación fueron también una fuerte influencia para el joven Charlie Parker. De hecho, Gunther Schuller definió a Young como el artista de jazz más influyente entre Louis Armstrong y Parker.

Durante esa primera etapa con la orquesta de Basie, Young hizo historia además por las grabaciones acompañando a la cantante Billie Holiday, junto a un pequeño grupo liderado por el pianista Teddy Wilson. En algunos registros con Basie y los Kansas City Six se lo puede escuchar también tocando el clarinete.
Tras dejar a Basie en 1940, la carrera de Young sufrió un parón. Colideró un grupo con su hermano el batería Lee Young en Los Ángeles, antes de reunirse de nuevo con Basie en diciembre de 1943. Los nueve meses siguientes fueron excepcionales, grabó una memorable sesión en cuarteto con el bajo Slam Stewart, y protagonizó el cortometraje Jammin' the Blues.
"East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)": disco de 78 r.p.m. con Gene DiNovi, Chuck Wayne, Curly Russell y Tiny Kahn. 29 de diciembre de 1947.
Su experiencia del racismo durante el servicio militar fue tan mala que quedó afectado mentalmente para el resto de su vida.
Participó, bien pagado por Norman Granz, en las giras de Jazz at the Philharmonic a lo largo de los años cuarenta y cincuenta, hizo varias grabaciones para Aladdin y trabajó también de forma independiente como acompañante de otros músicos. Young adaptó también su estilo sin problemas al bop.
Muchas de sus grabaciones de los años cincuenta demuestran una profundidad emocional mayor que en las de sus primeros tiempos; sin embargo, fue motivo de depresión para Young el ver que varios de sus imitadores blancos conseguían mucho más dinero que él. Se dio a la bebida y tras enfermar en París en 1959, se recluyó en casa dedicándose casi por completo a beber.