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Lester Young

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Background information

Birth name: Lester Willis Young

Also known as "Prez"

Born August 27, 1909 Woodville, Mississippi, U.S.

Died March 15, 1959 (aged 49)

New York City, New York, U.S

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Music Background

Genres: Jazz

Occupations: Saxophonist, clarinetist

Instruments: Tenor saxophone, clarinet Years active 19331959

Labels: Verve

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Early Years

His father, Willis Handy Young had a range ofmusical skills and taught each of his children toplay instruments.

Lester learned the violin, trumpet, and drums.

Settled on the alto saxophone at thirteen.

He played in his family's band in the vaudevilleand carnival circuits.

He left the family band in 1927 because herefused to tour in the Southern United States,where the Jim Crow Laws were in effect.

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Early Life Career Highlights

In 1933 he settled in Kansas City, where afterplaying briefly in several bands he rose to staywith the Count Basie.

Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins inFletcher Henderson's orchestra.

However, he found the constant pressure fromHenderson's wife to play more like Hawkins

unbearable,

He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirkband (for six months) before returning to Basie.

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Early Life Highlights

While with Basie he made small-group

recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore

Records, The Kansas City Sessions.

The Kansas City Seven, had Buck Clayton,

Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green,

Rodney Richardson and Jo Jones. Young

played clarinet as well as tenor on thesesessions.

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Early Life Highlights

As well as the Kansas City Sessions his clarinet

work from 1938-39 is documented on

recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, and Basie

small groups.

His clarinet was stolen in 1939, and he

abandoned the instrument until about 1957,

when Norman Granz gave him one and urgedhim to play it

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Mid-Life Career Highlights

In 1940 Young left the Basie band.

He is rumored to have refused to play with theband on Friday, December 13th of that year

for superstitious reasons. During this period Young accompanied Billie

Holiday on a couple of studio sessions in 1940

and 1941. Also made a small set of recordings with Nat

"King" Cole in June 1942.

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Mid-Life Career Highlights

In August 1944, Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones,trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonistIllinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.

In September 1944, Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles withthe Basie Band when they were drafted into the U.S. Army. Young

was put in the 'regular army' where he wasn't allowed to play hissaxophone.

Young was based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama when marijuana andalcohol were found among his possessions. The army alsodiscovered that he was married to a white woman. Racistmistreatment followed; he was soon court-martialed. Young did not

fight the charges and was convicted. He served one year in adetention barracks and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945.His experience in the detention barracks inspired his composition"D.B. Blues" .

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Old life Career Highlights

On December 8, 1957, he appeared with BillieHoliday, Coleman Hawkings, Ben Webster, RoyEldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television

special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday'stunes "Lady Sings The Blues" and "Fine andMellow".

Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many

jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel ofeconomy, phrasing and extraordinarily movingemotion.

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Death

Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated during theperformance. By this time his self-destructive habits had begun to take holdterminally. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and sufferingfrom Liver disease and malnutrition.

Young's sharply declining physical strength in the final two years of his life yieldedsome recordings that manifested a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rareoccasions, an alarming 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 inMarch 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviatedEuropean tour during which he ate next to nothing and virtually drank himself todeath.

He died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arrivingback in New York, at the age of 49. He was buried at the Cemetery of the

Evergreens in Brooklyn. According to renowned jazz critic Leonardo Feather, whorode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she told Feather on the ride over, "I'llbe the next one to go." Holiday died four months later at age 44.

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References

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-

bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4738

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american

_history/1107/The_Prez_Lester_Young

http://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stori

es/musicians/lester-young

http://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25

342-2647596,00.html

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4738http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4738http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1107/The_Prez_Lester_Younghttp://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1107/The_Prez_Lester_Younghttp://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/musicians/lester-younghttp://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/musicians/lester-younghttp://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25342-2647596,00.htmlhttp://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25342-2647596,00.htmlhttp://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25342-2647596,00.htmlhttp://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25342-2647596,00.htmlhttp://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25342-2647596,00.htmlhttp://www.tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25342-2647596,00.htmlhttp://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/musicians/lester-younghttp://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/musicians/lester-younghttp://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/musicians/lester-younghttp://www.theevergreenscemetery.com/stories/musicians/lester-younghttp://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1107/The_Prez_Lester_Younghttp://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1107/The_Prez_Lester_Younghttp://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4738http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4738http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4738

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References

http://www.welwyn11.freeserve.co.uk/LY_ho

me.htm

http://www.jazz.com/jazz-

blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-matters

http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-mattershttp://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-matters