Lester Young
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet · born 27 August 1909 – died 15 March 1959
▸ Click for Richard Cook Bio
Young's father raised his family near to New Orleans and taught them all music, which led to Lester and his brothers playing in a family band and appearing in carnival shows. Having tried several instruments, Lester took up the alto in his teens and played on that horn with a band called Art Bronson's Bostonians during 1928. Eventually, by now playing tenor, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils and based himself in Kansas City from 1933. He was soon enough a local hero on the horn, and on a famous night in December 1933 he traded choruses with a visiting Coleman Hawkins for hours, tiring out all the piano players and obliging Ben Webster to go and wake up Mary Lou Williams so she could take over. The following year he joined Count Basie and began his most famous association, but at the start he was there for only a matter of weeks, subsequently moving to Fletcher Henderson's band, where he took over Coleman Hawkins's chair. His style was so unwelcome in the band, though, that he left within a few months and after playing with different groups rejoined Basie in Kansas City. He was with the Count when the band made their move to New York at the end of the year, stopping in Chicago to make Young's first records: Shoe Shine Boy and Lady Be Good mark perhaps the most extraordinary debut on record jazz has ever seen, Young's lithe, trippingly exuberant but almost singing delivery causing a sensation among musicians (although audiences, by now accustomed to the Hawkins tenor sound, were often divided). For four years, Young was one of the leading voices of Basie's band, sparring with his friend Herschel Evans in the reed section and creating solos on records such as Lester Leaps In, Taxi War Dance, Tickle Toe and (his own favourite) Clap Hands! Here Comes Charlie which set a new style for tenor players. Instead of Hawkins, Young pointed to two surprise influences, Jimmy Dorsey and Frankie Trumbauer, whose light and clear playing and complete mastery of the architecture of a solo were paramount to him. Some of his best playing in the period comes on the session dates he did with Teddy Wilson, backing Billie Holiday's singing: she gave him his long-standing nickname, 'Pres', a reduction of 'President'.
Young left Basie in 1940 and led a sextet, and then a band with his brother Lee, which dispersed following the death of their father. He then freelanced in New York before rejoining Basie in 1943, appeared in Gjon Mili's film Jamming The Blues, and became a popular success with the public as well as with musicians: but it all came crashing down when he was drafted into the army in September 1944. An introvert with a language all his own and a curious kind of knowing naivety about him, Young could hardly have been less suited to army life, and he was court-martialled early in 1945, spending several months in detention (one army psychiatrist called him 'a constitutional psychopath'). On his release he began a round of touring with his own small groups, and playing regularly with Jazz At The Philharmonic. Many have suggested that Young's time in the army scarred him so badly that his playing never recovered, but that is scarcely borne out by his records: for much of the next few years he was still in wonderful form, and though his sound had begun to grow heavier and used a wider vibrato and more honking notes, many of his solos remain masterful. By 1950, though, a deterioration had started to set in, as his small-group records for Verve began to document. In this period, apologists for Young suggest his musical thinking was growing ever more modern as bebop drifted around him, but what hurts about all of Young's post-1950 music is its constant stumbling. Often he will start a solo beautifully, only for it to fall apart somewhere in the middle, and on track after track there is something to spoil what he does. While never a hard-drug user – 'New Orleans cigarettes' were about the worst he could tolerate in that line – Young had always been a drinker, and by the 50s he was a remorseless alcoholic.
He rejoined Basie on occasion during the decade, and he played with Billie Holiday on the celebrated 1957 telecast The Sound Of Jazz, but his solo sounded feeble. He was always something of a dandy, meticulous about his hair and cologne; his private language baffled many but was clear enough once you understood such phrases as 'Can Madam burn?' ('Can your wife cook?'), 'You rang the bell' ('You're right'), and so on. In January 1959, he played the start of an engagement at the Paris Blue Note club, but was too ill to complete it and returned home to New York, where he died a day later. His influence on a generation of tenor players – Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and many more – was obvious enough, but his concern to play a flowing melodic line became a totemic part of modern jazz. In his memory, Charles Mingus wrote Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, a reference to Young's favourite headgear, and Wayne Shorter composed the even more poignant Lester Left Town.
Biography from Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia (2005).
If you'd like more information, check out The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) or The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (2007), both of which are still in print.
As leader
Lester Young and Harry Edison – Pres and Sweets
Lester Young – The President Plays With the Oscar Peterson Trio
Lester Young – Pres and Teddy
Plays on
Various Artists – The Jazz Giants ’56
Mentioned in text
Dave Brubeck Quartet – Jazz at the College of the Pacific
Shorty Rogers – The Swinging Mr. Rogers
Tony Fruscella – Tony Fruscella
Buck Clayton – Jumpin’ at the Woodside
Miles Davis – Blue Moods
Modern Jazz Quartet – Concorde
Gerry Mulligan – Mulligan Plays Mulligan
Miles Davis – The Musings of Miles
Wardell Gray – Memorial, Volume One
Kenny Clarke – Bohemia After Dark
Cannonball Adderley – Presenting Cannonball
Shorty Rogers – Martians Come Back!
Jimmy Giuffre – The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet
Oscar Peterson – Plays Count Basie
Zoot Sims – The Modern Art of Jazz
Paul Quinichette – The Kid from Denver
Red Rodney Quintet – Modern Music from Chicago
Brew Moore – The Brew Moore Quintet
Modern Jazz Sextet – The Modern Jazz Sextet
Chet Baker Quartet – Jazz at Ann Arbor
Bud Shank – The Bud Shank Quartet
Wardell Gray – Memorial, Volume Two
Elmo Hope Trio – Meditations
Various Artists – Conception
Sanford Gold – Piano D’or
Sonny Rollins – Worktime
Stan Getz / Zoot Sims / Al Cohn / Allen Eager / Brew Moore – The Brothers
Teddy Charles – Collaboration: West
Miles Davis – Collectors’ Items
Gene Ammons – All-Star Sessions
Cohn Perkins Kamuca – The Brothers
Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer – Tonite’s Music Today
Jo Jones – Jo Jones Special
Dexter Gordon – Daddy Plays the Horn
Billy Taylor – Introduces Ira Sullivan
Lucky Thompson & Oscar Pettiford – Vol. 2
Zoot Sims – Zoot
Jimmy Giuffre – The Jimmy Giuffre 3
Lee Konitz – Inside Hi-Fi
Modern Jazz Quartet – Modern Jazz Quartet
John Lewis and Sacha Distel – Afternoon in Paris
Horace Silver – Horace Silver Trio and Art Blakey – Sabú
Johnny Griffin – Introducing Johnny Griffin
Horace Silver – 6 Pieces of Silver
Hank Mobley – With Donald Byrd and Lee Morgan
Cliff Jordan / John Gilmore – Blowing In From Chicago
Hank Mobley Quintet – Hank Mobley Quintet
Sonny Rollins – Sonny Rollins, Volume Two
Horace Silver – The Stylings of Silver
Harry Edison and his Orchestra – Sweets
Miles Davis – Miles Ahead
Curtis Counce – The Curtis Counce Group
Sonny Rollins – Way Out West
Art Pepper – Meets the Rhythm Section
Curtis Counce – You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce
Al Cohn – The Al Cohn Quintet
Al Cohn Quintet – Al and Zoot
Al Cohn – Cohn on the Saxophone
Zoot Sims – Goes to Jazzville
Chico Hamilton Quintet – The Sweet Smell of Success
Clifford Brown – Clifford Brown All-Stars
Horace Silver – Silver’s Blue
Warne Marsh – Jazz of Two Cities
Bill Perkins – On Stage
Bob Brookmeyer Quintet – Traditionalism Revisited
Bill Perkins – Just Friends
The Jazz Messengers – Ritual
Gil Mellé – Gil’s Guests
Hank Mobley / Al Cohn / John Coltrane / Zoot Sims – Tenor Conclave
Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus
Phil Woods / Donald Byrd – The Young Bloods
Thad Jones / Frank Wess / Teddy Charles / Mal Waldron / Doug Watkins / Elvin Jones – Olio
Paul Quinichette – On the Sunny Side
Teo Macero – Teo
Webster Young – For Lady
Gene Ammons – Jammin’ In Hi Fi
Al Cohn / Zoot Sims – From A to Z
Shorty Rogers – Wherever the Five Winds Blow
Kenny Drew – Kenny Drew Trio
Trigger Alpert – Trigger Happy!
Zoot Sims – Zoot!
Sonny Rollins – The Sound of Sonny
Various Artists – Trumpets All Out
Cecil Payne – Cecil Payne
Art Tatum – Presenting The Art Tatum Trio
Tal Farlow – The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow
Art Pepper – Return of Art Pepper
John Lewis – The John Lewis Piano
George Wallington – Knight Music
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers – With Thelonious Monk
Warne Marsh – Warne Marsh
Lou Donaldson Quintet – Swing and Soul
Sonny Clark – Dial “S” For Sonny
Johnny Griffin – The Congregation
Sonny Rollins – A Night at the Village Vanguard
Cliff Jordan – Cliff Craft
Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else
Miles Davis – Milestones
Red Mitchell – Presenting Red Mitchell
Hampton Hawes Quartet – All Night Session! Vols. 1-3
Bill Holman – The Fabulous Bill Holman
Bill Harris – Bill Harris and Friends
Brew Moore – Brew Moore
Steve Lacy – Soprano Sax
Sonny Rollins – Tour De Force
Paul Quinichette – For Basie
King Pleasure Sings / Annie Ross Sings
Frank Wess – Wheelin’ & Dealin’
Sonny Stitt – Stitt’s Bits
Hal McKusick – Triple Exposure
Prestige Blues-Swingers – Outskirts of Town
Johnny Griffin – Johnny Griffin Sextet
Thelonious Monk Quartet – Misterioso
Harry Edison – Gee, Baby Ain’t I Good To You
Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come
Hank Mobley / Lee Morgan – Peckin’ Time
The 3 Sounds – The 3 Sounds
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – Moanin’
Bennie Green – Walkin’ and Talkin
Jackie McLean – New Soil
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – At the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
Sonny Rollins – And the Contemporary Leaders
Ornette Coleman – Tomorrow is the Question!
Ramsey Lewis Trio – In Chicago
Charles Mingus – Blues & Roots
Ornette Coleman – Change of the Century
Walter Davis, Jr. – Davis Cup
Kenny Burrell – On View at the Five Spot Cafe
Freddie Redd Quartet – Music from The Connection
Art Blakey – The Big Beat
Hank Mobley – Soul Station
Freddie Hubbard – Open Sesame
Eric Dolphy – Outward Bound
Wynton Kelly – Kelly at Midnite
Curtis Fuller – Curtis Fuller, Volume Three
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – At the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2
Lou Donaldson – Sunny Side Up
John Coltrane Quartet – Africa/Brass
Oliver Nelson – The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Count Basie & Duke Ellington – First Time! The Count Meets the Duke
Benny Carter and His Orchestra – Further Definitions
Count Basie – And the Kansas City 7
Charles Mingus – Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Various Artists – The Definitive Jazz Scene, Vol. 1
Roland Kirk – Rip, Rig and Panic
Wynton Kelly Trio – Smokin’ at the Half Note
Zoot Sims – Waiting Game
Stan Getz – Sweet Rain
Miles Davis – And the Modern Jazz Giants
Clifford Jordan Quartet – Night of the Mark VII
Dexter Gordon – Homecoming: Live at the Village Vanguard