From Wikipedia (abbreviated)
Lester Willis Young (August 27,
1909 – March 15, 1959), "Pres" or "Prez", was a jazz tenor
saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Young was born in Woodville,
Mississippi, on August 27, 1909.
His mother was Lizetta Young (née
Johnson), and his father was Willis Handy Young, originally from Louisiana. He
grew up in a musical family. His father was a teacher and band leader, and
several other relatives performed professionally.
While growing up in New Orleans,
he worked from the age of five to make money for the family. He sold newspapers
and shined shoes. By the time he was ten, he had learned the basics of trumpet,
violin, and drums, and joined the Young Family Band touring with carnivals and
playing in regional cities in the Southwest In his teens he and his father
clashed, and he often left home for long periods.
Young 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.
He became a member of the Bostonians, led by
Art Bronson, and chose tenor saxophone over alto as his primary instrument. He
made a habit of leaving, working, then going home. He left home permanently in
1932 when he became a member of the Blue Devils led by Walter Page.
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 more forceful approach of Coleman Hawkins,
the dominant tenor sax player of the day. One of Young's key influences was
Frank Trumbauer, who came to prominence in the 1920s with Paul Whiteman and
played the C-melody saxophone (between the alto and tenor in pitch).
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. Young is described as playing the clarinet in a "liquid,
nervous style."
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. Billie and Lester
met at a Harlem jam session in the early 30s and worked together in the Count
Basie band and in nightclubs on New York's 52nd St. At one point Lester moved
into the apartment Billie shared with her mother, Sadie Fagan. Holiday always
insisted their relationship was strictly platonic. She gave Lester the nickname
"Prez" after President Franklin Roosevelt, the "greatest man
around" in Billie's mind. Playing on her name, he would call her
"Lady Day." Their famously empathetic classic recordings with Teddy
Wilson date from this era.
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.
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
Young and drummer Jo Jones would later state that his departure had been in the
works for months. He subsequently led a number of small groups that often
included his brother, 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 (during
1937 - 1941 period) 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 recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians. Small record
labels not bound by union contracts continued to record and he recorded some
sessions for Harry Lim's Keynote label in 1943.
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. 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 cane
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 traumatic 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).
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 many studio recordings under Granz's
supervision 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 declined more precipitously as his drinking increased. 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). 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 including a
reunion with pianist Teddy Wilson, trumpet player Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic
Dickenson, bassist Gene Ramey, and drummer Jo Jones – which were issued as The
Jazz Giants '56 and Pres 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 residency at Olivia Davis' Patio Lounge in Washington,
DC, with the Bill Potts Trio. Live recording of Young and Potts in Washington
were issued later.
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 his colleagues: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois
Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. In 1952 he was featured on Lester Young with the
Oscar Peterson Trio, released in 1954 on Norgran.
Lester married three times.
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 drank heavily. He died in the early morning hours of March 15,
1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49.
According to jazz critic Leonard
Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said after the
services, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months
later on July 17, 1959 at age 44.