Lester Young- Jesse

Lester Young

Background information •

Birth name: Lester Willis Young

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Also known as "Prez"

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Born August 27, 1909

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Woodville, Mississippi, U.S.

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Died March 15, 1959 (aged 49)

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New York City, New York, U.S

Music Background •

Genres: Jazz

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Occupations: Saxophonist, clarinetist

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Instruments: Tenor saxophone, clarinet

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Years active 1933 –1959

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Labels: Verve

Early Years •

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His father, Willis Handy Young had a range of  musical skills and taught each of his children to play instruments. Lester learned the violin, trumpet, and drums. Settled on the alto saxophone at thirteen. He played in his family's band in the vaudeville and carnival circuits. He left the family band in 1927 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where the Jim Crow Laws were in effect.

Early Life Career Highlights •

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In 1933 he settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands he rose to stay with the Count Basie. Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. However, he found the constant pressure from Henderson's wife to play more like Hawkins unbearable, He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie.

Early Life Highlights •

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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 these sessions.

Early Life Highlights •

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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 urged him to play it

Mid-Life Career Highlights •

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In 1940 Young left the Basie band. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band 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.

Mid-Life Career Highlights •

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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 drafted into the U.S. Army. Young was put in the 'regular army' where he wasn't allowed to play his saxophone. Young was based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama when marijuana and alcohol were found among his possessions. The army also discovered that he was married to a white woman. Racist mistreatment followed; 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 in the detention barracks inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" .

Old life Career Highlights •

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On December 8, 1957, he appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkings, 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". Young's solo was brilliant, considered by many  jazz musicians an unparalleled marvel of  economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion.

Death •

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Young seemed gravely ill, and was the only horn player who was seated during the performance. By this time his self-destructive habits had begun to take hold terminally. He was eating significantly less, drinking more and more, and suffering from Liver disease and malnutrition. Young's sharply declining physical strength in the final two years of his life yielded some recordings that manifested a frail tone, shortened phrases, and, on rare occasions, 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 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. According to renowned jazz critic Leonardo Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she told Feather on the ride over, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later at age 44.

References •

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http://www.findagrave.com/cgibin/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

References •

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http://www.welwyn11.freeserve.co.uk/LY_ho me.htm http://www.jazz.com/jazzblog/2009/8/22/why-lester-young-matters