He was jazz's first hipster. He performed in sunglasses and coined and
popularized phrases like "that's cool" and "you dig?" He always wore a
suit and his trademark porkpie hat. He influenced everyone from B. B.
King to Stan Getz to Allen Ginsberg, creating a lyrical style of playing
that forever changed the sound of the tenor saxophone.
In this
groundbreaking biography of Lester Young (1909-1959), historian Douglas
Daniels brings to life the man and his world, and corrects a number of
misconceptions. Even though others have identified Young as a Kansas
City musician, Daniels traces his roots to the blues of Louisiana and
his early years traveling with his father's band and the legendary
Oklahoma City Blue Devils. Later we see the jazz culture of New York in
the early 1940s, when Young was launched to national and international
fame with the Count Basie Orchestra and began to accompany his close
friend Billie Holiday. After a year spent in an Army prison on a
conviction for marijuana use, Young made changes in his music but never
lost his sensitivity or soul.
The first ever to gain access to
Young's family and many musicians who performed with him, Daniels
reconstructs the world in which Young lived and played: the racism that
he and other black musicians faced, the feeling of home and family that
they created together on the road, and what his music meant to black
audiences. Young emerges as a kind friend, a loving parent, and a gentle
and sensitive man who had, in the words of Reginald Scott, "the saddest
eyes I ever saw
Prez has already had quite a few books devoted to him - Porter, Buchmann - but he deserves even more for his incredible impact on jazz and popular music!
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