Lester Young
When everyone else blew thick and hot, he sang light and cool.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people around him ⏳🌊
- FamilyWillis Handy Young
His father, who taught him several instruments and led the family band.
- ColleagueKing Oliver
Playing briefly alongside him in a touring band in the early 1930s, he absorbed the sensibility of jazz's founding generation.
- RivalryColeman Hawkins
The reigning standard of the tenor saxophone in his day, against whom he forged a tone all his own.
- PatronageCount Basie
The bandleader who made him the band's star soloist.
- FriendshipBillie Holiday
A lifelong musical companion; they gave each other the nicknames Prez and Lady Day.
- PatronageNorman Granz
The producer who steadily backed his postwar tours and recordings.
I. The boy from Mississippi · 1909–1927 (age 0–18)
(Mississippi) He was born in August 1909 in Woodville, Mississippi. Not long after his birth to his father, Willis Handy Young, and his mother, the family moved to the outskirts of New Orleans, where young Lester spent his early childhood. (Father) Willis Handy Young was a music teacher who could play many instruments; he taught his children himself and formed them into a family band. Lester first learned the drums; later his sister Irma took up piano and alto saxophone, and his brother Lee inherited the drums. (Traveling band) The Young family band played its way across the Midwest and the South, following carnivals and touring circuits. Lester was on stage from his early teens, and feeling that the horns suited him better than the hard labor of hauling and setting up a drum kit, he took up the alto saxophone, and then the tenor. (Jim Crow) In 1927, as the band was preparing for a tour of the South, Lester declared that he would no longer travel that road. He later recalled that he could not bear a Southern itinerary in which restaurants and lodgings were divided by race. Leaving his father's band was the first choice an eighteen-year-old made to preserve his own dignity.
II. King Oliver and Kansas City · 1927–1934 (age 18–25)
(Independence) After leaving the family band, Lester made the Minnesota area his base and drifted from one itinerant band to another. He first made his name as a tenor saxophonist with Art Bronson's Bostonians, and afterward earned his living moving among various territory bands. (King Oliver) In the early 1930s he spent a stretch in the touring band led by King Oliver. Playing, however briefly, under the veteran cornetist—past his prime and roaming the South and Midwest—was a rare chance to absorb up close the sensibility of jazz's founding generation. (Kansas City) Passing through Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Bennie Moten orchestra, he steeped himself in the hot jazz scene of Kansas City. There he refined a sound all his own, light and straight-flying, utterly unlike the thick, powerful tone of Coleman Hawkins, then the reigning standard of the tenor saxophone. (Individuality) He favored a narrow-brimmed, flat-topped hat (the porkpie hat), and he coined a slang of his own that caught on among his fellow musicians. He invented words for money and expressions for things he liked, and these verbal habits later spread throughout the jazz world.
III. New York and disappointment · 1934–1936 (age 25–27)
(Henderson) In 1934 the Fletcher Henderson orchestra was looking for a tenor saxophonist to fill the chair left empty when Coleman Hawkins departed for Europe, and Lester was chosen. It was his first big chance on the New York stage. (Cold shoulder) But the band members were used to Hawkins's dark, forceful sound, and they found Lester's light, spacious playing strange. Henderson's wife, Leora, is said to have played him Hawkins's records and urged him to blow something similar. Lester would not change his sound, and within a few months he left the band. (Return) Disheartened, he went back to Kansas City and joined the band of Count Basie, in effect the successor to Bennie Moten's. The coldness he met in New York left a deep wound, yet it was also a time in which he proved to himself that his conviction was firm enough to defend his own tone. (First recording) In 1936, through the arrangements of record producer John Hammond, a small Basie group made its first recordings in Chicago. Contract problems forced them to issue the band's name under the pseudonym Jones-Smith Incorporated, but Lester's solos on these sides are credited with changing the course of jazz saxophone.
His first recording in a leading role, made under the pseudonym Jones-Smith Incorporated just after he came back from the cold shoulder of New York.
- The solo begins lightly, as if floating up from the upper register, and stretches out straight with almost no vibrato (the technique of making a note tremble) — a sharp contrast to the thick, quavering tone of Coleman Hawkins that dominated the day.
- Drummer Jo Jones's way of driving the swing lightly, mostly on the cymbals, is often cited as the origin of modern jazz drumming.
- A short, lean structure that states the theme, inserts the improvisation, and returns to the theme (head-solo-head form).
- A session discovered by producer John Hammond; because of Basie's contract with another label, it was released with the band's name under a pseudonym.
IV. The President and Lady Day · 1936–1940 (age 27–31)
(Basie band) The Count Basie orchestra moved its base to New York at the end of 1936 and rose to the center of big-band swing. Lester became the band's star soloist, and his playing, which told its stories through the space between restrained notes, set him clearly apart from the saxophonists of his day. (Billie Holiday) Around this time he grew close to the singer Billie Holiday. The two gave each other nicknames: Billie called him President—meaning the king of saxophonists—or Prez for short, and Lester called her Lady Day. These nicknames remain the names by which the two are known to this day. (Herschel Evans) The Basie band had another tenor player, Herschel Evans, whose thick tone was in the Coleman Hawkins mold. The two often traded solos on the bandstand in friendly contest, and "Doggin' Around," recorded in 1938, survives as a document of two very different tenor saxophone personalities side by side. (Peak) "Lester Leaps In," recorded in 1939, became the tune that made his name widely known. On Billie Holiday's recordings, too, his obbligatos are often singled out as passages that reveal the musical rapport between the two. (Departure) At the end of 1940, as grievances over pay and treatment piled up, he left the Basie band. He moved to Los Angeles and formed a band with his brother Lee Young, who had grown up to be a drummer, and the trio recordings he made in this period with pianist Nat King Cole let us hear his relaxed playing away from the big band.
The signature tune of the Basie band's golden age, which fixed his name in the public mind.
- A 32-bar AABA tune set on the chord changes of "I Got Rhythm," whose first-chorus solo is especially famous.
- The leaping phrasing in triplet rhythm is said to have given the tune its title.
- A feeling of roaming freely over the gentle swing laid down by Freddie Green's guitar and Walter Page's bass.
- Basie's accompaniment is pared to a minimum, making the saxophone solo stand out all the more.
The signature collaboration born of his friendship with Billie Holiday, revealing the musical dialogue between the two.
- Behind Billie's singing, Lester's solo answers in short phrases as if in conversation (obbligato) — the celebrated musical rapport between the two.
- Voice and instrument trading on equal terms was a rare style of accompaniment for its time.
- Playing that, over a restrained swing tempo, leaves a deep resonance in place of flash.
Small-group recordings made in Los Angeles with pianist Nat King Cole after he left the Basie band.
- In a trio without a bass, the rhythm is shared among the saxophone, the piano, and Buddy Rich's drums.
- Nat King Cole's piano moves between swing and the blues, underpinning the soloist with fluent accompaniment.
- Lester's phrasing grows more relaxed and songlike, and the freedom of a man released from the big band comes through.
V. The army and the stockade · 1944–1945 (age 35–36)
(Draft) In the fall of 1944, Lester, then a famous thirty-five-year-old saxophonist, received his army draft notice. He was already married and one of the defining musicians of the swing era, but no exception was made. (Search) Not long after he was posted to Fort McClellan in Alabama, marijuana and barbiturates were found among his belongings, and he was court-martialed. It was a discipline applied far more harshly to Black enlisted men in a Southern army where racism was open and unashamed. (Detention) Found guilty, he was confined to a detention barracks in Georgia. Those months without his instrument left a wound that never healed, and in later interviews he would scarcely speak of the period. (Scars) The title of “D.B. Blues,” recorded soon after his release in 1945, refers to the stockade (Detention Barracks). His tone, murkier and heavier than before, is often heard as a trace of what he had endured, set down in sound rather than words.
Recorded soon after his release from the stockade, a rare document of experience carved into music.
- The D.B. of the title refers to the stockade (Detention Barracks) where he was held.
- Over a form in which the chords repeat in twelve-bar units (the 12-bar blues), it flows slowly and heavily, as if sung.
- His tone, murkier and more frayed than before, is often described by listeners as a trace of trauma.
VI. A changed tone · 1945–1955 (age 36–46)
(Change) The light, straight tone of his prewar years gradually took on a thick vibrato and shadowed colors. Critics read this not as a decline in technique but as the losses one man had suffered seeping into his sound. (Granz) The record producer Norman Granz became his patron. Lester was a regular on Jazz at the Philharmonic, the touring concerts Granz organized, and through the Clef and Verve labels he was able to keep recording steadily. (Alcohol) As time went on he leaned more and more on drink; he lost weight, and on some days simply getting onstage was a struggle. Even so, he never set down his horn, and in slow ballads he could still sound a deep resonance. (Reverence) Young saxophonists such as Stan Getz and Lee Konitz took up his light, cool tone and opened the current known as cool jazz. Lester himself never made much of it, but the sound he had pioneered had become the backbone of the next generation.
A reunion session with pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Jo Jones, colleagues from the old Basie·Billie days.
- As befits a reunion of old colleagues, the easy, considerate interplay (give-and-take) is striking.
- Even in the slow ballads, his phrasing still breathes with life.
- It reflects the approach of producer Norman Granz, who favored single takes to capture natural performances.
VII. Paris and the last night · 1955–1959 (age 46–50)
(Decline) By the late 1950s his health had visibly deteriorated. He looked worn out more and more often even onstage, and old colleagues are said to have been left speechless at how gaunt he had become. (Paris) In early 1959 he set out for Paris on a final tour with a French rhythm section. At the city's Blue Note club he took the stage barely able to eat or drink, yet his playing flowed to the very end, unadorned and songlike. (Return) On March 15, 1959, he returned to New York and settled into the Alvin Hotel, across the street from the Birdland club. (Death) That night he died in his hotel room. He was forty-nine. Billie Holiday, who would herself die four months later, came to his funeral to see her old friend off. His light, straight-reaching tone remained the backbone of jazz saxophonists for decades to come.
A live recording made on his final European tour, a few weeks before his death.
- Even in poor health, his solo lines flow plainly, as if sung.
- In step with a French rhythm section — moments when swing bridges the gap of language.
- It is often cited as one of the last live recordings of his life.
Lesser-known stories
It is said that much of the slang that later spread throughout the jazz world first came from his mouth. He coined his own expressions for liking something and his own words for money, and they are said to have spread naturally as fellow musicians picked them up. This way with language revealed his personality as much as his music did, but because it left no record the way recordings or scores do, it survives only in fragments, through the oral testimony of colleagues rather than in formal biographies. Few people know that the first instrument he learned was the drums. In a 1959 interview with the French critic François Postif, given shortly before his death, he recalled that he switched to a wind instrument because hauling and setting up the drums while traveling with the family band was such a chore. The interview is counted among the last recordings of his own voice, and an English translation appeared in an American jazz magazine that same year. The detailed records of his court-martial remained sealed for some time even after his death. It is said that the specific circumstances of what he went through in the stockade came to light only later, through the research of biographer Douglas Henry Daniels. Because the man himself had scarcely spoken of the period while he lived, this chapter long circulated only as a brief anecdote before it was finally given scholarly treatment much later.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Swing
Swing is an English word meaning to sway, or to ride a swing. In jazz it refers to a rhythmic feel, created by slightly pulling back the latter part of each beat, that makes the body move of its own accord. Like the back-and-forth motion of riding a swing, it gives a sense of pushing and pulling slightly against the straight beat. Elsewhere, a swing can also mean the motion of swinging a club or bat in golf or baseball.
Obbligato
The Italian obbligato means “obligatory,” and originally referred to an essential part that could not be omitted. In jazz it means an accompaniment in which an instrument supports a singer from behind with short phrases, as if answering them. It is much like one person telling a story while the person beside them chimes in with encouraging calls.
Vibrato
The word comes from the Italian vibrare, meaning to tremble. In music it is a technique of regularly wavering a pitch to produce a trembling sound, adding emotion to a voice or instrument. It is much like the way your voice quavers when you hold a long note at karaoke.
12-bar blues
One of the most widely used forms in jazz, in which a fixed sequence of chords repeats in twelve-bar units. It is easiest to understand as a fixed framework, like a round, within which the players freely layer their improvisations.
Cool jazz
A current in jazz that emerged in the late 1940s; unlike hot, fiery bebop, it emphasizes calm, restrained tone and dynamics. It can be likened to speaking softly and steadily in a low, calm voice instead of shouting in anger.
Head–solo–head form
The most basic structure in jazz performance: the band first plays the tune's main melody (the head) together, then each player takes a turn improvising (the solo), and at the end everyone returns to the opening theme to close. It is rather like telling a story that opens and ends with the same greeting, while the middle is free to wander wherever it will.