Forum of the Saxes

CMelodyMan · Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 10:22 pm Post subject: AOTW #1

The first AOTW (Week #1) is Lester Young. Start posting! :smile:

saxmaniac · Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 184

Lester "Prez" Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909. Lester was taught how to play music by his father, Willis Handy Young, who was a very good musician in his own right. Lester was first taught to play the violin, the trumpet, and the drums.(Early years). He later decided to stick to the alto saxophone, despite the fact that the drums were his favorite instrument to play.

Young's style was the traditional swing style that will always be linked with Basie's bands. Several famous musicians including Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, and Al Cohn were greatly influenced by Young. A majority of the songs Young played while in the Basie band where 32 bar blues with an AABA structure. When he began recording on his own, he mixed together ballads, blues, and moderate and fast tempo AABA structured tunes. He gradually moved toward his famous soft tone that inspired Stan Getz.

He died March 15, 1959 ,l;uk

JPSaxMan · Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 8:45 am Post subject:

Thanx for the information saxmaniac. I never really knew who Lester Young was... Embarassed

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Louis Scuderi · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:10 pm Post subject:

I really don't know anything about Lester Young. Embarassed

I'm so ignorant. Cool

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altosaxgeek5 · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject:

Me too. I've heard lots about him, and REALLY want to listen to some of his work, but have never really known much about him.
Curiously enough, I think I just read the exact same paragraph saxmaniac posted about him on the 'net a few days ago.
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darby dylan · Joined: 30 Jul 2005 Posts: 63

wich tunes did lester young write that are well none.
and what is a good cd of him?

saxfreak · Joined: 08 Aug 2005 Posts: 5 Location: No. Hollywood, CA

Lester Young had a huge influence on many later great sax players. For example, I've heard that Coltrane was very influenced by Lester Young. Also, when I took some lessons with Warne Marsh, he told me that Lester Young was his main influence. He had me learn Lester Young solos from recordings. One day at a lesson, Warne put on a Lester Young record and played along with the solo note-perfectly. I was impressed, and Warne said it had been probably ten years since he had played that particular solo.

BuffaloBariSax · Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:06 pm Post subject:

I don't know a lot about Lester, but I think his best known work is "Lester Leaps In." It's a really good song. I remember my friend was listening to XM, and he heard something that sounded like Charlie Parker, and I was like, "It could have been Lester Young, since he influenced Parker so much."
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