Latest Release
- 4 NOV 2022
- 15 Songs
- Buddy 100 · 2017
- Just You, Just Me · 1953
- Standards: Great Songs Great Performances · 2010
- Blue Lester · 1956
- The Songbook - Cole Porter Vol. 1 · 2001
- Jazzy Kind of Love · 1952
- Standards: Great Songs Great Performances · 2010
- Lester Young: Ken Burns Jazz · 1998
- Johnny Otis Rock! Greatest Masters · 2001
- Lester Swings · 1951
Artist Playlists
- Inventing saxophone slang and style while swinging with Basie.
- A saxophone summit and original compositions from Prez.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
Appears On
- The Count Basie Orchestra
- Count Basie and His Orchestra
About Lester Young
A man of poetic sensibilities, tenor saxophonist Lester Young was the instrument's most influential figure in the pre-bop era. A featured soloist with the great Count Basie band of the late 1930s, Young scaled the heights on classic recordings of "Taxi War Dance" and "Lester Leaps In." Although some claim that mental and physical abuse while in the military cast a shadow on his postwar work, there is ample evidence on record of unabated brilliance up until his premature death in 1959. His solo work, characterized by a light sound, asymmetrical, behind-the-beat phrasing, and a startling sense of originality, remains unsurpassed in its depth and delicacy of expression.
- HOMETOWN
- Woodville, MS, United States
- BORN
- 27 August 1909
- GENRE
- Jazz