Latest Release
- 4 NOV 2022
- 15 Songs
- Pres in Europe · 2000
- Blue Lester · 1956
- Saga Jazz: Black California "Central Avenue 1945-1950" (Modern Series) · 2005
- Jazzy Kind of Love · 1952
- Standards: Great Songs Great Performances · 2010
- This Is Jazz, Vol. 26 - Lester Young · 1939
- Just You, Just Me · 1953
- Standards: Great Songs Great Performances · 2010
- We Loved You Madly, Chapter 47: If I Loved You · 1952
- The Complete Decca Recordings · 1992
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