Lester young short biography

Born Lester Willis Young, August 27, 1909, in Woodville, MS; died March 14, 1959, in New York, NY; son of Willis Handy (a bandleader) and Lizetta; married first wife, Beatrice (marriage ended); lived with common law spouse, Mary, 1937-46; married second wife, also named Mary, 1948; children: Lester, Jr., Yvette.

Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army, 1944-45.

Saxophonist Lester Young had one of the memorable styles in twentieth-century jazz.

Lester young short biography

Prez, or the President, as Young was nicknamed by singer Billie Holiday, played a spare and cerebral saxophone, though often a melancholy one. His tenor sax technique counterbalanced his peer Coleman Hawkins's lush, heavily ornamented tone.

In his book The Reluctant Art: The Growth of Jazz, Benny Green described the difference between the two artists: "Where Hawkins is profuse, Lester is pithy; where Hawkins is passionate, Lester is reflective."

Young's presence on the bandstand, with his horn up and out at a 45 degree angle, was striking.

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