Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester Pres Young

by Douglas Henry Daniels

Book Overview

He was jazz's first hipster. He performed in sunglasses and coined and popularized phrases like "that's cool" and "you dig?" He always wore a suit and his trademark porkpie hat. He influenced everyone from B. B. King to Stan Getz to Allen Ginsberg, creating a lyrical style of playing that forever changed the sound of the tenor saxophone.

In this groundbreaking biography of Lester Young (1909-1959), historian Douglas Daniels brings to life the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807071250
• ISBN13: 9780807071250
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Cultural Differences or The Other America

It was so refreshing to read a biography on one of America's greatest musicians from the perspective of an African American historian who had access to Pres' former colleagues and family members relative to what Pres was really like and what made him tick. What intimate family and peer relationships during his childhood, teenage years and adult years contributed to how he expressed himself through his music can only be told by a family member or a very, very close friend. Only African American colleagues of Pres can give us some insight as to how he really felt about America's Jim Crow practices which were actually sanctioned by the US Governmentprior to the Civil Rights Acts of 1954 & 1964) and how these Jim Crow practices may have influenced his mindset.The Life and Times of Lester "Pres" Young is not for the faint hearted. It is a scholarly work! It is not "Lester Young Goes To Disneyland." Art forms depict what the artist sees as reality. Despite Jim Crow - the Pres was able to deliver. This book tells us about the character of the Man by the people that really knew him. Daniels has provided society with something we didn't have before - a look at Pres through the eyes of the people closest to him who "opened up" to an African American historian over a period of twenty years because they trusted him and believed that he understood the cultural nuances that exist in African American families that are different from many non African American families.