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I chose Lester young based on just one image of him: the one pictured above. if you couldn't tell, this is not a regular way of holding a saxophone, and I wanted to learn more. And turns out, this guy is as interesting as you can get!

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Lester Young set himself from other Tenor saxophones in the time... by doing everything differently. While others focused on creating aggressive, hard-driving melodies (like Coleman Hawkins), Young played at the highest range the tenor could offer, creating an almost "lyrical" style of playing. he also held his instrument differently, often playing it 45* to his side.

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Lester Young & Coleman Hawkins - LIVE 1958 (note- this is a recording WAY after the incident. there are surprisingly few recordings of Young pre-war, so this is as close as you can get)

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How Lester Young got the nickname is disputed, some say it is just a nickname his good friend Billie holiday gave him, while others think it correlates with one of his crowning achievements.

One day, the Fletcher Henderson traveling orchestra's main tenor saxophonist, Coleman Hawkins, missed a show. needing a replacement, they called in Young to sub. Young, in his usual fashion, did his own style. and the fans went WILD. Later on, Hawkins decided to move to Europe, leaving Young as the "prez-ident" of the Henderson band.

Despite the fans loving his style, young eventually left the band due to all of their works requiring Hawkins harsh tones. He eventually settled down in count basie's orchestra

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Lester Young & Coleman Hawkins - LIVE 1958

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Lester young had a very interesting way of speaking, witch was very very smooth, but consisted with tons of strange slang (like saying he had "big eyes" for the things he liked) and new words that he crafted on the fly. Three of the most well known ones that he popularized is the word "cool" as a compliment, using "bread" as a slang for money, and "you dig?" as understanding.

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Interview with Lester Young by Chris Albertson - August 24, 1958

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In his normal life Lester Young was extremely shy and introverted, and found Jazz as an escape from the discrimination faced during the time. However, the worst discrimination was the draft. Despite his talents, he was put in the "regular army" and just like everything in his life, he disobeyed order and thus got dishonorably discharged. he carried the trauma from the army for the rest of his life, became a heavy alcoholic and it is said he never played the same again. Just 20 years after the war, Young drank himself to death on a tour to Paris. He was 49.

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One fact that is often repeated is Lester Young's clarinet- and there are no good sources on it. (you can hear him playing it in the piece above) but according to the good ol reliable and totally never wrong™ Wikipedia, his clarinet was stolen off stage and he never played the instrument again until he was gifted a new one. that's supposedly why you don't hear it. at all.

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That is not a flute! put it down! you'll hurt it!

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I think the guardian put Young and holiday's friendship best- "intensely intimate but totally platonic relationship" their friendship spawned out of their shared experiences from their "common understanding of the nature of the world that they lived, and the nature of the pain they had to struggle through to do what they had to do." -(chill down there, Kamau Daaoud, you're doing my work for me!)

their similarities extended to their downfall, with both struggling with substance abuse and trauma post-1940.

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Billie Holiday and Lester Young: Fine and Mellow (1957)

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From 'The Sound of Jazz', 8 December 1957, one of the first major programs focusing on jazz to air on American network television (CBS). Billie Holiday with Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan and Vic Dickenson. Jazz critic Nat Hentoff recalled that during rehearsals, Billie Holiday and Lester Young kept to opposite sides of the room.

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Beside popularizing many slang words, he is also credited with the phrase "tell your story" as a metaphor for jazz improvisation. His unique style inspired many artists and continues to be used and experimented on today (although not the horn angle, sadly). And like many others, his music is still played at many a jazz club and listened to by many people. yet still, he is still relatively unknown in the music space, despite his accomplishments.