News & Updates — Lester Young

Happy birthday to the great and influential tenor saxophonist Lester Young, the President. The original jazz hipster, he was a key link between the swing and bop eras and was a modernist with an emotionally-driven and harmonically-gifted style. He grew up in New Orleans and played in the Young Family Band, touring the carnival circuit. In the '30s he went to Kansas City, becoming a major feature of Count Basie's band. During that decade he also played with Fletcher Henderson, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday, King Oliver, Benny Moten and Andy Kirk and in the '40s cut some sessions with Nat...

Some may view Nat King Cole as an apolitical jazz-gone-pop sell-out "Uncle Tom" (as he has been called by some radicals) who moved into the upper-crust white neighborhood and made a bunch of Christmas dreck and soft music. Or you could view him as a major black superstar who had his hand in a number of respectable endeavors with much success. Regardless, it is hard to deny his sweet voice and the immense popularity he found. A talented pianist, he found that audiences started preferring his vocal numbers more than the instrumentals so he obliged with his smooth baritone. A...