Being Prez: The Life and Music of Lester Young

In BEING PREZ: The Life and Music of Lester Young, renowned British critic Dave Gellyhimself a jazz saxophonistfollows Lester Young through his life in a rapidly changing world, showing how the music of this exceptionally sensitive man was shaped by his experiences. Gelly introduces us to a complicated, vulnerable, gentle individual who was brought up in his father's traveling carnival band. He takes us to the nightclubs and dancehalls of Kansas City and the Southwest during Young's early career, and we sit in during his landmark recording debut at the peak of the Swing Era. We're with Young where at the height of his musical powers, he's drafted into the United States Army, where racism and his own unworldliness landed him in military prison. Gelly shows how these experiences changed Young, how he grew increasingly withdrawn and suspicious, how his brooding character was reflected in the darkening mood of his music.

More than a biography, BEING PREZ examines many of Young's classic recordings in illuminating detail and reveals how Young created a strong personal voice, a cool modernism, and a new rhythmic flexibility in the freely dancing rhythms of 4-beat swing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dave Gelly is the weekly jazz critic for The Observer and contributes to many other British periodicals. Named Jazz Writer of the Year in the 1999 British Jazz Awards, Gelly has hosted a weekly radio show, has contributed to many books on jazz, has written liner notes for most major jazz record labels, and is the author of Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me. He was invested with the MBE by HM The Queen in 2005. He is also a professional saxophonist.