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Lester Young (Jazz Perspectives)


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And since we´re talking about Prez, which biography or book do you recommend?

-"Lester leaps in: The life and times of Lester 'Pres' Young", by Douglas Henry Daniels

-"Pres: The story of Lester Young", by Luc Delannoy

-"You Just Fight for Your Life: the Story of Lester Young", by Frank Buchmann-Moller

or any of the ones written/compiled by Lewis Porter ???

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Lester Young (Jazz Perspectives)

by Lewis Porter

Paperback: 161 pages

Publisher: University of Michigan Press (due out on February 15, 2005)

ISBN: 0472089226

Agustin, as far as I remember, somehow you've already have that book first published by Twain publishers, right? :w

Edited by mmilovan
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And since we´re talking about Prez, which biography or book do you recommend?

-"Lester leaps in: The life and times of Lester 'Pres' Young", by Douglas Henry Daniels

-"Pres: The story of Lester Young", by Luc Delannoy

-"You Just Fight for Your Life: the Story of Lester Young", by Frank Buchmann-Moller

or any of the ones written/compiled by Lewis Porter ???

Of those three, I'ld forget about the Delannoy book. Not very well researched.

The Daniels is not too bad but the black (or afro-american as he keeps insisting) perspective he brings to Lester Young gets to be overdone. But he provided background on Lester Young's family and own youth.

The Buchman-Moller would be my choice out of these although I wish Lewis Porter would do a complete job out of his Lestorial documentation. I have not read Porter's 'Lester Young' book in a long time but his 'Lester Young Reader' is a highly readable volume that gathers a lot of interesting articles and essays on our President.

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There are some solo analyses in the little Twain book, but it's not just a book of transcriptions. There are two Lester Young books under Porter's name, that one, and the Reader, also mentioned above.

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I've read the former and would like to get my hands on a copy of the latter (the reader).

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Lester Young (Jazz Perspectives)

by Lewis Porter

Paperback: 161 pages

Publisher: University of Michigan Press (due out on February 15, 2005)

ISBN: 0472089226

Agustin, as far as I remember, somehow you've already have that book first published by Twain publishers, right? :w

Ashamed to recognize I still haven´t read the book, Milan. :(

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Lester Young (Jazz Perspectives)

by Lewis Porter

Paperback: 161 pages

Publisher: University of Michigan Press (due out on February 15, 2005)

ISBN: 0472089226

Agustin, as far as I remember, somehow you've already have that book first published by Twain publishers, right? :w

Ashamed to recognize I still haven´t read the book, Milan. :(

Well, must say that it was a way too much filled with the analysis and examples (of course, those samples are priceless, nothing wrong with them, only too much), but in another way it was awesome: Porter was the first to bring out to light some facts and thoughts about Lester that are so different from until-than current picture produced by jazz critic (you know all those “during-postwar-career-Lester-never-played-like-when-he-was-with-Count-Basie” stories).

Don't know much about Moller's book, someone said it was too straighforward and to some extence "flat", "boring", but these are other's people oppinions, not mine.

Edited by mmilovan
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Lewis is a friend of mine, so let that be a disclaimer to objectivity, but I've found his work to be consistently first rate. Mike Fitgerald know about how often I've railed agains academics on the Jazz Resarch line - Lew is to me what an academic SHOULD be - knowledgeable about the subject in a technical, research, and real- life way - and his work reflects this, particularly his book on Coltrane. the Lester Young reader is a great book as well -

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Yeah, Porter's cool. He makes his points fit the actual music, not the other way around. Gotta love that.

And this Prez book is a dandy. Might, MIGHT, be a little too "technical" for the most analyticphobic reader, but lord knows it's on time and tells the truth about Lester Young's MUSIC. A little imagination and a bit of listening along is all it takes for the non-techinc reader to figure out waht he's talking about. Well worth the effort, I'd think.

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Yeah, Porter's cool. He makes his points fit the actual music, not the other way around. Gotta love that.

And this Prez book is a dandy. Might, MIGHT, be a little too "technical" for the most analyticphobic reader, but lord knows it's on time and tells the truth about Lester Young's MUSIC. A little imagination and a bit of listening along is all it takes for the non-techinc reader to figure out waht he's talking about. Well worth the effort, I'd think.

Yeah, some of the terminology was somewhat difficult for me to understand, but overall it sent me looking for the recordings and re-listening to ones I already had. It gave me a better understanding of the techniques and nuances that Pres developed/used in his solos and that just made me dig Pres a hell of a lot more than I already did (which was a lot!). Not a big book, but lots of good stuff in there.

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I gotta point again to the marvelous three-parter on Lewis here (particularly the second part):

http://www.furious.com/perfect/coltrane.html

http://www.furious.com/perfect/coltrane2.html

http://www.furious.com/perfect/coltrane3.html

It does a good job of explaining why he is so well-liked and well-respected (and of course, tells quite a bit about the Coltrane book). It would be nice if there were enough time in this life to just siphon out everything that he's got in his head. I think his next book will be the biographical dictionary of jazz that he's been working on for many years. Even with the huge scope of that, there are areas that he could delve into much deeper, I'm sure.

Mike

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but his 'Lester Young Reader' is a highly readable volume that gathers a lot of interesting articles and essays on our President.

Is there transcript of famous Downbeat blindfold test Pres did for Leonard Feather?

Milan, the Lester Young/Leonard Feather BFT that appeared in the November 2, 1951 issue of Down Beat is included in 'A Lester Young Reader'. Great read...

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but his 'Lester Young Reader' is a highly readable volume that gathers a lot of interesting articles and essays on our President.

Is there transcript of famous Downbeat blindfold test Pres did for Leonard Feather?

Milan, the Lester Young/Leonard Feather BFT that appeared in the November 2, 1951 issue of Down Beat is included in 'A Lester Young Reader'. Great read...

Many thanks, brownie.:tup

I can still remember one comment from that BFT Pres did (it is the only quotation I know... goes something like "All day, all night music, just play it to me"). This blindofold test was listed on Leonard Feather's site for future release (text or web form).

Somehow, I understood the audio source still exists, so it can be the third known (to this date unissued) audio interview with Pres. Fourth one I found in Library of Congress (don't ask me where, all I know it is unissued also, and it is from around 1949.)

And AllenLowe, please send greetings to your's friend - Mr. Porter! His book helped me to clearly understand music of my hero, so many years ago, and to put him as the most important musician ever heard in my life.

BTW, anyone here read Buchman-Møller book (two vols) on this subject? Any comment?

Edited by mmilovan
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I can still remember one comment from that BFT Pres did (it is the only quotation I know... goes something like "All day, all night music, just play it to me").

Milan, this was from the Afterthoughts that came at the end to those Blindfold Tests.

Here is the full text:

Afterthoughts by Pres

Favorite records? I like variety. I don't like to get hung up with one thing. Anything they play over the radio that I like. I'll get it. Just all music, all day and all night music. Just any kind of music you play for me, I melt with all of it.

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