Sign-In
Cart
Being Prez: The Life and Music of Lester Young
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralMusiciansJazz
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0195334779
ISBN13: 9780195334777
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Oct 18 2007
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.96
Height: 0.78 Width: 6.50 Depth: 9.26
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780195334777
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Oct 18 2007
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.96
Height: 0.78 Width: 6.50 Depth: 9.26
Language: English
Lester Young was one of the great jazz masters, and his impact on the course of the art form was profound. He fundamentally changed the way the saxophone was played--his long, flowing lines brought new levels of expressiveness and subtlety to the jazz language, setting the standard for all modern players.
In Being Prez, renowned British critic Dave Gelly follows Lester Young through his life in a rapidly changing world, showing how the music of this exceptionally sensitive man was shaped by his experiences. The reader meets a complicated, vulnerable, gentle individual who was brought up in his father's traveling carnival band. His early career was spent in the nightclubs and dancehalls of Kansas City and the Southwest, and he made his landmark recording debut at the peak of the Swing Era. But at the height of his powers, he was drafted into the US Army, where racism and his own unworldliness landed him in military prison. Following these events, Young grew increasingly withdrawn and suspicious, changes in his character reflected in the darkening mood of his music. Gelly, himself a jazz saxophonist, examines many of Young's classic recordings in illuminating detail. He reveals how as a saxophonist--and as major contributor to the Count Basie band--Young created a strong personal voice, a cool modernism, and a new rhythmic flexibility in the freely dancing rhythms of 4-beat swing.
With his sax jutting oddly to one side, his bizarre oblique use of language, and his unique musical rapport with Billie Holiday (who famously nicknamed him Prez), Lester Young has become an icon and a cult figure. This marvelous biography illuminates the life and work of this giant of jazz.
With his sax jutting oddly to one side, his bizarre oblique use of language, and his unique musical rapport with Billie Holiday (who famously nicknamed him Prez), Lester Young has become an icon and a cult figure. This marvelous biography illuminates the life and work of this giant of jazz.
Also in
Musicians
Dolly Parton Songteller: My Life in Lyrics: My Life in Lyrics
Oermann, Robert K.
Parton, Dolly
Hardcover
$52.25
A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond
Tepedelen, Adem
Thayil, Kim
Hardcover
$28.80
Where the Music Had to Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other--And the World
Windolf, Jim
Hardcover
$28.50
The Little Guide to Dolly Parton: It's Hard to Be a Diamond in a Rhinestone World
Hippo! Orange
Hardcover
$8.50
A Life in Lyrics: The Official Creative Legacy of Freddie Mercury
Austin, Mary
Mercury, Freddie
Hardcover
$47.50
Mahalia Jackson, Moving on Up a Little Higher: The Story of an American Civil Rights Pioneer
Williams, Mary D.
Tyson, Timothy B.
Hardcover
$26.09
Is This It: The Never-Ending Rise and Fall of the Strokes (and Rock 'n' Roll)
Hyden, Steven
Hardcover
$27.00
Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days
Whitfield, Bill
Beard, Javon
Hardcover
$38.00
P Fkn R: Bad Bunny Y La Música Como Un Acto de Resistencia / P Fkn R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance
Díaz, Vanessa
Rivera-Rideau, Petra R.
Paperback
$21.80
David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God: A Spiritual Meditation on His Music and Creativity
Ormerod, Peter
Hardcover
$26.60
With a Little Help from Their Friends: The Beatles and the People Who Made Them
Maconie, Stuart
Hardcover
$27.00
What Do You Do When You're Lonesome: The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle
Bernstein, Jonathan
Hardcover
$28.50
Little Book of Elvis Presley: Inspirational Quotes from the King of Rock 'n' Roll
Croft, Rod
Hardcover
$8.50
Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm
Charnas, Dan
Paperback
$20.90
Bust a Move: Matt Dike, Delicious Vinyl, and the Hip-Hop Hits That First Conquered Pop
Relic, Peter
Hardcover
$26.10
Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton (Large Print Edition)
Ackmann, Martha
Hardcover
$55.10
Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles
Emerick, Geoff
Massey, Howard
Paperback
From $11.99
Dolly Parton: The Stories Behind the Songs: The Very Best Tracks, Explored and Explained
Zaleski, Annie
Hardcover
$28.49
It's No Wonder: The Life and Times of Motown's Legendary Songwriter Sylvia Moy
Christian, Margena A.
Hardcover
$27.00
3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool
Kaplan, James
Paperback
From $14.99
Lessons & Lace: Everything I Know about Dreams, Heartbreak, and Magic I Learned from Stevie Nicks
Brodsky, Rachel
Hardcover
$25.20
Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008
Payne, Chris
Paperback
$18.99
Beyoncé-One of One: History Lessons, Love Letters, and Affirmations from a Cultural Icon
King, Antonia Jade
Hardcover
$26.96
Keep It Beautiful: Inside the Funkyverse of Shock G and Digital Underground
Mbassa, Alexis Wolfe
Jacobs, Gregory E.
Hardcover
$33.25
The Silver Snarling Trumpet: The Birth of the Grateful Dead--The Lost Manuscript of Robert Hunter
Hunter, Robert
Paperback
$19.79
What Happened to Your Hair?: How We Played Loud... Loved Proud... and Never Backed Down... Together
Nelson, Matthew
Nelson, Gunnar
Hardcover
$33.25
Jazz, TX: A Love Letter to Live Music, Community, and the Little Club That Could
Watkins, Doc
Hardcover
$33.24
The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership That Rocked the World
Guralnick, Peter
Hardcover
$36.10
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll
Presley, Priscilla
Harmon, Sandra
Paperback
$10.44