Some giants of music were born on this day: Sly Stone, Ry Cooder, Lightnin’ Hopkins, George Avakian, D.J. Fontana, Arif Mardin, and Phil Lesh among them. I’d love to celebrate them all. But there was a Titan I want to remember today, lost on this day in 1959. Billie Holiday named him Pres, the magnificent Lester Willis Young.

He was born in Mississippi in August of 1909, though he grew up in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. His father was a musician and bandleader who lead the Young Family Band, which Lester joined by the age of 10, touring with carnivals in the Southwest. By 18 he’d left the family band, refusing to perform any longer in the segregated South. By his 24th birthday, he had settled in Kansas City where he struck it big as a member of Count Basie’s band, coming and going to work with Fletcher Henderson and others.

At a jam session in Harlem in the early 30’s, he met Billie Holiday. She nicknamed him Pres in honor of FDR whom she thought was “the greatest man around.” He in turn named her Lady Day. Billie insisted their relationship was platonic though no one believed it. Especially since he lived with Billie and her mother. He was back in Basie’s band when he was drafted into the army. In general, white musicians that were drafted were placed in units that remained as bands. Not so for Lester and other Black musicians. He was placed in to the regular army, barred from playing his saxophone, eventually being assigned for one year into detention barracks, then dishonorably discharged, after pot and alcohol were found in his possessions. His composition “D.B. Blues” was based on the experience. The alcohol addiction would dog him for the rest of his life.

His recordings from the ’30’s and 40’s are considered landmarks, hugely influential in his tone and playing style. While it is generally considered that his playing had declined by the 1950’s, he could still reach greatness regularly, especially in healthier periods following treatments. One such performance came on The Sound Of Jazz, broadcast on December 8, 1957, a live televised show on CBS from Studio 58 on 9th Avenue at 55th Street, now the Alvin Ailey Dance Company home. The lineup for the show was staggering, small and large groups including legends Jimmy Rushing, Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Giuffre and Dickie Wells among them. But one performance on broadcast stands out as positively electrifying, Billie Holiday’s on her own “Fine and Mellow.”

The band was Mal Waldron’s All Stars: Waldron on piano with Coleman Hawkins, Vic Dickenson, Doc Cheatham, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson, Ben Webster.

And Lester Young. He’d been out of contact with Billie Holiday for several years by this point. It’s known they didn’t associate at the broadcast itself other than during the performance, after which they went their separate ways. Lester’s solo and Billie’s reaction says everything they could possibly have spoken. Coleman Hawkins takes the first solo. Lester was already pretty frail by this time and is seated, unseen, other than his solo which begins about two and a half minutes in. It is an incredible exchange between them:

The entire broadcast can be found here:

Lester fell ill on a flight to New York from Paris on March 13, 1959, dying the next day, age 49. In a taxi on the way to the funeral, Billie told jazz critic Leonard Feather that she’d be the next to go. 4 months later on July 17th, it came true. Billie was 44.

Today’s Playlist is a SomethingIsHappening compendium celebrating the life of Pres, Lester Willis Young:

Please share this or any of our past blogs with anyone you think would be interested.