Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi on August 27, 1909.  Lester was taught how to  play music by his father, Willis Handy Young, who was a very good musician in his own right.  Lester was first taught to play the violin, the trumpet, and the drums.  He later decided to stick to the alto saxophone, despite the fact that the drums were his favorite instrument to play.  The family had their own band and Lester played alto saxophone with them at age 13.  He had a long history of disagreements with his father, and this caused him to leave the band when he was 19.  It was at this point that he switched to tenor saxophone.

    After leaving his family's band, Lester went on to play with Art Bronson in Phoenix, Arizona.  He played with Bronson until 1930, when he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and played with various bands.  He also took a brief trip back home to play with his family.  In 1932, while playing at a club with Frank Hines, Young was signed as a member of "The Thirteen Original Blue Devils."  He and the other band members moved to Kansas City to join Bennie Moten near the end of 1933.

    Durings the years following 1933, Lester Young played in bands with Bennie Moten, George Lee, King Oliver, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Andy Kirk, and many others.  In 1936, when Young rejoined Count Basie, he rose to national fame for the first time.  Lester's rising fame was significant in making Kansas City a major jazz city at this time.  Of all the places he played, Lester will probably always be remembered as a Kansas City jazz man.   For the next several years he and Basie toured, and recorded.  He also recorded on recordings featuring Billie Holiday who gave him the nickname, "The Prez."  In the early 1940's, Young played in small bands in the Los Angeles area.  He played alongside Nat King cole and Al Sears.  He also returned for a brief stint with the Basie Band, and then went on an international tour in 1946.

    Young's style was the traditional swing style that will always be linked with Basie's bands.  Several famous musicians including Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, and Al Cohn were greatly influenced by Young.  A majority of the songs Young played while in the Basie band where 32 bar blues with an AABA structure.   When he began recording on his own, he mixed together ballads, blues, and moderate and fast tempo AABA structured tunes.  He gradually moved toward his famous soft tone that inspired, most notably, Stan Getz.

    In the late 1950's, Lester began to have health problems.  While he was on tour, his health was slowly deteriorating; and his band broke up.  Lester went on tour with Miles Davis, but was very disheartened to receive bad ratings.  Despite this recent downfall, the Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz named Lester Young the greatest tenor saxophone ever in 1956.  Young had taken to drinking excessively and wasn't eating well.  It is likely that the disrespect he was beginning to receive lead him to drink even more.  Young had other complications including an untreated case of syphilis.  He was admitted to a hospital in 1957 and was treated for malnutrition, alcoholism, and cirrhosis of the liver.  The doctors told Young he didn't have much longer to live.  He returned home in 1958 and was actually able to tour again briefly.  Lester young passed away on March 15, 1959.

This Biography was written by Ryan Townsend and was edited and reformatted by Sean Glass