{"product_id":"being-prez-the-life-and-music-of-lester-young-9780195334777","title":"Being Prez: The Life and Music of Lester Young","description":"\u003cp\u003eLester 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 fathers 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 Following these events  Young grew increasingly withdrawn and suspicious  changes in his character reflected in the darkening mood of his music.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 Youngs 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648121921589,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195334779","price":29.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195334777.jpg?v=1781709939","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/being-prez-the-life-and-music-of-lester-young-9780195334777","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}