Like his great friend Billie Holiday, tenor saxophonist Lester Young died in his 40s, a victim of drug abuse combined with a harddrinking lifestyle. For many who knew the doomed couple, that was no real surprise given that their favourite tipple, as revealed in this rewarding new book that strikes the right balance between absorbing biographical drama and scholarly musical analysis, was an intoxicating cocktail they called ‘top and bottom’: equal parts gin and port.
Holiday, of course, famously dubbed the saxophonist ‘The President’ (‘Prez’ for short) and seemed to deliver some of her best performances when Young was playing in her band. In fact, the swing-era sax player, who was rarely seen without his famous pork pie hat, is chiefly remembered today for his role as a sideman playing in the legendary 30s bands of Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson, rather than his own sporadic recording ventures. As Gelly indicates, Young’s diffidence, fragile confidence and patent lack of leadership qualities may account for his relative lack of success as an artist in his own right. Even so, his musical legacy is formidable and, even today, 60 years on from when they were recorded, pieces such as Lester Leaps In and Tickle Toe still amaze.
