J.D. Salinger has died. He was 91 years old. Jazz floats throughout his novels with characters visiting jazz clubs in Greenwich Village and trying out that Lester Young slang. Sure, Holden Caufield claimed a disdain for it, famously lambasting jazz musicians as “phony” but for Salinger himself jazz held an allure. If you haven’t read Franny and Zooey yet, give it a try, it is my favorite Salinger novel.
Lester Young’s tenor sax
Don Byas’s famous snake octave key
Ben Webster’s horn
All photographs courtesy of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers.
Download Bop and Beyond’s Lester Young Centennial Tribute here:
Posted in internet radio, Jazz, Jazz radio, Music, radio
Tagged lester, lester young
Smithsonian Magazine has a great article up about Lester Young’s centennial, how important it is to jazz and how sad it is that it’s hardly being celebrated. The article mentions WKCR and Phil Schaap — whose marathon of Pres’s music continues this weekend. I’ll be uploading my Pres tribute tonight: two hours of fantastic Lester Young, from his work with Lady Day through to his Jazz Giants recordings. There’s also a neat little on-line mix-tape that someone made over at 8Tracks featuring a live version of “I Cover The Waterfront” that is spine-tingling!
Here’s a link to the Smithsonian article:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Lester-Young-Turns-100.html
Mix-Tape is available here:
Posted in internet radio, Jazz, Music, radio
Tagged lester young, lester young centennial, phil schaap, the smithsonian, wkcr
