Lester Young started playing jazz in the family band. He became one of the most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz. He also coined a lot of hipster words. Lester Young is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

SHOW

The Phantom Dancer is a non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio.

Mixed live-to-air by Greg Poppleton on radio 2SER 107.3 Sydney since 1985.

Re-broadcast on 23 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online at 2ser.com.

And 2ser.com is where you can hear lots of past Phantom Dancers, too.

PLAYLIST

The Lester Young feature and a whole mix of swing and jazz from live 1930s-50s radio. Read the full play list below. ALL VINYL FINYL HOUR.

LESTER YOUNG

Known as ‘Prez’, Lester Young was one of the most influential tenor saxophonists in jazz.

Reams have been written about Lester Young’s cool, fluid style so I won’t wax lyrical about that here.

Better you hear it first hand from live 1950s broadcast recordings on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

HIPSTER

Less known about Lester Young, is that he coined or popularised a lot of the hipster jargon that came to be associated with jazz.

‘Bread’ for money is a Lester Young original. ‘Bread’ became a Lester Young feature song in the 1956 Count Basie Orchestra. He’d ask, “How does the bread smell?” to mean what does the gig pay? He popularised the word ‘cool’, meaning ‘in vogue’.

FAMILY

Lester came from a musical family. His father was a band leader and Lester commenced his music career touring with the family band. His brother, Lee, was a drummer. In earler Phantom Dancers you would have heard the Lee and Lester Young band broadcasting from Los Angeles over KHJ.

CLARINET

Lester occasionally doubled on clarinet in the 1930s Walter Page Blue Devils Band and in the Count Basie Orchestra. It was stolen in 1939 and he didn’t pick up a licorice stick again until jazz promoter Norman Granz bought one for him in 1957.

INFLUENCE

Young wasn’t influenced by an earlier tenor sax player, but by Frankie Trambauer from Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. FT played C-Melody Sax, the main sax played in the 1920s and pitched between alto and tenor.

BLUES

DB Blues is a Lester Young original you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer from a 1945 ‘Jubilee’ Armed Forces Radio broadcast.

Drafted into the army in 1944, Young was caught with marijuana and alcohol and dishonourably discharged. He was held in a DB ‘dentention barracks’ for one trauma filled year.

SOLO

Alcoholism, with symptoms of malnutriton and liver disease, affected his playing in the 1940s and 1950s, but there were also many moments of brilliance.

The most famous, which you can find online in an earlier Phantom Dancer, is his economic and emotive solo on ‘Fine and Mellow’, backing Billie Holliday in an all-star band on the CBS TV special, ‘The Sound of Jazz’.

VIDEO

Lester Young and that famous Lester Young solo on ‘The Sound of Jazz’, CBS TV, in 1957.

18 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #332
107.3 2SER Tuesday 18 September 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 23 other stations.
Set 1	Gus Arnheim 1931 Radio
Sweet and Lovely (theme) + You Don’t Need Glasses To See I’m In Love	Gus Arnheim Orchestra	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
It’s The Girl	Gus Arnheim Orchestra	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
I Got The Ritz From The One I Love + Sweet and Lovely (theme)	Gus Arnheim Orchestra (voc) Loyce Whiteman	‘Cocoanut Grove’ Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1931
Set 2	Modern Singers on 1950s Radio
Open + Blue Velvet	Arthur Prysock	‘Stars in Jazz’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY 9 Sep 1952
Open + Tenderly + The Nearness of You	Sarah Vaughan	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Zardi’s KFI NBC LA 21 May 1956
Happy Birthday + Send My Baby Back To Me + Close	Billy Eckstine	‘All-Star Parade of Bands’ Birdland WRCA NBC NY 8 Jul 1953
Set 3	Club Hangover 1954
Relaxin’ at the Trouro + Senstation Rag	Muggsy Spanier	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 27 Nov 1954
Flying Home	Earl Hines	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 30 Jan 1954
Dardenella + Checkin’ With Chuck (theme)	Ralph Sutton	Club Hangover KCBS San Francisco 24 Jul 1954
Set 4	Lester Young
DB Blues	Lester Young	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 22 Apr 1956
Call Me Darling	Count Basie Orchestra, Lester Young (ts) Thelma Capenter (voc)	V-Disc New York City 27 May 1944
Polkadots and Moonbeams	Lester Young	‘Bandstand USA’ Cafe Bohemia WOR Mutual NY 22 Dec 1956
Set 5	Headline Women Singers on 1940s Radio
The Starlit Hour	Ella Fitzgerald Orchestra (voc) EF	Savoy Ballroom WEAF NBC Red NY 26 Feb 1940
Honeysuckle Rose	Lena Horne (voc) Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Aintcha Ever Comin’ Back?	Peggy Lee (voc) Paul Weston Orchestra	‘Peggy Lee Show’ KNX CBS LA 1947
It Had To Be You + Close	Mildred Bailey (voc) Paul Baron Orchestra	‘Music Till Midnight’ WABC CBS NY 1944
Set 6	Cotton Club
Oh, Babe! Maybe Someday	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 24 Mar 1938
I’m Slappin’ on Seventh Avenue + Lost In Meditation	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 22 May 1938
The Gal From Joe’s + Riding on a Blue Note	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 1 May 1938
East St Louis Toodle-oo + Jig Walk + In a Sentimental Mood	Duke Ellington Orchestra	Cotton Club WCBS CBS NY 8 May 1938
Set 7	1937 Radio
I’d Do Anything For You	Seger Ellis and his Choirs of Brass	Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Pennies from Heaven	Mills Brothers	‘Norge Program’ Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Johnny One Note	Hal Kemp Orchestra (voc) Skinnay Ennis	‘Chesterfield Show’ WABC CBS NY 1937
Blue Skies + Closing	George Hall Orchestra	Radio Transcription NYC 1937
Set 8	Bop Big Bands on Radio
Oo-Pop-A-Da	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Winter Palace Radio Sweden Stockholm 2 Feb 1948
Belvedere Bop	Chubby Jackson Orchestra	‘Symphony Sid Show’ WMCA NY 12 Mar 1949
Serenade in Sulphur-8	Slim Gaillard	‘Symphony Sid Show’ WJZ ABC NY 7 Jul 1951