Prez

PrezPlay a blues for Lester Young. At one time, he leaped out of the Basie band and was heard, in wheaty-toned, languorous pleas, groping for beauty in 12- or 32-bar sighs. When he played with inimitable delicacy, he transformed the most banal tunes into dramatic, personal monologs, wondrous speeches emerging from a kaleidoscopic life tinged with gin and bourbon and cheap wine and marijuana. When he stumbled, he often fell, scratching for answers, scratching for grace, love and beauty.Billie Hol...