Lester Leaps In

[Brad]

I've been reading this biography by Douglas Daniels this week while I was on vacation. I've read about a third of it and while I'm enjoying it all and all and he has done a lot of work (the notes are very copious), as a former would be history professor, he makes many suppositions or assumptions that don't necessarily strike me as good scholarship. Obviously, there are gaps in the record from his early life and perhaps he has no choice but to make these assumptions.

I was wondering if anybody was troubled by this in any way or what are the general feelings about this book as a whole. I know this was talked about a while ago on the BNBB but that was a long time ago.

Edited July 20, 2003 by Brad

[pryan]

I read this one a few months back and have read a bunch of other books since then, so it's (Lester Leaps In) not really fresh in my memory. I did enjoy the book a lot, however, but yeah, Brad, I do seem to remember the author making numerous "leaps", if you will, in his reasoning/conclusions. Still, I'm glad I read the book.

[mikeweil]

Now what would the Prez experts on this board recommend for reading about Lester Young? I have Lewis Porter's first book from 1985, but would like to have more detailed biographical information.

[jazzbo]

I'd recommend the Daniels book. I think that some of the leaps were well excecuted, and it gave a view of black musicians in the teens, twenties and thirties covering areas that are not usually covered; I learned a lot and enjoyed the read. It's PRES, so the book was very welcome.

Edited July 30, 2003 by jazzbo

[JSngry]

There are two Porter books, a bio and a "reader" and both are excellent, imo.

Haven't had much time for lengthy reading lately, but I've made it through the first 4-5 chapters of the Daniels book, It's a very "dry" read, but unlike many people who have knocked this book, I have no problem with the "presumptions" the author makes. He doesn't call them facts, and clearly differentiates facts from generalities. If nothing else, we get a picture of the general milieu that Young grew up in (and a reasonably accurate one, based on what knowledge of early 20th-century southern Louisiana that I've been able to discern from my mother's family. In other words, it "rings true".), and that is useful, I think, because too often Prez is portrayed as The Man Who Fell From Mars or some such, and as John Lewis once pointed somewhere sometime ago, that just ain't so.

But DAMN is it "academic" in tone. At least what I've read of it so far. Maybe the book changes (for better or worse) deeper into it. But so far, I'll give it a "slow but worthy" rating.

[mikeweil]

Thanks for the input. - I saw an offer for a used copy for the reader, which is out of print, I think I will try and get it.

Has anybody read the book by Frank Buechmann-Moeller, "You just fight for your life", which got good reviews in Europe? It is still available over here, but at around EURO 65, I'd like to hear some opinions before I invest ...

[jazzbo]

It's a good read. It's poetry in comparison with the others if you ask me. . . a little bit romantic and fantastic.

[Soul Stream]

I didn't like this book at all. It just seemed so speculative. I didn't even finish it. I got so bored with his thesis. To bad, I really looked forward to a good book on Lester.

[mikeweil]

Thanks a lot, your warning saves me EUR 70 including postage & packing, which I just invested in a sealed copy of the Duke Ellington Centennial 24 CD box at Ebay Germany. It seems all German jazz fans are on vacation, there was only one other bid, and I got it for EUR 75

[Christiern]

I found too many factual errors and unfounded assumptions in Daniels' book to take it seriously. It's a shame that he felt a need to embroider to the extent that he did. I was left with the impression that he is not well-versed in jazz history, and I also sensed that his conclusions occasionally were shaped by personal ethnic bias rather than fact.

That, IMO, makes this a flawed biography. It is one thing to present a theory as such--we all do that--quite another to present it as fact. Biographies inherently contain gaps and omissions that raise questions and call for assumptions, but the writer must, IMO, present them as such, give whatever facts are available, and allow the reader to reach his/her own conclusions.

It's a shame that this is not a more honest book, because Daniels obviously put a lot of work into it, dug up much obscure--and, sometimes, important--information, and, through interviews, preserved recollections that otherwise would have been lost.

No biography is flawless; this one will be regarded as a "good read," and, in many ways, it is, but I am still waiting for a more satisfying book on Lester Young. Undoubtedly, many readers say the same thing after reading my Bessie Smith biography--I certainly said it after taking a discerning look at my first edition, and I have already thought of ways to improve the recently published revision. And so it goes...

[Brad]

In one paragraph, Chris summarized much of what I was thinking. This book is chockful of information but sometimes I wonder if throwing the kitchen sink at you is the best way to go. Ultimately, it's the assumptions that he made that bothered me and I was glad to hear Chris echo that. One example that came to mind was the author's statement that Lester Young knew other instruments well (or something like that) and not just saxophones. As proof of that, he cited a photo looking admiringly at someone playing the piano. I found that to be a great leap of faith.

[mmilovan]

I must say I didn't read the book, but despite some omissions, and imperfections it is great to know that author took good care and big investigation to find new resources. Of course, imperfections can be things to edit in some new issue, right?