Lester Young
tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophonist known as Prez, whom Barry accompanied for a week as house pianist at the Rouge Lounge near Detroit in the 1950s, and whom he counted among the beboppers.
- mentions
- 20
- recordings
- 13
- Barry speaking
- 13
What Barry says
As house pianist at the Rouge Lounge in River Rouge, just outside Detroit, Barry backed Prez for a week, as he did Flip Phillips and others. He counts it, with sitting in with Bird and working with Hawkins, as a piece of luck.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York8:23Passing It On4:09Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland6:42The Spirit of Bebop25:11Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶70Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶94Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶171
What stayed with him from that week was how Lester counted off a tempo: just a movement of his shoulder set it. Barry calls the week a gas and says you had to see it.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York10:40Passing It On4:42Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶173
Barry counts Prez, like Coleman Hawkins, as a bebopper, though most people would not, and names him with Diz, Hawkins and Ben Webster among the greatest of the golden era.
Interview: Detroit and after6:22The last train to Monk: an interview9:32Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶34Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10
Prez, Hawkins, Ben Webster and Bird each had a sound of his own, while tenor players today sound alike. Barry asks his students why those players all sounded different.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York11:14Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert11:48
Bird changed the rhythm, but Hawkins and Prez showed Barry that great playing was not limited to Bird: they could play too.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶13
New York was a finishing school: when a new tenor player came to town, Hawkins and Prez would go and get him and tear him up.
On Coleman Hawkins0:00
Barry thinks Monk withdrew partly because the main players, Prez and Hawkins among them, were gone and the calibre of the music fell.
The last train to Monk: an interview22:19
In his own words
All he’d do is just move his shoulder like that, and that would be the tempo.
Coleman Hawkins was a “bebopper,” “Prez” was a bebopper—to me…. Most people say they weren’t beboppers but I say they were.
Bird is the great influence when it comes to rhythm. He changed drums. He changed everything. But Coleman could play. Pres [Lester Young] could play.
Every mention
20 moments in the recordings, 13 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York
Passing It On
Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland
The Spirit of Bebop
- 25:11
Accompanied Prez for a week, as well as Flip Phillips and Nancy Wilson.
Interview: Detroit and after
- 6:22
To him Prez was a bebopper, though most people say no.
The last train to Monk: an interview
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert
- 11:48
Asks why Prez, Hawkins, Ben Webster and Lockjaw Davis all sounded different.
On Coleman Hawkins
- 0:00
Hawkins and Prez would go after any new tenor player in New York.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
- 8:30
Recommends a bassless “Sweet Georgia Brown” record with Mel Powell; he appears to name Bird, Diz and Prez on it.
12-15-18 “Mr. Barry Harris aka The Man Who Walks on Notes” - Star Eyes
- 2:39
Someone else
A concert introduction lists Lester Young among soloists Barry backed in Detroit.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
Pivots, Pivots and More Pivots EP 161 TILF Barry Harris
- 0:00
A teacher
Chris Parks: the pivot Barry teaches is heard in Lester Young and other masters.
Interview: tap dance and bebop
- 26:08
Someone else
A podcast host’s biography lists Lester Young among the players Barry worked with.
In the interviews and notes
Barry calls it lucky that he played with Lester Young for a week at the Rouge Lounge in Detroit, where he was house pianist.
The Rouge Lounge was a jazz club in River Rouge, a little outside Detroit. When Panken read a liner note’s list of stars Barry had worked with, Barry said Lester Young and Flip Phillips were the ones he remembered.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶70Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶233Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶234
Back in Detroit after a few months with Max Roach, around 1956, Barry was a house pianist and played for Lester Young, who counted off the tempo with his shoulder.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶171Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶173
Barry remembers his youth as the golden era of the music, with Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Charlie Parker. By the time he settled in New York, Prez, Bird and Tatum had died.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶34Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶275Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶276
Pres and Coleman Hawkins were there at the beginning of bebop, before Bird came in and changed its rhythm.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10
Barry lists playing with Pres alongside playing with Bird as great experiences.
His devotion to Bird, Bud, Sonny Stitt, Hawkins and Prez taught Barry that jazz musicians carry on centuries of improvisation and are, in that sense, classical musicians.
From years of Barry’s workshops, de Lima reports him saying that Lester Young, Bud Powell and Monk simply played, without over-analysing as a classical musician would.
In an interview quoted by de Lima, Barry names Bird, Diz, Bud, Hawkins and Prez as his influences as a bebopper, then stresses the unknown local musicians, such as Will Davis, who really make a player.
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
- 12-15-18 “Mr. Barry Harris aka The Man Who Walks on Notes” - Star Eyes2018, 15 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Spanish TVMadrid, 1988, 47 min YouTube
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.