Lester Young Quotes:

In some ways Lester Young is the most complex rhythmically of any musician. He does some things which are just phenomenal.

- Lee Konitz

topic: Musician, Doe, Way, Lester Young

I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.

- Sonny Rollins

topic: Inspiration, Thinking, Long, Lester Young

I'd been studying the microphone for a dozen years, and I suddenly saw what I'd been doing wrong. I'd been singing too loud. One night I was listening to a record by Lester Young, the horn player, and it came to me. Relax, just relax. It's all going to be all right.

- Marvin Gaye

source: "Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye". Book by David Ritz, 1985.

topic: Player, Night, Years, Lester Young, One Night

We were all influenced by Lester [Young]. Listen to the records that he made with [Count] Basie. Nobody's got what he's got. He's still the daddy.

- Zoot Sims

topic: Daddy, Records, Made, Lester Young

I'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I'd never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn't much like it at first.

- Count Basie

topic: Sound, Different, Stylist, Lester Young

I used to live at the Cecil Hotel, which was next door to Minton's [Playhouse]. We used to jam just about every night when we were off. Lester [Young], Don Byas and myself - we would meet there all the time and like, exchange ideas. It wasn't a battle, or anything. We were all friends. Most of the guys around then knew where I lived. If someone came in Minton's and started to play - well, they'd give me a ring, or come up and call me down. Either I'd take my horn down, or I'd go down and listen. Those were good days. Had a lot of fun then.

- Ben Webster

topic: Fun, Good Day, Night, Lester Young

As much as I think John Coltrane belongs on the list, I think without Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, both of whom defined improvising on the tenor sax, there would not have been the evolution of the craft by John Coltrane.

- Herbie Mann

topic: Thinking, Crafts, Lists, Improvising, Tenors

I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.

- Charles Mingus

source: "What Is A Jazz Composer?". Charles Mingus' liner notes for "Let My Children Hear Music", album composed by Charles Mingus, January/February 1972.

topic: Music, Art, Player, Lester Young

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

- Ernest Gaines

source: Ernest J. Gaines (2007). “Mozart and Leadbelly”, p.27, Vintage

topic: Reading, Writing, People, Lester Young, Reading Novels

In those days before hearing Charlie Parker and Dizzy, and before learning of the so-called bebop era--by the way, I have some thoughts about that word, "bebop"--my first jazz hero ever, jazz improvisor hero, was Lester Young. I was a big "Lester Young-oholic," and all of my buddies were Lester Young-oholics. We'd get together and dissect, analyze, discuss, and listen to Lester Young's solos for hours and hours and hours. He was our god.

- J. J. Johnson

topic: Hero, Together, Bebop, Lester Young

The amazing thing about Sweets [Edison] was that he exactly spoke the way that he played! He was really unique, the one and only. He was one of the greatest Blues players that I ever heard and played with. Nobody can play like Sweets man, nobody! Most of us, musicians, frequently quote Sweets' phrases in our solos. Like Lester Young, Sweets had a big influence on us musicians, especially when we play some Blues.

- Ray Brown

topic: Sweet, Unique, Player, Lester Young