Being Prez - The Life and Music of Lester Young - Dave Gelly
‘Ivey-Divey!’
Being Prez - The Life and Music of Lester Young - Dave Gelly
Dave Gelly [+]
Writer and Journalist
Dave Gelly writes about jazz in The Observer and other newspapers and journals. He has written and presented many features for BBC radio and hosted a weekly Radio Two show. He was a leading writer on the Sony Award-winning ten-part BBC radio series Sinatra: Voice of the Century and is the author of several books, including Masters of the Jazz Saxophone (Miller Freeman, 2000) and Stan Getz: Nobody Else but Me (Backbeat 2002). He was named Jazz Writer of the Year in the 1999 British Jazz Awards. Dave Gelly was appointed MBE in the 2005 New Years Honours.
Description
Reading through interviews with Lester Young, the recollections of his friends and stray remarks of his that were picked up and quoted, one notices a recurrent theme. He was constantly protesting that he minded his own business and didn’t bother anyone. His aim at such moments seemed to be to pass through the world causing as little disturbance as possible. In this, despite his best efforts, he failed. If, as humanists assert, our personalities survive in the memories of other people, in the work we do, the emotions we stir and the effect we have on the world in general, then we must conclude that he is still very much with us.