Books and interviews

Gelly, Dave: Lester Young. (Tunbridge Wells, Spellmount, 1984)

Büchmann-Møller, Frank: You Got to be Original, Man! The Music of Lester Young. (Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1990)

Büchmann-Møller, Frank: You Just Fight For Your Life; the Story of Lester Young. (New York, Praeger, 1990)

Porter, Lewis (ed): A Lester Young Reader. (Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991)

Delannoy, Luc: Pres; the Story of Lester Young. (Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 1993)

Daniels, Henry Douglas: Lester Leaps In; the Life and Times of Lester “Pres” Young. (Boston, Beacon Press, 2002)

Porter, Lewis: Lester Young. Revised edition. (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press, 2005)

Gelly, Dave: Being Prez; the life and music of Lester Young. (New York, Oxford University Press, 2007)

Lester Young was interviewed a few times. In chronological order the printed versions come here:

Morrison, Alan: You got to be original man. Jazz Record, July 1946

Harris, Pat: Pres talks about himself, copycats. Down Beat, May 6, 1949

Feather, Leonard: Here’s Pres! Melody Maker, July 15, 1950

Young, Derek: He holds his office graciously. Melody Maker, March 21, 1953

Hentoff, Nat: Pres. Down Beat, March 7, 1956

Albertson, Chris: Interview with Lester Young. (Philadelphia, PA, August 24, 1958).The interview was first published in: Dance, Stanley: The world of Count Basie. (New York, Scribner’s, 1980), but the most accurate transcription is in: A Lester Young reader. Edited By Lewis Porter. (Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991) 

Postif, Francois: Interview with Lester Young. (Paris on February 6, 1959). This interview first appeared in Jazz Hot, April 1959 and  has been reprinted in both Jazz Review, September 1959 and in Jazz Panorama, edited by Martin Williams (New York, Collier, 1964), but the most accurate transcription is found in: A Lester Young reader. Edited By Lewis Porter. (Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991)

You can actually hear the voice of Lester Young, as both the Albertson and the Postif  interviews are enclosed on cd 8 in The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions On Verve, Verve 314547087-2.