You Just Fight for Your Life: The Story of Lester Young

Buchmann-Moller’s biography of Young offers a reconstruction of Young’s life and career. Drawing on newspaper accounts, oral history tapes and the author’s interviews with musicians who played with Young, Buchmann-Moller is able to supply information concerning Young’s life. He begins with an account of Young’s family background and his early musical career with his father’s band, in which he played from the time he was ten years old. A chronological history of Young’s tours and engagements with various jazz groups over a nine-year period before he joined the Count Basie band in 1936 is also included. The author’s descriptions of Young’s time with Count Basie and of his years as a bandleader and featured soloist aim to shed light on the musician’s character and personal philosophy as well as his music. Reviews of Young’s concerts in both the United States and Europe are quoted and discussed. The author describes Young’s difficulties during his military service in World War II, when he was involved in a military trial. In one appendix, the author lists Young’s jobs from 1919 to his death in 1959, as a sideman, leader and soloist. A second appendix covers Young’s own bands and their personnel.