Lester Young
Laughin' to Keep From Crying

Woman, everything is done for you (Quartetto Cetra) ...

… so, it is inevitable sooner or later, to try to answer the fateful question, but have you ever done something crazy for a woman?

I imagine someone like Lester Young, when asked, would reply, of course, I gave up the drums for the tenor saxophone!

Lester first approaches music in the family band, a carnival show put on by his father, when he decides he's had enough of being a blacksmith and realizes that strumming a guitar is less hard and just as profitable (if not more) than forging iron; dad Young even coopts Lester and decides his place is at the drums, a decision made rather carelessly, as they say.

However, Lester just doesn't find his place there; he stubbornly refuses to learn even the basic rudiments of the instrument and musical technique, and if he really has to beat those drums, he beats a tempo all his own that doesn't quite match up with the rest of the gang; so it happens that dad Young kicks him out of the group for disrespectful insubordination against established authority, only to reinstate him when he realizes that no one, absolutely no one, wants to take young Lester's place.

The issue is not really the difficulty of the instrument but – and Lester figured it out quickly, because he's small but not stupid – that having to set up and then dismantle the drums every time is quite an annoyance, as well as a hard task, taking up a lot of time; the same time others in the family cheerfully spend entertaining the girls who come to watch the show, while Lester stays busy assembling and then disassembling that infernal contraption.

So "Enough is enough!" shouts Lester when he watches the scene of his cousin sneaking away with that cute blonde who had just kindly smiled at him, and him not even able to return that smile, all focused on wiping the sweat dripping from his forehead with the back of his hand, while he's halfway through setting up that damned drum set.

So "Enough is enough!" shouts Lester, and he looks like Joey Ramone forty years later, when he throws drums and tambourines in the air to take the microphone: the comparison doesn't really fit, especially since Lester decides to take up a tenor saxophone, but it serves to casually toss in a thought for the Ramones, which is always a good and right thing, after which the story can continue.

Thus Lester decides on the tenor saxophone; because with the tenor saxophone, what does it take? In a blink, he pulls it out of its case and just as quickly puts it back, and all the extra time he spends in the company of a smiling young lady.

Which is nothing more than innocent youthful escapism, after all, Lester is less than a teenager; but that's how the story goes, that he leaves the drums and takes up the saxophone because of the girls who attend the show; girls who then grow up and become women, in plural.

However, in Lester's life, there will be only one woman, still yet to come; and when she does come, it won't be love with her but something deeper and more enduring.

A Friend Is... (Dario Baldan Bembo) ...

… something that the more you have, the better, obviously.

Lester doesn't have many friends, maybe because he's a bit odd – not eclectic like musicians sometimes are – and in fact, at some point, he ends up being certified as "decisively schizophrenic, however, in a semicontrolled, partially arrested way," essentially a misfit to common sense.

It remains to understand who the misfit is, whether it's the one who presents you with a form to fill out where, among other things, you're asked if you smoke marijuana, or you who truthfully answer yes.

For Lester, that honesty, during military service, costs him a judgment before the court-martial, five years of imprisonment (later reduced to one but with a subsequent penalty supplement) and a dishonorable discharge.

Remembering this, when I apply for a US entry visa and have to answer the question of whether I'm intending to commit acts of terrorism, espionage, sabotage, or genocide, I think twice, tempted to answer yes, just to see what happens, although I don't quite fit with the climate of Guantanamo; then I answer no, but my deep admiration for this nation grows even more.

So, discharged dishonorably; but Lester just keeps repeating that he's out of it and that's all that matters; even if outside he finds few friends, they can be counted on one hand.

Here are the names.

Roy Eldridge. Roy is also a musician, a trumpeter to be precise, and he's one of the good ones; there are many who would bet that if there exists a link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, that link is Roy.

Norman Granz. Norman, on the other hand, is an entrepreneur with a passion for jazz, so much that to spread the word he starts three record labels, the Verve the most well-known.

Billie Holiday. Billie is a singer and often accompanies herself with Lester and Roy; among the three there is familiarity and Lester allows himself to give her a nickname, Lady Day; from that moment Billie is Lady Day, period. Actually, no, because she returns the nickname, Prez; and if for Lady Day you are Prez, the president, it means you are the best, no comparison, because then being the president really means something; not like today, where the first bystander you meet on the street is deferentially called president.

The Important Thing Is to Finish (Mina) ...

… heading somewhere, though.

Lester ends with "Laughin' to Keep from Cryin'", which is not among his best recordings – for those, refer to his past with the Count Basie orchestra – but it is the last, and it means a couple of things.

The first is that Prez is Prez, which means the best, and Norman does everything so that even the stones know it, from the film "Jammin' the Blues" to the Jazz at the Philharmonic festival, through various cutting contests, a sort of duels with notes among jazz musicians, "and there's Lester with his small and old saxophone held together with tape and rubber bands," challenging with his sensitivity the muscular epigones of Coleman Hawkins; and if that's not enough, he then organizes two recording sessions at his own expense, the first ending up on "Going for Myself," the second on "Laughin' to Keep from Cryin'."

The second is that Lester has few but superb friends, and inside "Laughin' to Keep from Cryin'" Roy ends up playing, who is always there when it comes to supporting a friend like Lester; and he even brings along Harry Edison, because unity is strength, and after all, Harry cares about Lester too, he's a frequent companion of the group Lady Day is associated with, maybe his relationship with Lester isn't as deep as it is for Roy, but he certainly doesn't think about backing down; then, I don't precisely know how deep the relationship between Roy and Lester is, but the photo on the cover of "Laughin' to Keep from Cryin'" is one of those that are worth a lifetime and need no comment.

Inside there are five tracks – the blues "Salute to Benny" and the standard "They Can't Take That Away from Me" on side a, on side b another blues, lively and energetic, "Romping," the ballad "Gypsy in My Soul," and yet another standard, "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" – and according to everyone, the album could have been better (already mentioned), because Prez during those two days isn't in great shape, and it shows, his phrasing is uncertain, hesitant, out of phase; for me, I have no inkling at all, barely able to discern Dee Dee Ramone's alleged technical mediocrity.

When You Die, You Die Alone (Fabrizio De Andrè) …

… and Prez dies a few days after those recordings, in a hotel where he's stayed for some time, facing the Birdland, a renowned club that hosts the elite of the jazz music of that era.

Lately, in the evening, he takes a chair and sits by the window, holding his saxophone as if to play but doesn't play anything, except perhaps in his head; and if he thinks he recognizes someone entering or leaving Birdland, he gets excited and greets them enthusiastically, but no one notices.

One night, as he sleeps, he starts moving his lips as if to play his saxophone; but when the doctor taking care of him arrives, he's already gone.

Prez goes.