"Pres invented cool. Rather than state a melody, he suggested it. He barely breathed into his horn, creating an intimacy that gave me chills." - - B. B. King

He was jazz music's first hipster. He performed onstage in sunglasses and coined and popularized the enigmatic slang "that's cool" and "you dig?" He was a snazzy dresser who always wore a suit and his trademark porkpie hat. He influenced everyone from B. B. King to Stan Getz to Allen Ginsberg. When he died, he was the subject of musical tributes by Charles Mingus ("Goodbye Pork Pie Hat") and Wayne Shorter ("Lester Left Town"), and incidents from his life were featured in the movie 'Round Midnight.

In this groundbreaking biography of Lester Young, the legendary tenor saxophonist whose career spanned the swing and bebop eras, historian Douglas Daniels brings to life the man and his world. The first ever to have access to Young's family and many musicians who played with Young, Daniels reconstructs the world in which Young lived and played: the racism that he and other black performers faced, the feeling of home and family the performers created together on the road, and what his music meant to black audiences. Young emerges at last as a kind, gentle, and sensitive man whose friendships with other performers, loving parenting, and long career give the lie to his reputation as a troubled and self-destructive jazz artist.

Douglas Henry Daniels is professor of history and black studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and Cultural History of Black San Francisco.

 This event is cosponsored by the UCSB Bookstore, Department of Black Studies, Department of History, and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.