Vintage

It's Lester Young's birthday, and you know what that means? Starting today, August 27th and running continuously until either Friday August 29th or Saturday August 30th is the annual WKCR Lester Young & Charlie Parker Birthday Broadcast. Three days of nonstop Bird and Pres! WKCR is the radio station of Columbia University in NYC and it's streamed out live over the internet You can listen to the stream through your favourite media player.

They'll be playing 3 days straight of Lester Young and Charlie Parker recordings. I'll be listening to as much of it as I can: at home and at work, but unfortunately not in the car because I can't get an internet connection there. But if I could, I would.

The great thing about listening to WKCR's birthday broadcasts is that you get a great idea of the artist's career and how the music changed over the years. In the case of Lester Young, it starts with the big band era and peaks in the 40s when he played obligato to Billie Holiday.

Have a listen: WKCR Radio

Lester Young would have been 99 years of age this year.

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