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Lester Boone
Appearances
![Satch Plays Fats: The Music of Fats Waller [Bonus Tracks]](/cache/JS/e2/130x130_on-sale_e20801zh2ls.png)
Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller only worked together twice, briefly in 1925 in Erskine Tate's band and four years later in the New York [more]
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Of less importance than the concurrent release of The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Seven Recordings is Satch Blows the Blues, since it only distills the great [more]
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Draw up a list of some of the top jazz artists of all time, and the legend featured in this recording would likely be at the top of that list. Louis [more]
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This four-CD set does its best to summarize Louis Armstrong's career during 1923-1934, reissuing 81 of his finest recordings. The problem is that virtually [more]
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![Piano Man! [ASV]](/cache/JS/d1/130x130_on-sale_d13808j797r.png)
Piano Man is the title of a Victor Bluebird record cut on July 12, 1939 by Earl "Fatha" Hines and his Orchestra. Piano Man is also the title of at least four different Earl Hines CD [more]
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In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of [more]
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In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of reissues covering much of [more]
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- Member Price: $11.98
"Armstrong jovially balanced his calling as a musician with his job as an entertainer, applying his virtuosity while showing audiences a good time." —New York Times
In conjunction with the release of Ken Burns' ten-part, 19-hour epic PBS documentary {#Jazz}, Columbia issued 22 single-disc compilations devoted to jazz's most significant [more]
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While Louis Armstrong didn't invent jazz, he certainly shaped it in his own image, personalizing it, popularizing it, and giving it a template to follow into the modern [more]
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Forget for a moment that The Best of Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday was tied into the release of the superb box set, Lady Day: The Complete Billie [more]
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Biography
Some jazz musicians were lucky enough to have performed with jazz giant Louis Armstrong, while only a few experienced the honor of having the great Satchmo personally introduce their solo in that unmistakable growly voice of his. The versatile reed player Lester Boone is one of this lucky little group and the performance in question is a version of "I Got Rhythm" originally cut for Okeh. This might be Boone's most auspicious credit, but it is far, far from his only one. He studied at the Illinois College of Music while playing his first professional jobs in clubs around the Windy City with players such as trumpeter Alex Calamese, Charlie Elgar, Clarence Black, and Carroll Dickerson. His first series of big jobs began with monster pianist and bandleader Earl Hines in 1928, and he worked off and on in various groups led by Hines through 1930. Satchmo came into the picture early in the '30s, but by the middle of that decade he had left the trumpeter's employment to collaborate with one of his former drummers, hi-hat innovator Kaiser Marshall, and then the Mills Blue Rhythm Band in 1933. The next year, he joined the orchestra of ragtime and swing piano man Eubie Blake and was also gigging with Willie Bryant. More jobs with Marshall followed, then a run with Jelly Roll Morton in 1936 and Cliff Jackson in 1937. Bouncing between New York and Chicago, Boone also worked with trumpeter Hot Lips Page and Eddie South. The picture should be getting clear that this was an extremely versatile, in-demand sideman, although not known as a flamboyant soloist. He also fit in his first jobs as a leader during the early '40s, most notably a run at the Hollywood Club. In 1941, he began a relationship with jazz singer Billie Holiday and managed to play enough of her recording sessions to warrant credits on some dozen of her album releases and re-releases. Because of his membership in so many bands, Boone also is very likely to turn up on a wide variety of compilations in the swing jazz and classic blues genres. From the late '40s into the '60s, he confined his activities mostly to New York, leading groups at venues such as Harvey's and the Lucky Bar. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
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