February 8, 2008

Partying and Praying

By JACK SULLIVAN

Two biographies explore the jazz legacies of sax players Lester Young and John Coltrane

Notorious for its sexual and alcoholic associations, the jazz saxophone has always occupied a hot spot in popular culture. It is next to impossible to discuss the musical achievement of the great sax players without dealing with their mythologies. For Lester Young, better known as "Prez," it is the myth of "cool," a word he himself popularized: the laconic hipster, boozy and smoky, detached and

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