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Billy Lester

Pianist Billy Lester is a late-bloomer on that reticent branch of the jazz tree, the school of Lennie Tristano.

An instinctively lyrical yet unfettered improviser who creates original compositions from variations on classic American songs' chord changes, Lester -- like his mentor Sal Mosca, one of Tristano's most acclaimed students -- has developed his art almost in private. A youthful prodigy who was playing by age four, the soft-spoken, self-questioning Lester has taught piano for decades in his hometown of Yonkers just beyond New York City's limits, and devotes himself to family life. But with children now grown, at age 52 he's felt the yen to gig, and finds the public stage surprisingly rewarding.

"When I was in my 20s, the heavy action was towards Bill Evans, Miles Davis and John Coltrane," says Lester, whose albums Captivatin' Rhythm and At Liberty are both on the small but sturdy Connecticut-based Zinnia label. "The people with whom I was hanging, students of Tristano's or Sal's, got together for sessions, but nobody had gigs. And I wasn't the kind of person who was going to be out at clubs all night. I met my wife when I was 23, we got married two years later and had a kid three years later. I couldn't see having to earn a living performing jazz. It was just so sketchy.

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"I didn't take myself terribly seriously then, either," he says ruefully. "I thought of myself as struggling to learn how to play." To support his family, he worked part-time in his father's tire store and eventually attracted private piano students. "It wasn't lucrative, or glamorous," Lester concedes of his career choice, "but a little more secure." He didn't pursue gigs, but lucked into a few -- most notably a concert at the Heinekin fest in Amsterdam in 1984, and subsequent Dutch tours in '85 and '88. "I would have pursued touring more," he claims, "but each time I lost money, which makes it a tough thing to pursue." Today Lester has some 40 students, and teaches a course on American popular song at Lehman College.

It wasn't that Lester wasn't against Bill Evans, Miles and Coltrane (or Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett) during his formative years, but rather that he found modal improvisation empty and preferred Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Roy Eldridge and especially Louis Armstrong, enthusiasms shared by Mosca, who he regards as "much more than just my teacher."

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Liner Notes

Billy Lester: Unabridged

Read "Billy Lester: Unabridged" reviewed by Howard Mandel


Pianist Billy Lester is a musical original. That's obvious from the first, oh, 17 seconds of Unabridged, his sixth album and second all-solo recording. Listen to the unusual, brief motif with which Lester opens “Overture: Passionate Musings," then develops, complicates and completes it faster than you'd tie a shoelace. Pause--and he continues. Not to just recapitulate or elaborate the cell-like theme through variation, but to expand it as a theme in a concentrated, melodically flowing way that's not ...

4
Album Review

The Billy Lester Trio: Italy 2016

Read "Italy 2016" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Piano trios jazz can charm or seduce, and occasionally mesmerize. In modern times, they can also rock the house, but they seldom jump out of the speakers at you with joy. The Billy Lester Trio,  Italy 2016, does just that. The initial impression of pianist Lester's influences--as the opener “An Evening With Friends" plays--is Bud Powell. The music has a bounce and ebullience, a joy of life that was essential to Powell's artistry. Further listening and the Lenny Tristano tint ...

234
Album Review

Billy Lester: Visceral

Read "Visceral" reviewed by Francis Lo Kee


On this set of five standards and one original, pianist Billy Lester displays a strong original approach to jazz improvisation. He also leads a flexible, yet muscular trio, that moves along with him with telepathic skill. Lester has a wide range of approaches: single-note right-hand lines, dissonant block chords, left-hand bass runs that move in counterpoint to the right hand (and his use of the low register piano is fairly unique to most of what you hear ...

170
Album Review

Billy Lester: Four into Four

Read "Four into Four" reviewed by Elliott Simon


Four into Four, recorded live at NYC’s Roulette, with its sense of swing and tight rhythms, gives the impression that the Billy Lester Quartet can see for miles, but then those who stand on the shoulders of giants can. Pianist Lester is a self-admitted anachronism who during the ‘50s and ‘60s, while piano jazz evolved modally along the route charted by Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, became a Powell/Tristano and Louis Armstrong devotee. His writing style turns a jazz standard, ...

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Performance / Tour

Billy Lester performs LIVE at Cornelia Street Cafe Thurs., June 30th 8:30 & 10pm

Billy Lester performs LIVE at Cornelia Street Cafe Thurs., June 30th 8:30 & 10pm

Source: All About Jazz

Thurs.,June 30th! Billy Lester performs LIVE at Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1,9 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, F to West 4th St. featuring Billy Lester, piano; Simon Wettenhall, trumpet; Sean Smith, bass; Russ Meissner, drums SETS: 8:30 & 10pm / COVER: $12 The newest CD from veteran jazz pianist Billy Lester (Four Into Four, Coppens) has ...

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Book / Magazine

AllAboutJazz-New York Presents BILLY LESTER (9/19 at 5pm)

AllAboutJazz-New York Presents BILLY LESTER (9/19 at 5pm)

Source: All About Jazz

HUDSON VIEW GARDENS PERFORMING ARTS GROUP PRESENTS “SUNDAYS AT 5" Sunday, September 19 at 5 pm

BILLY LESTER performs a rare solo jazz piano concert! at Hudson View Gardens 116 Pinehurst Ave./corner of 183rd. (just Take The “A" Train - as they say - to 181st Street. It's right off the Hudson River!) Reservations: 212-923-7800 x1555 *Suggested Donation: $12 Presented and hosted by: Laurence Donohue-Greene (Managing ...

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Book / Magazine

AllAboutJazz-New York Presents BILLY LESTER (9/19 at 5pm)

AllAboutJazz-New York Presents BILLY LESTER (9/19 at 5pm)

Source: All About Jazz

HUDSON VIEW GARDENS PERFORMING ARTS GROUP PRESENTS “SUNDAYS AT 5"...on Sunday, September 19 at 5 pm BILLY LESTER performs a rare solo jazz piano concert! at Hudson View Gardens 116 Pinehurst Ave./corner of 183rd. (just Take The “A" Train - as they say - to 181st Street. It's right off the Hudson River!) Reservations: 212-923-7800 x1555 *Suggested Donation: $12 Presented and hosted by: Laurence Donohue-Greene (Managing Editor, AllAboutJazz-New ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Italy 2016

Ultra Sound Records
2017

buy

Unabridged

Self Produced
2015

buy

Visceral

Coppens Records
2009

buy

Four into Four

Unknown label
2004

buy

Videos

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