Douglas Henry Daniels

The Blue Devils have received very little attention from jazz historians, though the band members and the writer Ralph Ellison (who sometimes sat in with them) spoke with conviction about their sterling musicianship and their legendary ability to defeat all competitors in battles of the bands. In a literal sense, the band survived for ten years, from its founding in 1923 to its demise in 1933. In a figurative sense, the band continued for more than half a century because, as members Jimmy Rushing, Lester “Prez” Young, Oran “Hot Lips” Page, and Count Basie became jazz legends, their “apprenticeship” in the Blue Devils authenticated them as genuine jazzmen, real troupers ready to play for any and all occasions. Chronicling the ten years the band was officially together, Douglas Daniels provides a corrective to most accounts of musical groups. He delves into the potent social and cultural history of the Depression to show its influence on the group’s founding as well as on the players’ careers. This meticulously researched history of an iconic jazz band rescues them from undeserved obscurity and clears away the fog of neglect. Praise for Douglas Daniels’s Lester Leaps In: “Douglas Daniels has written a provocative book, presenting Lester Young in a novel, even controversial light while opening new avenues of possible investigation into one of the most tantalizingly enigmatic of all historic jazz figures.” — Richard M. Sudhalter, Los Angeles Times

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