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Lazy Lester | |
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.jpg) Lester in 2004 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Leslie Johnson |
| Born | (1933-06-20)June 20, 1933 Torras, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | August 22, 2018(2018-08-22) (aged 85) Paradise, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1950s–2018 |
| Labels | |
Leslie Johnson (June 20, 1933 – August 22, 2018),[1][2] known asLazy Lester, was an Americanblues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. In a career spanning the 1950s to 2018, he pioneeredswamp blues,[3] and also playedharmonica blues,rhythm and blues andLouisiana blues.[1]
Best known for regional hits recorded with Ernie Young'sNashville-basedExcello Records, Lester also contributed to songs recorded by other Excello artists, includingSlim Harpo,Lightnin' Slim, andKatie Webster. Cover versions of his songs have been recorded by (among others) theKinks, theFlamin' Groovies,Freddy Fender,Dwight Yoakam,Dave Edmunds,Raful Neal,Anson Funderburgh, and theFabulous Thunderbirds. In the comeback stage of his career (since the late 1980s), he recorded new albums backed byMike Buck,Sue Foley,Gene Taylor,Kenny Neal,Lucky Peterson, andJimmie Vaughan.
Leslie Johnson[4][5] started playing the guitar around age 11 and began performing in his teens around Baton Rouge withRaful Neal, later co-founding the Rhythm Rockers.[6] In the mid-1950s, Lester was on the margins of theLouisiana blues scene. According toRolling Stone (February 2006),Buddy Guy, before moving to Chicago, had played in Louisiana with some of the old masters:Lightnin' Hopkins, Lazy Lester, andSlim Harpo. When Guy left for Chicago, in 1957, Lester replaced him, on guitar, in a local band – even though Lester, at that time, did not own such an instrument.
Lester's career took off when he found a seat next toLightnin' Slim on a bus transporting Slim to an Excello recording session. At the studio, the scheduled harmonica player did not appear. Slim and Lester spent the afternoon unsuccessfully trying to find him, when Lester volunteered that he could play the harmonica. Lester's work on that first Lightnin' Slim session led the producer,Jay Miller, to record Lester as solo artist and also to use him as a multi-instrumentalist on percussion, guitar, bass, and harmonica in sessions headlined by other artists whose recordings were produced by Miller, including, notably, Slim Harpo.[7] 'Percussion' on these sessions went beyond the traditionaldrum kit and included a rolled-up newspaper striking a cardboard box.[1] Miller dubbed Lester "Lazy Lester" because of his laconic, laid-back style.[1]
More than his vocal delivery, Lester is best remembered for songs that were later covered by a wide range ofrock,country,blues, andTex-Mex stars, chiefly, "I'm a Lover Not a Fighter," "I Hear You Knockin'," and "Sugar Coated Love".[7]
Lester stated that he wrote these songs, but almost all are credited to Miller or to Lester and Miller. Lester also stated he received fewroyalties, which embittered him and made him skeptical of the music industry. By the late 1960s, he had given up on the music industry,[7] working manual labor and pursuing his favorite hobby – fishing. Lester eventually moved toPontiac, Michigan, living with Slim Harpo's sister.
In 1971, Fred Reif set up a Lightnin' Slim concert at the University of Chicago Folk Festival, and Lester was brought up from Louisiana to accompany him. A few weeks after that performance, Lester was back in Louisiana. Years later, Reif and Lester were both in Michigan, from where Reif orchestrated a comeback. Lester recorded and played around the United States and abroad, backed by blues bands, including, frequently, Loaded Dice.
Lester's recordings in this period were on blues labelsAlligator andTelarc, alongside releases in Europe (primarily on the British label,Flyright Records).[8]
In September 2002, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Boston Blues Society.[citation needed]
In 2003,Martin Scorsese included Lester in his blues tribute concert atRadio City Music Hall, a record of which was released as the film and albumLightning in A Bottle. The group photograph inside the album depicted Lester grinning, dead-center among peers and musical progeny includingB.B. King,Solomon Burke,Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown,Buddy Guy,Levon Helm,Chuck D, theNeville Brothers,Dr. John,John Fogerty, andAerosmith.
Lester lived inParadise, California, with his girlfriend,[9] and appeared in the 2015 documentary filmI Am the Blues.[10]
Lester continued to perform nationally and abroad into 2018, often returning to Louisiana where he regularly shared the stage withLil' Buck Senegal,Carol Fran, andKenny Neal. In the same year, he appeared and performed in a television commercial aired nationally for Geico Insurance.[11]
Lester died of cancer on August 22, 2018, at the age of 85.[12]
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