Lester Young
E117200
Lester Young was an influential American tenor saxophonist whose cool, lyrical style helped define the sound of Kansas City jazz and profoundly shaped modern jazz improvisation.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Lester Young canonical | 127 |
| Lester Willis Young | 3 |
| Lester Young (guest) | 1 |
| No Eyes: Lester Young | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T978257 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lester Young Context triple: [Kansas City jazz, notableMusician, Lester Young]
-
A.
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist, often credited with establishing the saxophone as a leading solo instrument in jazz.
-
B.
Tommy Flanagan
Tommy Flanagan is a Scottish actor best known for his rugged character roles in films and television series such as "Braveheart" and "Sons of Anarchy."
-
C.
Earl Hines
Earl Hines was a pioneering American jazz pianist and bandleader whose innovative "trumpet-style" piano playing helped shape the development of modern jazz.
-
D.
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker was a pioneering American jazz saxophonist and composer, a leading figure in the development of bebop and one of the most influential musicians in jazz history.
-
E.
Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal was an influential American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader known for his innovative use of space, dynamics, and subtlety in small-group jazz.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lester Young Target entity description: Lester Young was an influential American tenor saxophonist whose cool, lyrical style helped define the sound of Kansas City jazz and profoundly shaped modern jazz improvisation.
-
A.
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist, often credited with establishing the saxophone as a leading solo instrument in jazz.
-
B.
Tommy Flanagan
Tommy Flanagan is a Scottish actor best known for his rugged character roles in films and television series such as "Braveheart" and "Sons of Anarchy."
-
C.
Earl Hines
Earl Hines was a pioneering American jazz pianist and bandleader whose innovative "trumpet-style" piano playing helped shape the development of modern jazz.
-
D.
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker was a pioneering American jazz saxophonist and composer, a leading figure in the development of bebop and one of the most influential musicians in jazz history.
-
E.
Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal was an influential American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader known for his innovative use of space, dynamics, and subtlety in small-group jazz.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (68)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
bandleader
ⓘ
composer ⓘ human ⓘ jazz musician ⓘ tenor saxophonist ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Kansas City jazz scene
ⓘ
linked to:
Kansas City jazz
early modern jazz ⓘ swing era ⓘ |
| burialPlace | Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside, New Jersey, United States ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | alcohol-related disease ⓘ |
| collaboratedWith |
Billie Holiday
ⓘ
Buddy Rich ⓘ Count Basie ⓘ Jo Jones ⓘ Nat King Cole ⓘ Oscar Peterson ⓘ Teddy Wilson ⓘ |
| conflict | World War II ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1909-08-27 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 1959-03-15 ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup |
African American
ⓘ
linked to:
Black Americans
|
| familyName | Young ⓘ |
| fullName |
Lester Willis Young
ⓘ
linked to:
Lester Young
|
| genre |
Kansas City jazz
ⓘ
jazz ⓘ swing ⓘ |
| givenName | Lester ⓘ |
| hasMannerOfDress | porkpie hat and tilted saxophone posture ⓘ |
| hasSignature | distinctive light, airy saxophone tone ⓘ |
| influenced |
Al Cohn
ⓘ
Charlie Parker ⓘ John Coltrane ⓘ Lee Konitz ⓘ Stan Getz ⓘ Warne Marsh ⓘ Zoot Sims ⓘ |
| instrument |
clarinet
ⓘ
tenor saxophone ⓘ |
| knownFor |
helping define the sound of Kansas City jazz
ⓘ
innovative tenor saxophone phrasing ⓘ profound influence on modern jazz improvisation ⓘ |
| memberOf |
Billy Holiday small groups (studio ensembles)
ⓘ
Count Basie Orchestra ⓘ Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm ⓘ |
| militaryService | United States Army ⓘ |
| movement | cool jazz ⓘ |
| nickname |
Pres
ⓘ
Prez ⓘ |
| nicknameGivenBy | Billie Holiday ⓘ |
| notableWork |
"D.B. Blues"
ⓘ
"Lady Be Good" (1936 Kansas City recording) ⓘ
linked to:
Lady, Be Good
"Lester Leaps In" ⓘ "Shoe Shine Boy" ⓘ "Taxi War Dance" ⓘ "These Foolish Things" ⓘ recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra (1930s) ⓘ |
| occupation |
clarinetist
ⓘ
musician ⓘ saxophonist ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Woodville, Mississippi, United States ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath |
New York City, New York, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
New York City
|
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| styleCharacteristic |
behind-the-beat rhythmic placement
ⓘ
cool, relaxed tone ⓘ lyrical, melodic improvisation ⓘ use of sophisticated harmony and phrasing ⓘ |
| usedLanguage | English ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Lester Young Description of subject: Lester Young was an influential American tenor saxophonist whose cool, lyrical style helped define the sound of Kansas City jazz and profoundly shaped modern jazz improvisation.
Referenced by (132)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Yardbird
linked to: Lester Young
subject linked to:
Count
subject linked to:
Coleman
subject linked to:
I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
subject linked to:
Granz
linked to: Lester Young