{"id":9158,"date":"2018-02-19T00:25:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T08:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9158"},"modified":"2018-02-19T16:19:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T00:19:56","slug":"presidents-day-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/02\/presidents-day-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidents Day 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a Rifftides<\/em> custom to post on Presidents Day the following item, which does not change from year to year\u00e2\u20ac\u201dregardless of who currently occupies the White House.<\/p>\n

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In the United States, this is Presidents Day. It falls between the birthdays of two of our greatest leaders, Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22). Many years ago, there was a movement in the Congress to consolidate the two observances into one holiday that would honor all US presidents. The effort never resulted in an official national holiday, but department stores and automobile dealerships liked the idea so much that they declared it a holiday and celebrate it by having huge sales to increase their profits and by advertising that results in Sunday newspapers weighing five pounds. To read the confused history of Presidents Day, go here<\/a>.
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\nAmong jazz blogs and websites, taking advantage of Presidents Day as a reason to mention Lester Young has become a clich\u00c3\u00a9. Clich\u00c3\u00a9s get to be clich\u00c3\u00a9s because they strike a chord and are repeated so often that they become a part of the collective consciousness. When Billie Holiday declared that Lester Young was the president of the tenor saxophonists, she planted the seed of a clich\u00c3\u00a9 that I am happy to perpetuate.<\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen\u00e2\u20ac\u201don Presidents Day we present Lester Young in one of his greatest recordings. This was 1943. Prez with Johnny Guarnieri, Slam Stewart and Sid Catlett.<\/p>\n

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