Despite the lively nickname bestowed upon him by the industrious South Louisiana record maker J.D. Miller, harmonica specialist Lazy Lester maintained that he was never especially idle by nature. He likewise avoided rushing through most endeavors, even if the brisk momentum of his signature Excello Records swamp blues numbers "I'm a Lover Not a Fighter" and "I Hear You Knockin'" appeared to suggest the opposite.
Raised near Baton Rouge, Leslie Johnson absorbed the styles of Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. His path into professional performance began by chance during a mid-1950s bus journey when he crossed paths with guitarist Lightnin' Slim, who was unsuccessfully seeking a missing harp player. Their approaches clicked immediately, and Lester soon became Slim's favored harmonica accompanist.
Lester first took the lead in 1956 inside Miller's Crowley, Louisiana studios. Over the lengthy Excello period that continued through 1965, he cut memorable sides such as "Sugar Coated Love," "If You Think I've Lost You," and "The Same Thing Could Happen to You." He also served as an inventive studio partner for Miller, employing an assortment of objects ranging from cardboard boxes and claves to striking newspapers in pursuit of the right percussive texture for the producer's sessions.
After stepping away from music for nearly twenty years without much sense of loss, Lester moved to Pontiac, Michigan in 1975. Persuaded by his manager, booking agent, and rub board player Fred Reif to resume performing, he launched a return marked by the 1988 Alligator album Harp & Soul. The atmospheric swamp blues approach stayed intact, with its characteristic energy evident on later efforts including 1998's All Over You and 2001's Blues Stop Knockin', which featured Jimmie Vaughan. Lester sustained his recording and performing activities well into the twenty-first century, releasing One More Once on the Spanish Karonte label in 2010. He succumbed to cancer in August 2018 at his Paradise, California home; Lazy Lester was 85.
