Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Larry Young" musician – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Larry Young
Background information
Also known as	Khalid Yasin
Born	(1940-10-07)October 7, 1940 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	March 30, 1978(1978-03-30) (aged 37) New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Jazz soul jazz jazz-funk modal jazz jazz fusion
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instrument	Organ
Labels	Blue Note

Larry Young (also known as Khalid Yasin ; October 7, 1940 – March 30, 1978) was an American jazz organist and occasional pianist. Young's early work was strongly influenced by the soul jazz of Jimmy Smith, but he later pioneered a more experimental, modal approach to the Hammond B-3.

Biography

Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, United States, Young attended Newark Arts High School, where he began performing with a vocal group and a jazz band. He was also the cousin of the drummer Jimmie Smith.

Young played with various R&B bands in the 1950s, before gaining jazz experience with Jimmy Forrest, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Tommy Turrentine. Recording as a leader for Prestige from 1960, Young made a number of soul jazz discs, Testifying, Young Blues and Groove Street. When Young signed with Blue Note around 1964, his music began to show the marked influence of John Coltrane. In this period, he produced his most enduring work. He recorded several times as part of a trio with guitarist Grant Green and drummer Elvin Jones, who were occasionally augmented by additional players. Most of these albums were released under Green's name, though Into Somethin' (with Sam Rivers on saxophone) became Young's Blue Note debut. Unity, recorded in 1965, remains his best-known album; it features a front line of Joe Henderson and the young Woody Shaw. Subsequent albums for Blue Note (Contrasts, Of Love and Peace, Heaven On Earth, Mother Ship) also drew on elements of the 1960s avant-garde and utilised local musicians from Young's hometown of Newark. Young then became a part of some of the earliest fusion groups: first on Emergency! with the Tony Williams Lifetime (with Tony Williams and John McLaughlin) and also on Miles Davis's Bitches Brew. His sound with Lifetime was made distinctive by his often very percussive approach and regular heavy use of guitar and synthesizer-like effects. He is also known for a jam he recorded with rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, which was released after Hendrix's death on the album, Nine to the Universe.

In March 1978, he checked into a hospital for stomach pains. He died there on March 30, 1978, while being treated for what is said to be pneumonia. However, the actual cause of his death is unclear.

Discography

As leader

• Testifying (New Jazz, 1960)
• Young Blues (New Jazz, 1960)
• Groove Street (Prestige, 1962)
• Into Somethin' (Blue Note, 1965) – rec. 1964
• Unity (Blue Note, 1966) – rec. 1965
• Of Love and Peace (Blue Note, 1967) – rec. 1966
• Contrasts (Blue Note, 1968) – rec. 1967
• Heaven on Earth (Blue Note, 1969) – rec. 1968
• Lawrence of Newark (Perception, 1975) – rec. 1973
• Fuel (Arista, 1975)
• Spaceball (Arista, 1976)
• The Magician (Acanta/Bellaphon, 1977)
• Mother Ship (Blue Note, 1980) – rec. 1969. LT series.
• Larry Young in Paris: The ORTF Sessions (Resonance, 2016) - rec. 1964–65 for French radio

As sideman

References

1. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 441. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.
2. ^ "Larry Young | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
3. Biography, Larry Young Music. Accessed February 5, 2020. "Larry McCoy attended Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey in 1954. While at Arts High, Larry was a bass singer in a vocal group called the Challengers, a member of the Operetta Club and the leader of his own jazz combo."
4. Original liner notes from Larry Young's Groove Street
5. "Jazz news: Larry Young: 1964-65". News.allaboutjazz.com. 14 March 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
6. "Larry Young's Self-Questioning Jazz". The New Yorker. 8 March 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
7. "Young, Larry Jr. (Khaled Yasin) – Jazz News". 27 December 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
8. "Larry Young | Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved August 3, 2021.

Further reading

• Lass, Don (February 10, 1974). "Record Previews: Lawrence of Newark". Asbury Park Press.
• News staff (September 10, 1975). "A Bright New Jazz Organist Emerges". New York Amsterdam News.

External links

• Larry Young discography at Discogs
• 'Unity: Larry Young and Black Music, from Soul Jazz to Free to Fusion' at Point of Departure

• 1940 births
• 1978 deaths
• African-American jazz musicians
• American jazz organists
• American male organists
• Hard bop organists
• Jazz-funk organists
• Modal jazz organists
• Musicians from Newark, New Jersey
• Post-bop organists
• Soul-jazz organists
• Blue Note Records artists
• Prestige Records artists
• Arista Records artists
• Avant-garde jazz organists
• 20th-century American keyboardists
• The Tony Williams Lifetime members
• 20th-century American organists
• 20th-century American male musicians
• American male jazz musicians
• Newark Arts High School alumni