Talkin' About J.C. - Music

Larry Young 1940-1978 Was An American Jazz Organist And Occasional Pianist. Young Pioneered A Modal Approach To The Hammond B-3 In Contrast To Jimmy Smith's Soul Jazz Style . However He Did Play Soul Jazz Also Among Other Styles. His Characteristic Sound Involved Management Of The Stops On The Hammond Organ Producing Overtone Series That Caused An Ethereal Drifting Effect A Sound That Is Simultaneously Lead And Background. Young Was Born On The 7th October 1940 In Newark New Jersey. He 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 Including Testifying Young Blues And Groove Street. When Young Went To Blue Note In 1964 His Music Began To Show The Marked Influence Of John Coltrane. He Recorded Many Times As Part Of A Trio With Guitarist Grant Green And Drummer Elvin Jones Occasionally Augmented By Additional Players Most Of This Sequence Of Albums Was 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 Also Drew On Elements Of The 1960s' Avant-Garde And Utilised Local Musicians From Young's Home Town Of Newark. Young Then Became A Part Of Some Of The Earliest Fusion Experiments He Played On Miles Davis' Bitches Brew Then - With Guitarist John McLaughlin - He Joined Tony Williams Lifetime Trio. His Sound With Lifetime Was Made Distinctive By His Often Very Percussive Approach And Often Heavy Use Of Guitar And Synthesiser-Like Effects. He Is Also Known To Rock Fans For A Jam He Recorded With Jimi Hendrix Which Was Released After Hendrix's Death On The Album Nine To The Universe His Characteristic Sound Involved Management Of The Stops On The Hammond Organ Producing Overtone Series That Caused An Ethereal Drifting Effect A Sound That Is Simultaneously Lead And Background. Young Died From Untreated Pneumonia On The 30th March 1978 In New York City At The Age Of Thirty-Eight. If Jimmy Smith Was "the Charlie Parker Of The Organ " Larry Young Was Its John Coltrane. One Of The Great Innovators Of The Mid- To Late '60s Young Fashioned A Distinctive Modal Approach To The Hammond B-3 At A Time When Smith's Earthy Blues-Drenched Soul-Jazz Style Was The Instrument's Dominant Voice. Initially Young Was Very Much A Smith Admirer Himself. After Playing With Various R&B Bands In The 1950s And Being Featured As A Sideman With Tenor Saxman Jimmy Forrest In 1960 Young Debuted As A Leader That Year With Testifying Which Like His Subsequent Soul-Jazz Efforts For Prestige Young Blues 1960 And Groove Street 1962 Left No Doubt That Smith Was His Primary Inspiration. But When Young Went To Blue Note In 1964 He Was Well On His Way To Becoming A Major Innovator. Coltrane's Post-Bop Influence Asserted Itself More And More In Young's Playing And Composing And His Work Grew Much More Cerebral And Exploratory. Unity Recorded In 1965 Remains His Best-Known Album. Quick To Embrace Fusion Young Played With Miles Davis In 1969 John McLaughlin In 1970 And Tony Williams' Groundbreaking Lifetime In The Early '70s. Unfortunately His Work Turned Uneven And Erratic As The '70s Progressed. Young Was Only 38 When In 1978 He Checked Into The Hospital Suffering From Stomach Pains And Died From Untreated Pneumonia. The Hammond Hero's Work For Blue Note As Both A Leader And A Sideman Was United For Mosaic's Limited-Edition Six-CD Box Set The Complete Blue Note Recordings. ~ Alex Henderson Rovi read less