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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZYOUNG, Larry(b 7 Oct. '40, Newark NJ; d 30 March '79, NYC) Organist, dubbed by Jack McDuff 'The Coltrane of the organ'. Studied piano as a child, began playing R&B '57. His first album was Testifyin' '60 on Prestige, with Joe Holiday on tenor sax, Thornell Schwartz on guitar and Jimmie Smith on drums; Schwartz and Smith were playing with Jimmy Forrest at the time, and Young made an album with them a few days later (Forrest Fire), then his own Young Blues '60, Groove Street '62 and a few trio tracks '63 (with Booker Ervin, never released). He switched to Blue Note for nine albums '64--9, at first recording with guitarist Grant Green and Elvin Jones on drums under both Green's name and his own, as a trio and with guests Sam Rivers, Bobby Hutcherson, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw; then '66--9 with other personnel incl. James Spaulding, Byard Lancaster and Lee Morgan. Meanwhile he had been studying modal music and come under the influence of Coltrane (with whom he once performed) and began doing things with the ponderous Hammond that no one else had done. Young had become a Muslim; he played at a Muslim banquet where there were several drummers, and a subsequent album Of Love And Peace '66 used two drummers (Jerry Thomas and Wilson Moorman III). The last album, Mother Ship, was not released until '80; all the Blue Note tracks were compiled on Mosaic's limited edition The Complete Blue Note Recordings Of Larry Young '91; compilation The Art Of Larry Young on Blue Note. He toured Europe '64, recorded with Miles Davis '69 (incl. electric piano on Bitches Brew), John McLaughlin '70, Tony Williams in Lifetime '69--71; recorded with John McLaughlin and Santana (Love, Devotion And Surrender '72); made Lawrence Of Newark '73 on Perception (with James Blood Ulmer, Pharoah Sanders, electric pianos and percussion) but the label folded; he temporarily lost his way and made two albums of fashionable funk on Arista which didn't sell. He played on drummer Joe Chambers's album Double Exposure '77 on Muse and had a good new deal with WB coming up, but went to a hospital with stomach pain and died of pneumonia. |