Larry Young's Tragic Genius

[Pete C]

Article from Newark Star-Ledger:

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1049027116217100.xml?starledger?emu

[achilles]

thanks, Pete.
I've just gotten into Young so this was interesting (and sad).

[Captain Hate]

Left out of the discography was Turn it Over by the Tony Williams Lifetime. I wore the grooves off of that sucker, my first fusion purchase, despite Tony's terrible vocals. One of the major appeals was the Young's awesome playing. Sorry to hear how it ended.

[Other Steve]

Nice piece. Thanks for sharing, Pete.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Well, this article may have some additional reprecussions since I was told many years ago that Blue Note had a lot of unclaimed $$ in an account with Larry's name on it. Given that they quote Larry's wife & brother, BN should finally have the contact info they need. That in itself is great news.

Later,
Kevin

[Bill Barton]

Thanks, Pete!!!

[Nate Dorward]

An interesting & useful article, though there are details that seem a bit wonky. Young was such a great musician. Not always a creator of great music (I have the Mosaic, & the contrast between the absolutely stellar music on the first 3-1/2 discs & the middling-to-terrible music on the last 2-1/2 is pretty dispiriting) but Unity in particular is one of the great modern jazz albums, & he ought to have made much much more in that vein as a leader. One thing in the article caught my eye: to my knowledge Young's last album was actually a duet album with Joe Chambers called (if memory serves) Double Exposure. I've never heard it, & always been mightily curious. Anyone heard this? I take it it's never made it to CD.

[Jim Sangrey]

Originally posted by Nate Dorward
to my knowledge Young's last album was actually a duet album with Joe Chambers called (if memory serves) Double Exposure. I've never heard it, & always been mightily curious. Anyone heard this? I take it it's never made it to CD.

Yeah, it's great. Chambers plays mostly piano, however, so you get only two of those patented Young/drummer duets (personal favorite - "The Cradle" from HEAVEN ON EARTH), and THAT took me a few listens to get over, but hell yeah - great music, and never on CD.

[Nate Dorward]

Very odd that Double Exposure didn't get reissued by 32 Jazz, which acquired the Muse catalogue. I believe 32 Jazz is now out of commission so I guess that'll never happen now. Yes, had gathered it was mostly with Chambers on piano. -- Yes, those organ-drums duos are great, & I wish there were more of them on record. The champ is of course the amazing "Monk's Dream" on Unity. (I once transcribed this--I'd never even noticed till I did this that at one point Young gets so excited he loses his place in the tune: there's a dropped A section at one point, as he can't wait to move into that wonderfully climactic B section.) I'm also fond of the duet with Eddie Gladden on Contrasts, "Major Affair".

[BFrank]

Double Exposure is a very nice album. I don't mind that it's mostly piano & organ as it's very atmospheric and different from most anything either has done otherwise. It should be reissued by somebody.

[alankin]

Originally posted by Nate Dorward
Very odd that Double Exposure didn't get reissued by 32 Jazz, which acquired the Muse catalogue. I believe 32 Jazz is now out of commission so I guess that'll never happen now...

I believe that the Muse catalog is now owned by Savoy Jazz.