"Young" John Young

[sheldonm]

Buried at the bottom of this interesting article is the sad news that pianist "young" John Young has passed away

m~

you wish to be removed from this list, just ask.

The stars must have been in some strange alignment Friday night – on my

way to The Green Mill I (almost literally) ran into the piano-bar

entertainer Joel Berry, whom I haven’t seen for 7 or 8 years. Joel

suffered a near-fatal stroke some time ago, and has made a miraculous

recovery, with all of his faculties intact. He’s still gigging, and has

become even more cheerful a person than he was before (and he was a happy

guy, lemme tell ya). We should all be so fortunate.

Once I got to the Mill, the first person I ran into was sax player Kevin

Flannagan, who has promised for years to show up some night, and finally

made it. Unfortunately the hour was too late for him to stick around and

play with us, but it was great to see him outside of our usual milieu

(Hackney’s/Mr. Myers band). My Japanese trumpet player friend Hiroshi

Yasuda was also there, but for some reason didn’t play (we got sort of

overloaded with trumpets – Ivory, Steve Thomas, Scott Anderson). My young

drummer friend Jon Quiaoit sat in and sounded fine, and so did the fiery

young pianist Justin Dillard, and I’m pretty sure I saw pianist Greg

Spero in the audience, diggin’ it. The singer Shelly Lynne sat in and

swung pretty hard, and my old drummer compadre Mike “Count Drumula” Linn

was wandering around, looking a bit dazed. But the biggest surprise came

as I was exiting via the side door; a guy walking across the street

called out to me, and it turned out to be drummer Greg Fundis. I haven’t

seen Greg for maybe 10 years, but he was always one of my favorite

players. He’s on the road with the band 56 Hope Road, and they were

playing at The Riv; it’s great to see someone who’s realizing his dreams.

Tuesday night at Andy’s we also had a pleasant surprise; trumpet star

Corey Wilkes and fast-rising tenor sax player Kevin Edwards sat in with

us and burned up Miles’ “Nardis” and Freddie Hubbard’s “Straight Life”. I

welcome surprises like this; the more the merrier.

Which brings me, roundabout, to my sermon of the week: The quality of

audiences. Andy’s was packed with tourists Tuesday (urologists’

convention), the majority of them foreigners, and although they were

noisy, they were also respectful and appreciative. And that’s usually how

I can tell an audience of Europeans, South Americans or Asians from an

American audience. Americans persist in treating live music as nothing

more than a version of music video, a version which annoyingly requires

them to occasionally shut up and applaud. I know, every once in a while

you get lucky, but you know what I’m talking about. The Europeans (from

Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy) applauded at the

appropriate places and bought cds, and many of those who did not

nevertheless took the time to tell us how much they appreciated our

music. There was a sizable contingent of Brasilians as well, and they

enjoyed (or at least tolerated) our selection of Brasilian music, and

were bemused as I trotted out my smattering of Portuguese.

I like to think that American audiences don’t mean to be rude; they were

just raised that way. The American culture really does not place high

value on creativity, I’m afraid, and a lot of these attitudes are buried

deep in our national origins. Not only in our Puritanical roots, but the

very concept of democracy, in a way, teaches us that all of us are equal,

so why should I shut up and treat you like you’re a big whoop? As part

and parcel of early America’s refutation of all things European we threw

the baby out with the bathwater and developed a national character that

is not only independent-minded and rebellious but anti-intellectual as

well.

(A footnote to this argument is, do you know why Americans drive on the

right side of the road? It’s because the English drive on the left. And

the footnote to that is, why do the English drive on the left? It’s a

throwback to the days of chivalry; men rode their horses on the left side

of the road so that their sword-handling arm, the right, would be handy

to fend off an attack from an approaching brigand.)

All that can be done, I’m afraid, is for all of you hard-working teachers

out there to continue fighting the good fight, and for those of you in

“the media” to keep trying to sneak some of the good stuff past the

arbiters of taste. And for those of you who are not in the trenches with

us, to be kind when our paths intersect. Pay attention, applaud, teach

your kids that art comes from people, not from machines.

Speaking of you teachers, I just heard the disturbing news that the IAJE

has gone bankrupt. Terrible news on the jazz education front.

Some more sad news is the death of “Young” John Young. John was one of

greatest pianists, and a true gentleman as well. I used to see him play

quite a bit in my youth, and had a few chances to work with him once I

had paid some dues; he was always gracious, always played sublimely, and

he will be sorely missed. Eric Schneider passed along the following

information about services for John:

Wake: Tues., April 22, 6:00 until ?, Leak & Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S.

Cottage Grove.

Funeral: Weds., I presume, (10 - 11 visitation; 11:00 funeral), Ebeneezer

Missionary Baptist Church, 4501 S. Vincennes.

[sheldonm]

...one of the last photographs I made of him...

[sheldonm]

...and

[John L]

Damn! What a beautiful piano player and fantastic creative musician. I never understood why he was not more celebrated outside of Chicago.

RIP

[Chuck Nessa]

Very sorry to hear this. Lovely man.

[Dan Gould]

Sad news. His Argo recordings are nice.

[Chuck Nessa]

Wanted to point out he was in the '40s Andy Kirk band along with Fats Navarro and Howard McGhee.

[Chalupa]

...and

What a great photo!!

[jimi089]

Very sad, he was a Chicago treasure for sure.

[Free For All]

I am very sorry to hear this.

I had the privilege to play with him many times. He was a great musician and a real gentleman. He will be missed!

[Chuck Nessa]

Here's one of Ann's shots from a while back.

[sheldonm]

Here's one of Ann's shots from a while back.

..very nice!

[johnlitweiler]

...and

Great photo, Sheldon - it captures that sly sense of humor in his music.

[johnlitweiler]

Here's one of Ann's shots from a while back.

Aha! In this one he looks like some unwanted horn player who's sitting in is messing up the chord changes. John, bless him, used to be strict to the younger folk who came to the Enterprise to play (or try to) w/him and Von.

Chicago pianists of John's generation were a parallel world to the boppers. Young was one with the bop melodies and great swing and a certain recurring show-biz flair. And then one week with Joe Turner he dug in and played some true, no-b.s. blues.

I wonder if that Thursday night band of many, many years w/John and Eddie Johnson, Paul Serrano, etc. - on Eddie's Nessa and Delmark albums - was his favorite gig.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I'm sorry to hear this. I don't have any of his own albums, but I keep running into his name elsewhere in my collection - George, Von, Clarence Wheeler and others.

RIP

MG

[jimi089]

From the Tribune:

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-hed-young-21-apr21,1,855471.story

chicagotribune.com

John Young 1922 ~ 2008

Pianist played with the greats

By Howard Reich

Tribune critic

April 21, 2008

Chicago jazz pianist John Young never attained the global fame of Ramsey Lewis or Ahmad Jamal—slightly younger musicians who also launched their keyboard careers in this city.

But Mr. Young achieved an impressive résumé, collaborating with Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons and practically everyone else who mattered in mid-20th Century jazz.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, Mr. Young in the 1940s crisscrossed the country with a vastly popular big band—Andy Kirk's and His Clouds of Joy—and subsequently became a revered figure in Chicago jazz.

Mr. Young, 86, died Wednesday, April 16, of multiple myeloma at South Shore Hospital.

"I think Ahmad got a lot from listening to John," said Chicago saxophonist Eric Schneider, who often worked with Young. "John Young had a totally individual style," observed Joe Segal, founder of the Jazz Showcase. "He had a very sparkling style, very swinging."

Mr. Young's pianism amounted to an alluring mixture of several elements: He merged an earthy blues sensibility with a remarkably refined technique; he brought the hot dance rhythms of the swing era into the newer idiom of bebop.

"He was the man to get the band cooking," said Richard Wang, vice president of the non-profit Jazz Institute of Chicago and music professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Mr. Young attained his distinctive virtuosity and built a prosperous career despite a variety of obstacles. Born in Little Rock, Ark., as the youngest of eight siblings, he came to Chicago with his mother, who sought "a better life for herself and her family up north, where there were more opportunities," said Alan Young, the pianist's only child.

Mr. Young's mother supported the family working as a seamstress and running a butcher shop on the South Side.

At DuSable High School, Mr. Young studied under the great bandleader-instructor Capt. Walter Dyett and performed alongside such future stars as pianist Dorothy Donegan and comedian Redd Foxx.

When Mr. Young began touring with Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy, he was struck by the breadth of the country's racism.

"I was introduced to white and colored drinking fountains and white and colored waiting rooms as we traveled throughout the South by train," Mr. Young said in Dempsey Travis' landmark book, "An Autobiography of Black Jazz." "It was the worst thing in the world because they would put us [blacks] in the front car of the train, right next to the coal car. There was no air conditioning and, if you opened the windows for air, the coal cinders would blow right in on you."

After a tenure in the Navy in the mid-1940s and a period living in Cleveland, Mr. Young moved back to Chicago in 1955 and became one of the most sought-after pianists in the city.

"He worked with almost everyone I had at the Showcase," said Segal, who also produced some of Mr. Young's first albums. But Mr. Young's recorded work was more popular among connoisseurs.

Mr. Young, however, did not express disappointment in his career, his son said.

Ebullient on stage, Mr. Young typically wore a dapper cap and often was billed as "Young John Young." He played frequently with Chicago tenor saxophone icon Von Freeman and masters of comparable stature.

"He built up a real good reputation in Chicago. . . . I think he was happy," said his son. "One of his favorite phrases, which will be on his headstone, is 'Everything's mellow.' "

In addition to his son, Mr. Young is survived by his second wife, Jessie.

Visitation will start at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Leak & Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, 4501 S. Vincennes Ave.

hreich@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

[rpklich]

I used to frequent the Jazz Showcase when he played there. I was blessed to hear him so often.

[Larry Kart]

Young, like Red Garland, had the ability to play a good many fairly "set" figures and make them feel fresh every time. Maybe it had something to do with the "sly sense of humor" that John Litweiler mentions. It was like he was he taking us into his confidence when he went into his "Spartacus" thing, for example -- as though he were saying "You know this and I know that you do, but I enjoyed coming up with it in the first place and I still like it, plus it's paid for a lot of my bills, so let's enjoy it again, together."

[johnlitweiler]

John Young's obituary is at http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/musi...g042208.article

and in tomorrow's Chicago Sun-Times.

[Chuck Nessa]

John Young's obituary is at http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/musi...g042208.article

and in tomorrow's Chicago Sun-Times.

Thanks.

[Larry Kart]

John Young's obituary is at http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/musi...g042208.article

and in tomorrow's Chicago Sun-Times.

A soulful farewell, musical itself.