{"title":"Larry Young","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eLarry Young grew up in Newark in a household where the organ was already in the room. His father, Larry Young Senior, was an organist himself, and provided an instrument at home once it became clear his son was drawn to it. Young started on piano, absorbed Jimmy Smith's soul-jazz Hammond vocabulary through his teens and early career, and released three Prestige albums between 1960 and 1962 that showed exactly how good he already was at doing what Smith and Jack McDuff were doing. Then he went to Blue Note in 1964 and did something different. \"Into Somethin'\" (1964) with Grant Green and Elvin Jones applied Coltrane's modal vocabulary to the organ, an instrument nobody had previously thought to run in that direction. \"Unity\" (1965), with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones, completed the argument: the most fully realised modal jazz organ album ever recorded, the Hammond used as a harmonic and textural vehicle rather than a blues or gospel instrument, and the record that stands as Young's definitive statement. He was twenty-four years old. He went on to reshape jazz fusion as the organist in Tony Williams's Lifetime alongside John McLaughlin on \"Emergency!\" (1969), appeared on Miles Davis's \"Bitches Brew,\" recorded sessions with Jimi Hendrix at the Record Plant, and served as organ teacher to a young Los Angeles musician named Doug Carn who later recorded for Black Jazz Records. He also converted to Islam and performed under the name Khalid Yasin Abdul Aziz through parts of his career. He died of pneumonia on March 30, 1978, aged 37.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"larry-young-unity-1981-japanese-king-record-gxk-8205-vinyl-lp","title":"Larry Young - Unity (1981 Japanese King Record GXK-8205 Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLarry Young - \u003cem\u003eUnity\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese King Record Reissue (GXK-8205 \/ BST 84221, Blue Note Collectors' Item Series)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe album that made jazz organ a serious instrument\u003c\/strong\u003e, a bass-less quartet with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Elvin Jones on drums, Young's Hammond B-3 covering both harmonic and bass functions\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThree Woody Shaw originals including \"The Moontrane\"\u003c\/strong\u003e, his Coltrane dedication that became a jazz standard, alongside Joe Henderson's \"If\", Thelonious Monk's \"Monk's Dream\" and the Hammerstein\/Romberg standard \"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eJapanese Blue Note Collectors' Item Series pressing\u003c\/strong\u003e on King Record, Reid Miles cover design\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore \u003cem\u003eUnity\u003c\/em\u003e, jazz organ on Blue Note meant Jimmy Smith and soul jazz. Larry Young had started in that tradition and recorded for Prestige in the early 1960s, but by the time he walked into Van Gelder's studio on November 10, 1965, he was after something else entirely. The decision to record without a bassist was the first signal. Young's left hand and foot pedals carry the bass function, freeing the quartet from a conventional rhythm section and giving the music a different centre of gravity. \"Zoltan\", Shaw's opening composition, begins with a march-like figure inspired by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály before erupting into a Latin-tinged blowout with Henderson's tenor spiralling over Jones's polyrhythms. From the first bars it is clear this is not a blowing session. Henderson and Shaw are both at their most angular and aggressive, and Young's organ comping behind them jabs across and against the beat in a way that has more in common with McCoy Tyner's piano than with anything in the organ tradition. \"Monk's Dream\" strips to a duo, just Young and Jones, and the audacity of playing Monk on a B-3 pays off because Young treats the organ as an equal keyboard instrument rather than leaning on its sustain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"If\", Henderson's twelve-bar composition, shifts naturally from trumpet to saxophone to organ, each solo building on the last. \"The Moontrane\", Shaw's dedication to John Coltrane, became the most played piece from the session, its harmonic cycles reflecting Coltrane's influence while the melody remains Shaw's own. \"Softly as in a Morning Sunrise\" is taken at a pace that lets Jones stretch, and the interplay between organ and drums on this track alone would justify the album. \"Beyond All Limits\" closes with Shaw's most harmonically demanding composition, the kind of writing that, in his words, offers no limits once the inherent difficulties are solved. Jones, performing here by courtesy of Atlantic, is the anchor throughout, and his rapport with Young gives the record a rhythmic density that a conventional piano trio could not match. Produced by Alfred Lion, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the 1981 Japanese reissue on King Record (GXK-8205), part of the Blue Note Collectors' Item Series, with Reid Miles' distinctive typographic cover reproduced. Liner notes by Nat Hentoff.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blue Note","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44243381551163,"sku":null,"price":160.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_8701.jpg?v=1789953333"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/larry-young.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}