Organ | 1940-1978

Larry Young was born in Newark, New Jersey on October 7, 1940, into a household where his father, also an organist, kept an instrument at home. He started on piano, gravitated to the organ in his late teens, worked through Newark's R&B circuit and recorded three Prestige albums between 1960 and 1962 in the soul-jazz tradition of Jimmy Smith. His move to Blue Note in 1964 changed the direction entirely. "Into Somethin'" (1964), with Grant Green and Elvin Jones, applied Coltrane's modal harmonic language to the Hammond B-3 in a way nobody had attempted before. "Unity" (1965), with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Elvin Jones on drums, remains the fullest realisation of that approach and the most important modal jazz organ album in the catalogue. Young went on to anchor the Tony Williams Lifetime as the organist on "Emergency!" (1969) alongside John McLaughlin, appeared on Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew," and recorded with Jimi Hendrix at the Record Plant. He also taught organ to a young Doug Carn in Los Angeles. He converted to Islam and used the name Khalid Yasin Abdul Aziz through parts of his career. Young died on March 30, 1978, aged 37.