Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

YOUNG, Lee

(b Leonidas Raymond Young, 7 March 1914, New Orleans; d 31 July 2008, Los Angeles) Drummer, producer, record company executive. He moved with his family to Minneapolis in 1920 and studied several instruments including the trombone before taking up the drums. He played in the family band led by his father, Willis Handy Young, with his brother Lester and sister Irma. Their father was a stern taskmaster and made them into a novelty dancing act for traveling carnivals until they learned to play instruments. Lee, the youngest, had visited more than 30 states by the time he was eight years old. They toured on the TOBA circuit (Theater Owners Booking Association, aka 'Tough On Black Asses'). The family finally settled in Los Angeles, where Lee and his sister entertained at dance marathons.

Lee attended high schools in Los Angeles. His first pro jobs were with pianist Walter Johnson in 1934 and trumpeter Mutt Carey, both in 1934. He recorded and worked with Fats Waller (at the Famous Door in 1937), and worked for Paramount and MGM, and later for Columbia, one of the first black musicians to work in the Hollywood studios. He taught Mickey Rooney to play drums for a movie. He played and sang with Lionel Hampton in late 1940, and started his own band in the early 1940s, which included Lester; they toured for the U.S.O. and played at Café Society in New York, but never recorded. In the late 1940s he recorded with Dinah Washington, Ivie Anderson, Mel Powell, Hampton again, and Benny Goodman. He had recorded with Nat 'King' Cole in 1942, and worked for Cole from 1953 to 1962. From then on he worked for record companies, including Vee-Jay in the mid-1960s and later for Motown. He had a reputation for talent spotting, and is credited with discovering Steely Dan.

He is said to have played tennis with a teenaged Norman Granz around 1937 and introduced him to jazz, inspiring him to form Jazz at the Philharmonic, presenting jazz in concerts instead of bars, beginning in 1944. Lee and Lester played at some of the concerts, many of which were recorded. On the evidence of his JATP recordings, Lee had a tendency to rush the beat, and some of his tracks compiled in the complete JATP on Verve are decidedly lumpy. But the sound of the early JATP concerts is not very good, and anyway it is not a sin to not be a genius like the great Lester Young; Lee took better care of himself and had a long and distinguished career. He was interviewed for the book Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (1999) and his recollections of his career were recorded by the oral history program of the University of California, Los Angeles. See also Lester Young's entry for a quote from Lee, revealing about their childhood.