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Larry Young Corner


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Thought I'd fire up the engines for the great Larry Young. Surely one of the greatest organists to ever touch the console. I doubt any organist will ever take the instrument to such great heights again.

So, what's your favorite Larry Young moment, track, album, riff, motif, or all things Larry...?

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Yeah! How 'bout some Mothership! I don't want to hear no talk about another Hill until I get the thumbs up that Mothership is about to land.

I don't think Larry ever hit a bad note on Blue Note. But, ever notice at the end of Luny Tune where it goes from Larry's solo to the head....either that's a edit, or Larry shifts gears pretty quick. If so, I'd like to hear the unedited version.

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When I bought the Larry Young set, I never had heard him. Remember NO sessions as a leader or sideman were available as domestic cd reissues when that was put out. I had seen pictures of those records and had read a little about him. But other than that, had no clue. I'll still never forget the moment I put that first CD from that Mosaic set on! Wow, I didn't know what the hell he was doing, but I damn sure knew it was a long, long way from Smithville. Still, hands down, my favorite Mosaic. (followed by the Sam Rivers...) :g

That set exemplifies Mosaic at it's best.

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I had only heard about Larry Young being the Coltrane of the organ. I had an old copy of Emergency and Hendrix's Nine to the Universe album. I remember the feeling I had when I opened the box. It was like Christmas. I was out of my skin as I played the set for the first time and read the booklet.

I really wish they were doing a large John Patton set. There haven't been a lot of sets lately that give me the same excitement that I had when they were doing a lot of Blue Note sets like Hill, Mobley, etc...

I too am a BIG fan of the Sam Rivers set!

:rsmile:

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I would like to add in a couple of Larry's rock-oriented outings. Both as a sideman.

John McLaughlin "Devotion" - A definite "homage" to Hendrix. Has some highly psychedelic acid-jazz.

Carlos Santana/John McLaughlin "Love, Devotion Surrender" - High speed guitar pyrotechnics with a wash of Larry Young enveloping the sound.

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"Unity" is a no-brainer, of course. I'm still amazed by this album each time I listen to it. It's a permanent part of my car CD collection, as is Grant Green's "Street of Dreams." Both are great examples of Larry's playing, but with totally different moods and vibes to them. On "Unity," my favorite tracks are "Zoltan" and "Beyond All Limits." "Somewhere in the Night" is my favorite on "Street of Dreams." I've also listened to "Mother Ship" several times this week, as I've been trying to listen more to albums I feel I've neglected (the CD collection grew a bit too quickly in the last year - about 25 Mosaics and 400-500 other new CD's :rolleyes: ). Anyway, I've been enjoying it immenseley, with "Visions" being my favorite track. I haven't heard too much of Larry's non-Blue Note work, but I did recently pick up "Lawrence of Newark," which I've had a little more trouble getting into. I haven't seen this one mentioned too often, so maybe I'm not alone.

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It was somewhere in the hazy smoke-filled rooms of 1976-1977 that a friend of mine who had begun the Blue Note quest put on UNITY without saying a word. I wasn't sure if the rush I began to feel was the music or the result of a heavy session of lathering-rinsing-repeating my head with Herbal Essence. In those days, frequent shampooing was a fact of life.

It was the music.

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Unity was one of my first jazz purchases ever. I was curious about him after seeing a listing of Mosaics and saying to myself "who is Larry Young?"

My favorite of his still remains Inta Something.

Honorable mention to Grant Green's Talking About, however. I thought Larry not to mention Grant and Elvin are fantastic on that session.

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I first heard "Plaza de Toros" on a BN UK Organ compilation and had to hear some more, tried to get the best of.. CD that BN put out in the early 90s. When that failed I orderd up the Mosaic and never looked back. Young lead me back to Jimmy Smith to an extent and sideways to Big John Patton. I have a limited tolerance of B3 stuff as so much is pretty formulaic. Young on the other hand is the business even if his wifes singing is atonal. :g

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'Into Somethin' was my introduction to Larry Young. It's still my preferred

album of his. It was also one of the first time I heard Sam Rivers.

Larry Young was playing in Paris at the time (1964-1965) but I

always heard him on piano. Can't remember having heard him on the organ

when he played live dates here. I got all his BN albums after that first one and

skipped the Mosaic set.

By the way. the cover of 'Into Somethin' was shot in Paris. The windows in the

photo are from the Maison de la Radio building which had just been completed at the

time Frank Wolff took it.

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Thanks, brownie!!! - I'd always wondered about the cover for Into Somthin' - which is probably one of my all-time top-10 favorite BN covers. I'm a big architecture buff, and was kinda curious about that building, although I never expected to find out what it was, or rather, where it was (and I presume, still is - I hope).

Like most, my first introduction to Larry Young was Unity, and then one of my very first TOCJ's was Into Somethin', which I got primarily because it included Sam Rivers.

I missed out on the Mosaic, unfortunately, but did manage to find a darn reasonably priced one on eBay about 2 years ago - for only $120 (including shipping). Didn't include the booklet or box, but I'm 99% sure that the CD's and CD packaging are legit. I wish I had the booklet, but the music's much more important. (The guy listed it on eBay without the words "Blue Note" or "Mosaic" anywhere in the title, or the listing itself, so it didn't get on nearly any many people's radars - if they were searching for anything other than "Larry Young" specifically.)

=====

I can't wait for Mother Ship, which Tom@BN said was probably on the October list for Conns. That, and the previously unreleased Andrew Hill big band sessions (with Woody Shaw!!!!) - and I'll be a happy guy!!!

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Rooster, if you are an architecture buff, here is some info on the Paris

Maison de la Radio. It was designed by French architect Henri Bernard and

completed in 1963. It is located on the Avenue du President Kennedy

(who says French don't love Americans?) on the edge of the Seine river

not very far from the Paris Statue de la Liberte replica and the Eiffel Tower.

It's still standing there.

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That cover for "Inta Something" is best when viewed full-size. I had the Connoisseur and thought it was cool, but when I finally got a copy of the 12x12 Blue Note Cover Art book, the cover for that album blew me away!!!

God I miss lp's! For the art...I don't miss pops and clicks... :)

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Thanks for the link to that article. It mentions...

In 1997, a jazz group in New York recorded a Larry Young tribute record.

Anybody know what album this is???

About to see if I can find anything about it, on-line, now... I'll post any info I find, if I manage to answer my own question.

Thanks!!

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PS: Never could find this on-line, but I did find these when I did a search on "Larry Young Tribute", from Google. Appears to be a live tape making the rounds. No idea if this is the same thing mentioned in the article....

Source: http://www.pattontrader.com/main.html

- 'LARRY YOUNG TRIBUTE BAND' live performances -

1CD: October 22, 1997 New York (NY), Knitting Factory.

1CD: November 8, 1997 New York (NY), Knitting Factory.

1.  LARRY YOUNG TRIBUTE BAND live CD:

October 22, 1997, New York (NY), Knitting Factory.

- 4 tracks -

65 mins, 30 secs approx.

GRADE = A+

Setlist - (setlist unknown)

2.  LARRY YOUNG TRIBUTE BAND live CD:

November 8, 1997, New York (NY), Knitting Factory.

(John Zorn w/ John Medeski, Marc Ribot & Bobby Previte).

- 3 tracks -

58 mins, 50 secs approx.

GRADE = A+

Setlist - (setlist unknown)

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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