Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Snooky Young was born Eugene Young in Dayton, Ohio on February 3, 1919. Taking up the trumpet at the age of five, he didn’t begin making a name for himself until he joined the Jimmie Lunceford band as lead trumpeter in 1939, a relationship that lasted for three years.

He played a total of eight years over three stints with Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and was an original member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. However, his longest engagement was as a studio trumpeter with NBC’s Tonight Show Band from 1967 to 1992 when Johnny Carson’s departure broke up the band and the network replaced it with a new, smaller group.

Young only recorded three albums as a leader but was a sideman on nearly three-dozen albums and he continued to perform in L.A. with several big bands and holds membership in the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Known for his mastery of the plunger mute, he is able to create a wide range of sounds. He can make his horn speak, shout, growl, and sigh with his mutes while always swinging irresistibly.

On October 17, 2008 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Trumpeter and flugelhornist Snooky Young passed away on May 11, 2011 in Newport Beach, California at the age of 92.

More Posts: flugelhorn,trumpet