Larry Young

• Genre: Organ Jazz

About

Larry Young, or Khalid Yasin, was the Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond organ, reaching musical brilliance through fierce, impassioned, dizzying walls of sound. Early in his career, he began moving away from the chicken-shack Funk and R&B that the rest of his generation of organists made their stylistic home. Instead, he took his inspiration from the harmonic extensions of John Coltrane; his mid-‘60s albums explored these musical ideas, while firmly remaining in a Post Bop vein. In the late 1960s, inspired by Psychedelic rock, his music began taking on far more intense, explosive qualities. He was a key member of three legendary early Fusion bands: Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew crew, Tony Williams’ Lifetime, and the notorious Love Cry Want, who were banned from playing anywhere near the White House for fear that they might drive then-President Nixon over the edge!

- Noah Enelow