Webster Young

This article deals with the jazz trumpeter, for the composer see Webster A. Young

Webster English Young (*  3. December 1932 in Columbia , South Carolina ; †  13. December 2003 in Vancouver , Washington ) was an American jazz - trumpet and cornet .

Young named the 1943 film adaptation of the musical Cabin in the Sky as the first inspiration to seriously deal with music. According to his own admission, he is said to have convinced Louis Armstrong to give him lessons on the trumpet before he received formal music training in the strict sense of the word in various marching bands and wind bands .

When, in the second half of the 1940s, modern jazz began to become known beyond its place of origin New York City with the bebop , Young took the game Dizzy Gillespies as a model. His actual career as a professional musician began after the end of his military service, which he served during the Korean War. Upon his return to the United States, Young toured with various jazz and rhythm and blues bands (including those of Hampton Hawes and Lloyd Price ) before settling in New York on the advice of Miles Davis .

In the metropolis of jazz, he soon played with experienced musicians such as Lester Young (to whom he was not related), Bud Powell , Jackie McLean and John Coltrane . The year 1957 marked a high point in Webster Young's career, insofar as he made a large part of the recordings through which his name is still present in jazz history today. These include the “blowing sessions” from which albums such as McLean's Makin 'the Changes , Ray Draper's Tuba Sounds and Coltrane's Interplay for Two Trumpets and Two Tenors were later put together. As a tribute to the singer Billie Holiday was For Lady conceived; Young can be heard here with Paul Quinichette , Mal Waldron and Ed Thigpen, among others .

A similar homage album entitled Webster Young Plays The Miles Davis Songbook from 1961 is considered the most artistically successful recording by the trumpeter, who made hardly any records in the following years. On the other hand, he initially remained active on stage, where, as in the early years of his career, he could be heard with R&B acts such as Ike and Tina Turner as well as with jazz greats such as Dexter Gordon .

In 1965, Young returned to Washington, DC , where he had spent most of his youth. Here he was mainly active in music education, for example he taught at the University of the District of Columbia and headed the DC Music Center Jazz Workshop Band . In the 1980s he temporarily interrupted this teaching activity in order to tour various European countries with the Dutch pianist Rein de Graaff .

In 2002, Young finally retired from the music world and moved to Portland, Oregon . The following year, a few days after his 71st birthday, he died of a brain tumor .

Web links

• Washington Post obituary