Irma Young

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Irma Conilie Young (born July 18, 1912 in Thibodaux , Louisiana , † December 20, 1993 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American jazz musician ( saxophone , dance , singing ) and part of a famous jazz family, especially Lester Young .

life and career

Irma Young was born into a talented family that literally lived on and for music. For the father Willis Young the musical education of all family members was a matter of course, which he as their teacher strictly and without exception promoted. As a result, everyone more or less made a career, Irmas Young's brother Lester wrote jazz history. But her younger brother Lee also made a name for himself, and her daughter Martha Young (1927–1985) was also a professional jazz musician.

Irma Young preferred dancing and singing. She became known in 1939 for the role of Bo-Peep (Piep-Bo) , one of three sisters in The Hot Mikado (Mikado in Swing) , a jazz version of the satirical operetta Der Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan . The press originally feared that the British creators of the play would turn in their graves in view of the swing variant, but the audience at the El Capitain Theater in Los Angeles celebrated this adaptation of the operetta stormily. She put on a comedy program with Napoleon Whiting, worked with the tap dancer Bobby Johnson and in 1944 she was in San Pedro in the All-Star Colored Revue (Boogie-Woogie in Harlem ).

According to statements by tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette , Irma Young played the saxophone with virtuosity and was apparently not inferior to her brother Lester. "She made you scared and afraid on the Alto," says Quinichette, who knew her from jam sessions . “She was fabulous, a great musician. She played one chorus after the other, she always had great ideas. ”She and Lester sounded alike,“ just that she played the alto and Lester the tenor sax. ”Others were convinced that Lester had learned from his sister.

Irma Young ended her career in the 1950s.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Irma Young - Ancestry. Retrieved April 18, 2020 .
  2. ^ Douglas Henry Daniels: Los Angeles's Jazz Roots: The Willis H. Young Family . In: California History . tape 82 , no. 3 , 2004, p. 54 .
  3. ↑ 'Mikado' Streamlined in Fast Swing Version . In: The Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles, California July 31, 1939, pp. 10 ( newspapers.com [accessed April 18, 2020]).
  4. ↑ All-Star Colored Revue . In: News Pilot . San Pedro, California June 7, 1944, pp. 7 ( newspapers.com [accessed April 18, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Sally Placksin: Jazzwomen. 1900 to the Present. Their Words, Lives and Music . Pluto Press, London and Sydney 1985, ISBN 0-7453-0089-8 , pp. 67 .
  6. ^ The Unsung Women of Jazz . In: Santa Cruz Sentinel . Santa Cruz, California March 18, 1982, pp. 25 ( newspapers.com [accessed April 18, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Young, Irma
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Young, Irma Conilie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (saxophone, dance, vocals)
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Thibodaux , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1993
Place of death Los Angeles , California