LP-713

The John Young Trio - A Touch of Pepper

Released 1963

Recording and Session Information

John Young, piano; Sam Kidd, bass; Philip Thomas, drums
Ter Mar, Chicago, 29 November & 4 December 1962

12043 Joey
12044 Got a lot of living to do
12045 Blues Oreenee
12046 Serenata
12047 Everything's coming up roses
12048 Search me
12049 The inch worm
12050 The bridge
12051 In other words
12052 Paprika (unissued)

Track Listing

Blues Oreenee	John Young	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
Joey	Frank Loesser	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
Everything's Coming Up Roses	J. Styne, S. Sondheim	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
A Lot Of Living To Do	Charles Strouse, Lee Adams	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
Search Me	Sam Kidd	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
Serenata	Leroy Anderson	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
Inch Worm	Frank Loesser	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
The Bridge	Sonny Rollins	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962
In Other Words (Fly Me To The Moon)	Bart Howard	29 Nov, 4 Dec 1962

Liner Notes

A Touch of Pepper is the highly descriptive title of this third John Young Argo album. His previous two, Young John Young (Argo 612) and the popular Themes and Things (Argo 692) contain excellent examples of his bubbling fire and effervescence but it is this one that really reaches deep and captures that personal spark for which John Young is so admired. This album presents John's experienced trio in its most unhampered swinging recording to date. As always, before presenting any material to his vast following, John has perfected the approach and interpretation of each selection to such a degree that even a casual hearing implies that his is the definitive version.

John Young's versatility is well known in the music field. He is constantly sought for all types of live and recording dates; from preferred anonymity on rock n' roll gigs to "elite" pleasing fashion shows and club dances. All of these assignments he handles with easy professionalism. However, some of the more challenging chores he has accepted, such as regular Chicago accompanist for Nancy Wilson, or his recent rhythm section date (with his drummer, Phil Thomas) for Frank Foster's new swinging *Basie Is Our Boss, Argo 717), have placed him in the very top echelon of todays jazz artists.

During the past three years John's trio has boasted some of the finest sidemen in the business including bassmen Israel Crosby, Vic Sproles, William Yancey, his present bassist Sam Kidd, and his long time drummer Phil Thomas. His home base, bread and butter gig is a small intimate southside club known as the Kittykat. Most of his jobs backing vocalists have been at the famous Sutherland Lounge.

John's musical library, filled with standard "goodies," is also well sprinkled with contemporary fare and top show tunes. The framework of each selection is fairly easy to comprehend and needs no great explanation from me to you. However, a few highlights may help you enjoy the album even more.

Opening side one is John's composition, Blues Oreenee and a deeper swinging, more stimulating blues has never been cut! A really rocking left hand against a "peppery" right hand trill midway through with Sam Kidds hard walking bass keeping the groundwork firm, is unbeatable (no pun intended). Keep your head still on this one if you can! Sam is featured in an earthbound solo on his own composition, Search Me which closes the first side.

In between are three current show tunes, the blues oriented Joey, Joey, the furious tempered Everything's Coming Up Roses and the Bossa Novaed Living. John's touch on this last selection is light and airy and seems to float above the 4/4 swing used during the improvisatory choruses.

The always beautiful and challenging standard, Serenata has long been one of John Young's favorites, and was wisely chosen to open side two. He shows his concert style virtuosity in the opening solo statement with the rhythm section then setting the feeling with Phil on Conga all the way. John's rich full sounding chords and pleasantly surprising glissandes keep the ear tingling throughout. Inch Worm, most notably recorded by John Coltrane and Ira Sullivan, is given an unlikely bluesy intro by John Young with bell like chords following in a relaxed but definitely swinging manner. Another fine Capt. Kidd bass solo and some stacatto-ish drum breaks by Phil Thomas help Inch Worm liven his pace considerably. The only out-and-out Jazz composition of the date is Sonny Rollins' The Bridge, and the trio maintains Sonny's original intent by keeping to the difflcult pattern of an up tempoed switch from to and back again throughout the theme and all of the solos. According to John Young the Moon involved in In Other Words is made of Blue(s) cheese filled with large chunks of beautiful full locked chords. A tasty tidbit to wind up the hearty well balanced and well seasoned (peppery?) offering sterved up by the John Young cookers, supreme chefs all!

Those of you who have heard John in person may have had some misgivings about the approach and material content of his previous albums. Admittedly they were constructed and released to reach a broader audience than the faithful but outnumbered legion of true Jazz fans. This set should please all because it is the least hampered materialwise, and is the fullest free swinging LP John Young has yet recorded. Dig it! The pleasure will be yours.

JOE SEGAL

LP-692

John Young Trio - Themes and Things

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

John Young Trio>
John Young, piano; William Yancey, bass; Phillip Thomas, drums>

Ter Mar Studios, Chicago, June 6, 7 1961

10948 Fever>
10949 Playboy theme>
10950 Weaver of dreams>
10951 Mr. Lucky>
10952 Young blues>
10953 Slow blues (unissued)>
10954 Theme from "Peyton Place">
10964 Theme from Spartacus>
10965 One-eyed Jack>
10966 Take five>
10967 Portrait of my love>
10968 My romance>
10969 When Sunny gets blue>
10970 This could be the start of something big (unissued)>
>

Track Listing

Portrait Of My Love	Ornadel, West	June 6, 7 1961
When Sunny Gets Blue	Fisher, Segal	June 6, 7 1961
Take Five	Desmond	June 6, 7 1961
Peyton Place	Yuffy, Halyate, Bass	June 6, 7 1961
Fever	Glover	June 6, 7 1961
Mr. Lucky	Henry Mancini	June 6, 7 1961
Spartacus (Love Theme)	North	June 6, 7 1961
Weaver Of Dreams	Young, Elliott	June 6, 7 1961
My Romance	Rodgers, Hart	June 6, 7 1961
Playboy Theme	Cy Coleman	June 6, 7 1961
One Eyed Jacks (Love Theme)	Friedhofer	June 6, 7 1961
M J R Blues	Thompson, Wilson, Evans	June 6, 7 1961

Liner Notes

THEMES AND THINGS is the music John Young is most apt to be called upon to play at any given moment during his usually extended stays at one or another of Chicago•s smart intimate clubs. The themes included herein, I'm sure are quite familiar to you. Their interpretation, however, is more different than ordinary, for John Young is not an ordinary performer of music. He is, rather, an astute student of awareness, whose talent lies in his ability to garner from even the most uninteresting compositions the most important elements. This is the same talent that made greats of Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Lester Young. etc, John Young has the talent to enhance ordinary or hackneyed themes, to seek out their inner beauty, and has the taste to embroider them properly so that new life may spring from their tired tones. This is not to say that all of the this album lies in this category, although undeniably some of it does! Most the lovely "love theme" from Spartacus stands on its own merit, as does Peyton Place and One Eyed Jack.

"Things" include several standard ballads, My Romance, Portrait Of My Love, When Sunny Gets Blae, and the unusual Weaver Of Dreams. The original blues, MJR, was co-composed by three fine Chicago musicians, all of whom appear regularly on Argo; Marshall Thompson, drums; Jack Wilson, piano; and Richard Evans, bass. And its theme is not too unlike the famous Bags Groove.

A few of the musical highlites for you to pay particular attention to include the Tatm-like intro and beautiful milking of the sweet melody of When Sunny Gets Blue: the parody onsumptuous movie grandioseness in the introduction of the Peyton Place selection, and the subsequent humorous approach, through interpolation, and the tender mood-setting approach John gives the theme.

Through all of the tunes in this, John's second Argo album, he and his superb trio (Phil Thomas and William Yancey) gives forth a steady swinging sparkle that bespeaks their professionalism and as a rhythm unit. As such. I am fortunate to have been able to call upon this trio many times to propel top artists such as Sonny Stitt, Howard McGhee, Gene Ammons, Bennie Green, Ira Sullivan, and many others through their creative paces. Playing as trio is one thing. Being a successful rhythm section is quite another. John Young's trio has both attributes in abundance.

To those of us in the Chicago area, where John practices most of his musical magic, his style is quite recognizable, and his exhuberant personality continuaIIy bubbles through his musical expressions. Having had his fill Of the road early in his career, with such as the Andy Kirk band, Eddie Chamblee combo, and others, John now prefers the comparative security of Chicago club work to the uncertainty of fame-seeking around the world. That he is the dean of Chicago's modern swing pianists is generally acknowledged. "Young' John Young, now forty, is not getting any younger, high time that nation-wide recognition be his, despite his reluctance to actively it. This album and the others that follow will undoubtedly help toward this end.

John Young is one of the major mainstays of that happy style of piano playing that is too quickly dying, I, for one, am very happy to have been able to continually hear John in person through the years. Your chance is through this album. Dig it!

Joe Segal

LP-612

John Young Trio - Young John Young

Released 1956

Recording and Session Information

Chicago, Illinois 1956
John Young, piano; Herbert Brown, bass; Larry Jackson, drums

8364 Bags' groove
8365 The boy next door
8366 Star eyes
8367 The continental
8368 It never entered my mind
8369 Cherry pink and apple blossom white
8370 Invitation
8371 Three penny opera
8372 Close to me
8373 Theme from "Warsaw concerto"

Track Listing

Three Penny Opera		1956
Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White		1956
Invitation		1956
Star Eyes		1956
Warsaw Concerto		1956
It Never Entered My Mind / Spring Is Here		1956
The Boy Next Door		1956
Bags’ Groove		1956
Close to Me		1956
The Continental		1956

Liner Notes

Approaching his middle thirties, pianist, John Young, still maintains in his musical approach the same youthful exuberance and sparkle that has, since his early playing days, been the dominant factor in his everlasting popularity, with audience and fellow musician alike.

Listing such top musicians as his leader over a period of 15 years of professional music-making, as Andy Kirk, Gene Ammons, Eddie Chamblee, Ben Webster, Sonny Stiff, and King Kolax, "Young John Young", has run the gamut of popular musical expression, from society-tinged dance music and rhythm & blues, to the purest forms of swinging Jazz.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, John hit Chicago early enough to begin his initial schooling here, and before terminating it, had, as have the maiority of the Southsides top musicians, undergone the valuable teaching of Capt. Walter Dyett, the renowned musical director of DuSable High School.

After too many years on the road with the various leaders listed, John decided to make his own mark in the musical world, and formed the versatile trio he now directs. After a period at the famous BeeHive, as a complete rhythm section for the various stars that appeared there, John moved his group to the intimate 63rd St. spot known as the Kitty Kat club, where he has been for the past two years.

When cutting this album it was decided to give his new-found audience the opportunity to hear the many faceted forms of John's artistry, and therefore it was agreed to present each side as near as possible as a complete set would be presented on the stand most any night at the Kitty Kat.

Since the inception of his present group, John has been able to maintain the same sidemen...Herbert Brown, bass and Larry Jackson, drums...which as anyone in the music business will attest to, is quite a managerial accomplishment. The interplay, and counter-balancing that add so much to the trio's musical Value are the results of this long and profitable association of these three top modern musicians.

I think you, the listener, will agree whole-heartedly with me, in the premise that though John Young has reached the age of maturity when musical habit usually supplants adventuresomeness, he still maintains, with uncompromising consistency, the youthful awareness and daring which makes his playing, and his Trio, a musical treat to behold. This, then is "Young, John Young", and this album couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

JOE SEGAL
Chicago Columnist,
Metronome Magazine

THE MUSIC
SIDE ONE
1. A typical set would open with the swinging approach to the theme from "The Three Penny Opera", "MACK THE KNIFE", with drummer Jackson providing the constant bongo beat around which Brown plays a walking two-four time, and John embellishes to his happy heart's content. A most enioyable set opener.

2. Number two selection is a drum showcase for Larry Jackson, in which his fondness for the Latin American rhythms shines through, and surrounds John's interpretation Of '*CHERRY PINK & APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE".

3. "INVITATION", the pretty, and relaxed third tune maintains the Latin feeling, and demonstrates that togetherness previously mentioned.

4. The tune "Bird" helped to re-establish as a favorite, "STAR EYES", is given a bounce treatment between the Latin intro and out riff, with some swingy fours between piano and drums adding a nice snap to entire proceedings.

5. A complete departure from the Jazz bent tunes in the trios repertoire is the closing selection of set (side) one. the main theme from the beautiful, "WARSAW CONCERTO", which flows almost imperceptably from the straight no-tempo Statement of the famous melody into the merest suggestion of a swinging lilt. Herein, John Young most easily demonstrates just exactly why the respect he garners from world renowned musicians is so well deserved.

SIDE TWO
l. John's choice of two lovely ballads, NEVER ENTERED MY MIND", and "SPRING IS HERE", arranged in medley style, opens the curtain on set two, and shows off Herbert's excellent bowing talents to great advantage.

2. Happiness is the tune called, / "THE BOY NEXT DOOR", as played by John Young's Trio, with bass and drum breaks figuring in as part of the melodic line. John's sometimes obvious affinity for the great Art Tatum enhances portions of this tingly affair.

3. "BAGS GROOVE", for me, is one of the high spots of the entire session, with John's first flurries of runs after the opening theme providing an excellent example of just how vigorously exciting a controlled raucousness can be...Herbert's bass solo and Larry's four bar breaks finish out this most swinging side, with the triple ending bouncing things off into the mood that's iust right for the next tune.

4. Ballad time again, with the pretty original, "CLOSE TO ME", relaxing the feeling once more into a low pressure groove; the kind of groove that in a small intimate spot leads to the happy ringing of the cash register.

5. To close out the set and this album John chose the evergreen, "THE CONTINENTAL," and more apropo this choice could not be; for throughout this, his first LP, John Young's musical talent has proven its worldly scope.

Recording Engineer — JACK WEINER
Supervision —PHIL CHESS