If you want to change the game, first you need to master the game. Coming up in Newark in the fifties was the exact right place and time for Larry Young to learn the idiom of the Hammond B-3 organ, and he learned his lessons well. His early records embody the soul-jazz organ trio sound made popular by Jimmy Smith.
But as the sound of the sixties emerged, Larry Young (also known by his Muslim name, Khalid Yasin Abdul Aziz) was reaching for something more. His journey, including hours of conversation and jam sessions with spiritual avatar John Coltrane, brought about an expanded consciousness that revealed itself in his music. Larry Young pulled an unmistakably boisterous explosion of sound through the B-3. He showed new horizons that fellow organists have been pursuing for more than half a century. Brian Charette is one of them. He is not only an endlessly inventive multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, but also one of our best students of the music's history. He joins host Mitch Goldman on this week's Deep Focus. Did the WKCR archives provide recordings of Larry Young and John Coltrane's private sessions? Unfortunately, none are known to exist. Do we have rare recordings of Larry Young and Jimi Hendrix pushing each other in new directions? Find out Monday (10/27) from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD, or wkcr.org.
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Photo credit: Photo by Francis Wolff. Shot in Paris. Michael Cuscuna unearthed this photo, amongst others, for Resonance’s “Larry Young In Paris” in 2016.

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