Snooky‖ Young
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1 Funding for the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program NEA Jazz Master interview was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. EUGENE EDWARD “SNOOKY” YOUNG NEA Jazz Master (2009) Interviewee: Eugene Edward ―Snooky‖ Young (February 3, 1919 – May 11, 2011) Interviewer: Anthony Brown with recording engineer Ken Kimery Date: February 24-25, 2009 Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Description: Transcript, 126 pp. Brown: Today is February 24th, 2009 and we are conducting the Smithsonian National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Oral History interview with Snooky Young in his home in Los Angeles. Snooky Young is known as a trumpeter and he is 90 years young as of February 3rd. Is that your correct birth date Snooky? Young: February 3rd. Brown: 1919? Young: 1919. Brown: [laughs] Ok. What was your full name when you were born? Young: My full name was Eugene Edward Young, Jr. Brown: Named after your father? Young: Yes. For additional information contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [email protected] 2 Brown: Where was your father from? Where did your father come, what was his hometown? Young: My father‘s hometown was Dayton, Ohio Brown: Ok, so he was born and raised in Dayton? Young: He was born and raised in Dayton. Brown: And your mother‘s name and where was she from? Young: My mother was from Virginia. I don‘t remember the name of the city or anything, but I know she was from Virginia. Her family moved to Ohio, I can‘t tell you too much about that because it was before I was born. So I do know that my mother was from Virginia. Brown: Ok, ok. Do you have, did you have, or do you have any brothers or sisters? Young: Beg your pardon? Brown: Brothers of sisters? Young: Yes, I have. There was seven of us in my family, four boys and three girls. My oldest brother was Granville, Granville Young. I was the second, no I wasn‘t second, my sister was second, Mary-Louise, and then I was third; Eugene Edward Young. The fourth child was, was it Ursabelle? I think it was Ursabelle. It‘s hard for me to remember of my sisters and brothers now it‘s been so many years. Ursabelle and then Jimmy; James Young. And then my youngest brother was Don Young. I think that was all seven of my sisters and brothers. Brown: Judy, go ahead, you can make an addendum. Judy Andrews: Joanne… Brown: Joanne. Judy Young:…was the baby. Brown: Joanne. Young: Thank you. Joanne was my youngest sister, that was the last child that made us seven, I missed… For additional information contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [email protected] 3 Brown: And I wasn‘t counting either, so it‘s ok. Do you remember where you were in Dayton, Ohio. What neighborhood, where in Dayton, Ohio you grew up? What part of town in Dayton, Ohio? Young: In Dayton, Ohio most of my people lived on the west side. West side was the Negro neighborhood mostly. The other side, you know back in them days, it was very, people, it‘s hard for me to explain that. But most of the Negros lived on the west side, the east side and other parts of town was. How can I explain that? Well, west side was where most of the black people lived, now I‘ll have to put it like that. East side, west side, the north side, south side; but the west side was where I was raised, where I was born on the west side. Brown: So you would say you grew up in a segregated society? Young: Yes. Brown: So you went primarily black schools, black churches… Young: Right. Brown:…you had your own black stores… Young: Very good., all of that is true, exactly what you said, that‘s the way I came up. As I got in the seventh, and eighth, and ninth, they started, how can I say… Brown: Integrate? Young: Integrating, exactly. Going to other schools, but I never did, I stayed on the west side, I went to Dunbar High School. They had some great teachers there, I thought. Francois, was the musician teacher at the school, Clarence Francois, you might have heard of him. The coach for the school, he was very famous. Well, I can‘t think of his, all of a sudden, you got me; you‘re catching me wrong now. I‘m trying to remember things that happened when I was a kid and it‘s not easy to recall that. Maybe it will come back to me in a few minutes. Clayton! No, not Clayton. Stan, Stanley, Slauton…Slater was his name! He was kind of a famous football player or something back in them days at the college or something where he went to, and there was a few other good teachers there. Well, I can‘t recall them now, but Francois was the main one, the music teacher, he was very good, Clarence Francois. Brown: What did he play? For additional information contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [email protected] 4 Young: He played piano. Well, that‘s what he played; he played piano. Well, he was a music teacher there at this school and he took a likening to my brother and me. My brother also played trumpet. Brown: Granville? Young: Yeah, Granville. How did you know his name? Brown: You told me. [laughs] Young: I told you? No I didn‘t! But you hit his name right. Granville, was my older brother, he was a better trumpet player than me. And the school that we went to, well he was older than me, I was like three or four years younger than him. So, anyway, him and Francois—the teacher at Dunbar High School—they didn‘t make it together, they didn‘t relate and my brother quit the school. He like was in like the tenth or eleventh, or whatever grade he was, but he quit school. Francois was, I was like in the seventh or eighth grade, and Francois took a likening to me ‗cause he seen something in me, that I didn‘t realize what he saw. But he put me in the high school band, and he tested me, he tested all the musicians, and come to find out that I was better than all the kids in the high school. And so he put me in on first trumpet, and I was like in the seventh grade, and there was the other kids much higher than me, but he put me on first trumpet. And that was one of the ways that I had kind of, I kind of went up ‗cause after I got in like the seventh, eighth, or ninth grade, Wilberforce a college. Wilberforce College, you know about that college. Brown: Mm-hm, uh-hm. Young: They started hearing about me and they put me in that band, Wilberforce Collegiates, and I was in. Beg your pardon? Brown: No, go ahead. Young: I was in like about, I was in like the ninth grade then and they wanted me to come over to Wilberforce. Francoise told my mother, ―Don't let him go to Wilberforce because if you do, they don‘t treat the kids in high school like they do the college kids.‖ And my mother believed him and she didn‘t let me go. And he wanted me over there at Wilberforce; I wished it that had happened. Well a couple years later I ran off from home, I really did, and that‘s the way I got out of, I was like in about the tenth grade, I ran off from home and I joined a band that you just mentioned, Chick Carter. Brown: Chick Carter, ok, before we get to Chick Carter, before we get there, lets go back and look at your early music training. You come from a musical family, correct? For additional information contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [email protected] 5 Young: Right, right. Brown: Can we talk about your father and mother and the instruments they played and the family band? Young: Well, my father, he taught my mother how to play guitar and banjo because he was a guitar and banjo player. And there was a few bands that wanted him to come out on the road, but he wouldn‘t go out with them. I can‘t think of the name of the bands now, but they were big bands that traveled, like McKinney‘s Cotton Pickers, that type of band was after my father. But my father wouldn‘t leave home, he was good enough, but he wouldn‘t leave home. So he taught my mother how to play guitar and banjo. As I recall they had a family, I had an uncle that played guitar and bass fiddle I think. So they had a family band, I was too young to know what they had, I mean, but they played and did different things. But it was a string thing, all strings. Brown: What was your uncle‘s name? Young: My uncle? Brown: That played the bass. Young: My uncle…Uncle Guy. Guy Williams. My uncle Guy and my uncle, he was a half brother; Guy Williams was a half brother. But my other brother was Elpanzo; he played, oh man I can‘t think of this now. He played guitar and banjo and harp.