Trumpeter Eugene “Snooky” Young, whose seven-decade career has included stints with Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, and the Tonight Show band, will share his experience with Eastman School of Music students this month.
Young will be in residence at Eastman from Monday, Oct. 20, through Wednesday, Oct. 22. He is scheduled to meet with students in the jazz trumpet studio, speak to a jazz history class, and conduct a master class with all Eastman classical and jazz trumpet students. In addition, Young will be a guest at a special Jazz Forum for the Eastman community which will include retrospectives on his career.
Born in 1919 in Dayton, Ohio, Young began playing trumpet at the age of five and was working in regional bands by his early teens. Beginning in 1939, he played with the Jimmie Lunceford band, Lester Lee Young’s band, and the Count Basie band. Young led his own band for a decade while performing periodically with both Hampton and Basie.
In 1962, Young became a studio trumpeter at NBC. He was a founding member of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and played with the Tonight Show orchestra for 25 years until Johnny Carson left in 1992. He has continued to work with several Los Angeles big bands, including the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, of which he is a charter member and with whom he continues to perform.
Young is a recipient of the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award, the nation’s highest honor in jazz.
Young’s residency at Eastman is supported by the Eastman School of Music Diversity Committee, the University of Rochester Office for Faculty Development and Diversity, the Department of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media, and the Department of Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion.
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