Lee Young, Sr.
b. 7 March 1917, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Before settling on drums Young studied piano and various reed and brass instruments. As a child he played in the family band led by his father and which also included his brother Lester Young. In the early '30s he moved to Los Angeles, playing in a variety of musical settings with bands led by Mutt Carey, Buck Clayton, Fats Waller and others. He was one of the first black musicians to be hired on a regular basis for film studio work but continued to appear in jazz groups in the early '40s, including those led by Lionel Hampton and Nat King Cole.Young also led his own small groups, one of which featured his brother, and he backed many leading artists including Dinah Washington. He was a regular with Norman Granz's Jazz At The Philharmonic in the mid-40s and later in the decade he was with Benny Goodman. In the '50s, still working in the studios, he belatedly rejoined Cole. In the '60s he was active in record production, mostly as producer and administrator with VeeJay Records, and in the late '70s was briefly with Motown Records. A solid player with a good sense of time, Young's career outside jazz, as both studio musician and record company executive, occupied the best of his years.