Snooky Young on trying to find his own style

Now, A Jazz Moment?

MUSIC: Uptown Blues, CD: Jimmie Lunceford And His Orchestra, (Amazon download)

Snooky Young: When I played in the big bands in Jimmie Lunceford and Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, I was trying to find a style of my own.

NEA Jazz Master Snooky Young.

Snooky Young: What I did was started using the cup mute and the plunger. There was other people that did that, but that was where I wanted to go and that?s the way I went, but it had a little different sound.

MUSIC: same - (feature solo)

Snooky Young: ?Uptown Blues?, that was with Jimmie Lunceford. I think I got more credit from that solo than I did-- I did a lot of other solos that I got credit for, but I think that one that really give me the lift into show business.

MUISIC: up and fades

Uptown Blues from 1939, featuring trumpeter Snooky Young with the Jimmie Lunceford Band. This Jazz Moment was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Snooky Young on trying to find his own style