Thursday, May 19, 2011

Snooky Young: It's the Way That You Do It


Snooky Young died May 11. Longtime observers of Kansas City's scene remember the trumpeter's association with Count Basie. Classic rock fans might recall Young from his role in Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz. (That's him behind Levon Helm at the 2:17 mark.) The rest of the world knew Young through his long association with The Tonight Show band. His performance in the embedded clip demonstrates that Young didn't forsake the Kansas City sound for television.

1 comment:

  1. Nice find - Snooky Young's performance here is a whole lot of fun. R.I.P. Mr. Young.

    Any idea what year this recorded? I'm guessing 1980s, mostly because the clothes are not bad enough for it to be from the 1970s. :)

    I always enjoyed those occasions when the Tonight Show band got to do a feature number. Another relic of a bygone era, I suppose - I don't think any of the late night shows today would devote four minutes to letting one of the band members do a song on his/her birthday.

    ReplyDelete