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.