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HORACE ALEXANDER YOUNG'S COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY
There are few areas in music which saxophonist, flutist, keyboard player, percussionist,
vocalist, composer, arranger, conductor, producer and college professor Horace Alexander
Young hasn’t met with great success. This work has led him to performances in 19
different countries and across five of the planet’s seven continents. Known for his extreme
musical competence, Young’s skills have been born out in the wide range of artists with
whom he has worked in recording and touring capacities.
In the blues arena Young has worked with artists like Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins and
B.B. King. In the R&B realm Young has worked with Gerald Alston, Anita Baker, Regina
Belle, Johnny Kemp, The Spinners and Bill Withers, among others. In the Christian music
realm Young has worked with people like Rev. Paul Jones and Rev. E. Stewart and The
Stewart Singers, in the urban/rap arena with artists like Scarface and Mista Madd, and
with cabaret singers like Yvonne Roome. Young has also worked with a bevy of jazz
musicians, including Jonathan Butler, Betty Carter, Milt Hinton, Dave Liebman, McCoy
Tyner and Nancy Wilson, to list just a few.
One of Young’s more recent ventures includes his association in the Nothing But
Soul Horns (NBS). Young, along with trumpeter Myron W. Jackson III and trombonist
Andre Hayward, have not only performed live with a wide variety of artists, but have also
recorded over 50 different tracks with many of those same, and more, artists including
Jimmy B and The Jazz All-Stars, vocalist Julie Johnson, and popular R&B artists like The
Ojay’s. Perhaps Young’s highest profile gig however, is his work as long-time soloist,
musical director and studio musician with keyboardist Abdullah Ibrahim (known to many
as Dollar Brand). In 1993 Young was honored when he was asked to conduct the National
Symphony of South Africa for a televised concert to honor the South African born Ibrahim.
In so doing Young became one of the first persons of native African descent, and the first
African-American, to conduct any orchestra in that county.
With collegiate degrees earned from Texas Southern and Washington State
Universities, today Young, in addition to his performing career, works as Visiting
Professor of Music at Texas Southern University in Houston. Among his many duties
there include conducting the award-winning Jazz Experience Big Band, as well as
teaching jazz combos and teaching other courses in the Jazz Studies area. He has held
previous positions at Washington State University, Rutgers University, California State
University at Sonoma (Sonoma State), The High School for the Performing and Visual
Arts in Houston, and The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Currently a
recording artist on the Pacific Coast Jazz label, his new CD, Acoustic Contemporary Jazz
has earned rave reviews. Critic Alex Henderson writes of the disc, “Young brings good
soul-jazz instincts (of the Hank Crawford, David “Fathead” Newman, Stanley Turrentine,
Grover Washington Jr. variety) to the table… Another high point of the CD is Danny
Boy… (which) successfully fuses Celtic music and soul-jazz.” Regarding Young’s Heart’s
Desire release critic Larry Flick seconded those thoughts writing, “Young is a promising
and charismatic young performer who comes on like a young Grover Washington Jr. on
this charming R&B-inflected pop/jazz ballad.” Smoothjazz.com summed it all up when
they wrote, “Take note, Horace Alexander Young is in the building!”
For Young, who started on piano at the age of eight and then quickly added flute
lessons to his music studies, the sky is the limit. He is the author of Improvising Jazz
Flute (G. Schirmer Publishers) and the author of more than 20 articles on various music
topics in magazines and journals like Flute Talk, The American Music Teachers Journal,
Flute Focus and GIG Magazine. Frequently called upon as a clinician, guest soloist and
adjudicator, Young is still a young man with plenty more of his life’s book to write.