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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.