Horace Alexander Young

Young is a native of Houston, Texas. He started taking music lessons at eight years of age, initially on the piano but he subsequently took up the flute, saxophone and clarinet. He is an adept musician with various skills, including as a keyboardist, arranger, musical director, percussionist, producer, songwriter, woodwind instrumentalist, vocalist, author and music journalist.[1][2]

Young earned his BM in Music from Texas Southern University (Houston, Texas) while a member of the Ocean of Soul and graduated in 1978 and later pursued an MA in Music at Washington State University (Pullman, Washington), which he completed in 1983. Prior to his attendance at Washington State, he studied for two years at The Shepherd School of Music/Rice University (Houston, Texas), with a focus on Flute Performance and Composition.[1]

After more than three decades of active touring and recording, Young is now primarily a college professor/ music teacher, having taught music courses at various institutions, including the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Houston, TX), Sonoma State University, Mason Gross School of Music at Rutgers University, Douglas MacArthur High School (Houston, Texas), and Houston Community College, Central Campus.[1] He was formerly an associate professor at Washington State University, where his teaching focus was in Jazz Studies and Music Business.[1][6] He currently directs the Texas Southern University Jazz Experience Big Band and The Joe Sample Jazz Orchestra.[1] In 2015, Young was named as Chair of the Contemporary Music Program at Santa Fe University of Art and Design (SFUAD).[7][8]

In 1997, Young developed his own record label (Design Records), which he operated until 2008, after which his recordings were released on the Pacific Coast Jazz label.[2] Young has performed for various events throughout the world, including at major jazz festivals in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Leverkusen (Germany), London, Glasgow, New York, Detroit, Chicago, Houston and Seattle.[5]

Young has appeared alongside a wide range of performers in various music genres. He has done collaborations in jazz, R&B, Christian music, urban/rap, cabaret and other types of music. He has performed with David Ruffin, The Manhattans, The Temptations, Tavares, The Four Tops, Anita Baker, B.B. King, Betty Carter, Bill Withers, Dave Liebman, Rev. E. Stewart and The Stewart Singers, Gerald Alston, Jonathan Butler, Johnny Kemp, Joe Sample, McCoy Tyner, Milt Hinton, Mista Madd, Nancy Wilson, The Ojays, Rev. Paul Jones, Regina Belle, Roberta Flack, Sam "Lightnin′" Hopkins, The Chi-Lites, Scarface, The Spinners, the McCoy Tyner Big Band, Dennis Edwards, Lucy Arnaz and Yvonne Roome.

In 1993, Young conducted South Africa's National Symphony during a concert held in honour of South African pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim. This fete was a first in the region for a Black American, becoming the first to conduct such an orchestra.[2] Young appeared in the 2005 documentary film Abdullah Ibrahim: A Struggle for Love, directed by Ciro Cappellari.[9][10]

Young has performed on recordings for several musicians, among them Bubbha Thomas, Freddy Fender, B.B. King, Madd Hatta, Abdullah Ibrahim, Regina Belle, Mark Ledford, Texas Johnny Brown and Youssou N'Dour.[2]

Young was previously married to Phyllis Karon Gooden, with whom he had two children, Victoria-Pearl Young and Alexander Charles Young.[2] He was married from 1985 to 1990 to singer/recording artist Regina Belle, with whom he had a daughter, Tiy (born in 1989).[11]

• "The Richard Eeds Show: With Special Guests Horace Young, Paul Saltzman, and Dennis Lehane", The Richard Eeds Show - March 12, 2015, via SantaFe.com.
• "Horace Alexander Young" at Discogs.