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Jazz Drummer Lee Young
(Photo Credit: Lee Young Family Collection)
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By AFRO Staff
(August 20, 2008) - Lee Young, a jazz drummer, recording artist and producer who played with Duke Ellington and other greats and became the first African American to work as a Hollywood studio staff musician, has died. He was 94.
Young died July 31 of complications from colon cancer at his Los Angeles home.
Young made his first records with Fats Waller and also worked at the MGM studio, where he taught Mickey Rooney how to play drums for the film “Strike Up the Band.” He performed with many jazz greats, including Count Basie and Billie Holiday.
From 1953 to 1962, he was Nat King Cole's drummer and musical director. He later went into music producing and was an executive for several labels, including Liberty, Vee-Jay, Motown and ABC/Dunhill Records.