Eldee Young born 7 January 1936

Eldee Young (January 7, 1936 – February 12, 2007) was a jazz double-bass and cello player who performed in the cool jazz, post bop and rhythm and blues mediums. 

Eldee Devon Young was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Walter, worked as a machinist and his mother, Beatrice, looked after the couple’s eight children. After learning the guitar from his brother at age ten, Young began playing the upright bass professionally at thirteen. He played at the After Hours Club on Sunday nights from 2:30 a.m. until dawn and then ate breakfast at home before heading to school.  It was at McKinley High School that Young met pianist Ramsey Lewis. 

Ramsey Lewis Trio

After working with the trumpeter King Kolax (1951) and with various blues singers, including Joe Turner and Joe Williams (mid 50’s) he also joined Chuck Willis’ ensemble. When Young toured with a blues band through the South, he was unsatisfied and his preference for jazz and bebop led him to return to Chicago. Lewis, drummer Isaac "Redd" Holt and Young formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio. The three worked hard to improve their skills. Young went on to study at the American Conservatory of Music.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio released their first album in 1956, becoming hugely successful. Young also recorded as a sideman with Lorez Alexandria (1957) and James Moody (1961). Like Dizzy Gillespie, Eldee Young saw no need to divorce his tremendous sense of fun from his playing. There was as much soul or R&B in Eldee Young's bass playing and singing as there was straight-ahead jazz, and his first solo album was the appropriately titled Just for Kicks (Argo, 1962). 

Here's "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from above album. 

                             

The Ramsey Lewis Trio’s albums The In Crowd and Hang on Sloopy went gold and the group sold out Carnegie Hall. However, the pressures of fame caused friction and in 1965 Young and Holt split to form their own trio, which lasted a decade. They scored a minor hit with the novelty song "Wack Wack," but they soon changed their name to Young-Holt Unlimited. It was when they changed the name that they developed the soul-jazz sound that became their trademark. The Soulful Strut, released soon after, sold enough copies to be certified gold. 

Young-Holt Unlimited received a 1973 Grammy nomination for Best Rhythm and Blues Instrumental Performance for their electricized cover of The Pointer Sisters' "Yes We Can Can," the award ironically going to Ramsey Lewis for a "funky reggae style" remake of his 1965 hit "Hang On Sloopy," which they had been a part of. After they split in 1974, Young continued playing, mainly with small groups in Chicago, but they both Holt and Young enjoyed a notable success at the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival. 

Young & Holt

In 1983, Young and Holt reunited with Lewis and, for a time, the three friends relived the magic of their early years together. Young also played with Singaporean pianist Jeremy Monteiro in the mid '80s which lasted for more than 20 years. Monteiro paid tribute to his friend and colleague when he said: “Eldee was like a brother to me, a mentor, and we enjoyed 21 wonderful years of friendship and music making. He always had a warm handshake, or a hug, and a huge smile on his face which would bring a ray of happiness to whomever he came into contact with. Besides being a consummate musician and entertainer, Eldee was a compassionate and generous man.” 

Eldee 1990

In a career spanning nearly sixty years, Eldee Young also played with T-Bone Walker, Joe Turner, Chuck Willis, Nancy Wilson, James Moody, Dinah Washington, Sonny Stitt, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Brown, Jr. In 2000, he finally released his second solo release, an album with pianist Marshall Vente called The Long and Short of Jazz and although he never stopped recording or touring in the intervening years, he was never to regain the long-term commercial success or profile of his playing days in the Ramsey Lewis Trio alongside drummer Red Holt. 

Eldee Young Trio 2007

Young and his wife, Barbara, had three children, Eldevon, Tyree and Marcus. Young performed for numerous television and radio programs, as well as for movies. In his later years, he spent six months a year performing in Singapore. Eldee Young's last gig was at The Living Room, Bangkok on February 10, 2007. The last song he sang was “Every time we Say Goodbye.” He said goodbye to the world two days later when he died from a heart attack. He was 71 years old. 

(the historymakers.org, Wikipedia, All About Jazz, The New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz & waybackattack)