Larry Young, also known as Khalid Yasin, offered as radical an approach to organ in the '60s as Jimmy Smith had posed in the '50s. His free, swirling chords, surging lines, and rock-influenced improvisations were an alternative to the groove-centered, blues and soul jazz sound that had become the organ's dominant direction. He brought John Coltrane's late-'60s approach to the organ, generating waves of sound and greatly influencing any session he participated in during the '60s and '70s.
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1940, Young studied piano rather than organ, though he late...