''The Young Lions'' is an album by an ad hoc group of jazz musicians: Wayne Shorter, Frank Strozier, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons,

Bob Cranshaw Melbourne Robert Cranshaw (December 3, 1932 – November 2, 2016) was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long associa ...

Albert Heath Albert "Tootie" Heath (born May 31, 1935) is an American jazz hard bop drummer, the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the double-bassist Percy Heath. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, he first recorded in 1957 with J ...

and Louis Hayes. It was recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in 1960 and released in 1961 on Vee-Jay Records.At Discogs
/ref>

Album title

The album title echoes that of a popular 1948 novel by Irwin Shaw which had been made into a feature film shortly before the album was recorded. In the album's liner notes, saxophonist

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", whi ...

uses Shaw's novel to make an argument about jazz. Adderley writes that there is a tension in modern jazz between tradition (as represented by Charlie Parker,

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

, and Thelonious Monk) and the avant-garde (which at the time included

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

and Jimmy Giuffre), and suggests that conformity to either traditionalism or the avant-garde is stifling of "true genius": The "young lions" phrase was revived in jazz in the 1980s when, as in 1960, there was a tension between the modern jazz traditionalists and the avant-garde. A group of young musicians including Wynton Marsalis who played neo-bop jazz were frequently referred to in the jazz press as "young lions". Notably, the phrase was used as part of the title of an

Elektra/Musician Elektra/Musician was a jazz record label founded as a subsidiary of Elektra Records in 1982. The label was headed by Bruce Lundvall and released its first batch of albums on February 12, 1982. The label ceased when Lundvall left Elektra to start ...

album which featured Marsalis, ''The Young Lions (A Concert Of New Music Played By Seventeen Exceptional Young Musicians)''.

Track listing

#"Seeds of Sin" (Shorter) – 5:44 #"Scourn'" (Shorter) – 5:58 #"Fat Lady" (Shorter) – 5:03 #"Peaches and Cream" (Shorter) – 6:52 #"That's Right" (Morgan) – 11:37 Bonus tracks on CD reissue: #

"Seeds of Sin" lternate take– 5:43 #"Scourn lternate take– 6:17 #"Fat Lady" lternate take– 5:23

Personnel

* Lee Morgan – trumpet * Wayne Shorter – tenor sax * Frank Strozier – alto sax * Bobby Timmons – piano *

– bass * Louis Hayes (1, 2, 6, 7),

Albert "Tootie" Heath Albert "Tootie" Heath (born May 31, 1935) is an American jazz hard bop drummer, the brother of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the double-bassist Percy Heath. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, he first recorded in 1957 with J ...

(3–5, 8) – drums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young Lions 1961 debut albums Vee-Jay Records albums