The Jazz Gallery to Host Tribute to David X. Young

On Wednesday, June 26, 2002, from 7-11pm, The Jazz Gallery will host a tribute to the late painter and photographer David X. Young. The event has been organized by his daughter, Eliza, to honor her father's legacy and to celebrate his seminal role both in an important period of jazz history and in the lives of countless musicians and artists who benefited from his generosity of spirit. The tribute will feature a retrospective exhibit of David's paintings and his photography as well as live music by a group of musicians who regularly participated in the “jazz loft's" various musical activities: David Amram - French horn/ piano/kazoo, Bill Crow - bass and Teddy Charles - vibraphone.

From the mid-50's well into the 60's, David X Young held open-door jam sessions in his painter's loft at 821 Sixth Avenue in the flower district of Manhattan, where musicians such as Zoot Sims, Thelonious Monk, Hall Overton, Warne Marsh, Charles Mingus, Bill Crow, Teddy Charles, Gerry Mulligan, David Amram, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim Hall, Lee Konitz and a host of others regularly played, rehearsed, performed and socialized.

A Fulbright Scholar to Haiti, David X. Young painted, filmed and studied local culture there intermittently over a period of thirty years. While living in Manhattan, he shared his loft in the Flower District with LIFE photographer W. Eugene Smith, maintaining friendships with fellow artists from a variety of backgrounds: William DeKooning, Zero Mostel, Calvin Albert and Franz Kline. As an artist and jazz enthusiast, Young opened the door of his loft to any musician who needed a place to practice, play, compose or simply lay cool. He was consequently able to paint and photograph some of the more colorful jazz musicians of the period.

David Young was born in Eastham, Cape Cod on Feb. 15, 1930. He passed away from emphysema in New York City on May 22, 2001.

The Jazz Gallery is a not-for-profit jazz cultural center providing exhibition and performance space for work in the arts--visual, literary and musical--that takes jazz as its central influence. We understand the pioneering efforts of David X. Young to be directly related to our own overall mission: to ensure that the bridges connecting various forms of artistic expression remain open, active and inspired.

The Jazz Gallery is located at 290 Hudson Street (below Spring), in lower Manhattan and can be reached by the IRT #1 train to Houston Street or the IND C or E trains to Spring Street. This event is open to the general public - admission is $12 for the general public, and $10 for Jazz Gallery members.