Career
Although he was never really a star or a bandleader himself, he did have one hit with his version of "Margie," which he played and sang with Jimmie Lunceford"s orchestra in 1937 on the Decca Records label. Growing up in Savannah, Georgia, and Richmond, Virginia, Young was originally a trumpeter, but by his professional debut in 1928, he had switched to trombone. With Sy Oliver, he wrote "T"ain"t What You Do (lieutenant"s the Way That You Do lieutenant)", a hit for both Lunceford and Ella Fitzgerald in 1939.
lieutenant has since been recorded by many other artists and was a hit song in the United Kingdom for Fun Boy Three with Bananarama in 1982.
His other compositions include "Margie", "Easy Does lieutenant", and "Trav"lin" Light"., (the latter co-written with Jimmy Mundy, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer). Young joined Benny Goodman in 1945, and soloed on several hit records, including the #2 hit "Gotta Be This or That".
Young also played with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie on a Clyde Hart-led session in 1945, and with Jazz at the Philharmonic. In September, 1952 he joined the Louis Armstrong All-Stars and stayed a dozen years (he performed in the 1956 musical High Society).
Trummy Young was a good foil for Armstrong (most memorably on their 1954 recording of "Street Louis Blues").
In 1964, Young quit the road to settle in Hawaii, occasionally emerging for jazz parties and special appearances. According to his own life story, printed in the July 22, 1977 issue of the Awake! He died after a cerebral hemorrhage.