Steven L. Isoardi, Interviewer, UCLA Oral History Program; B.A., M.A., Government, University of San Francisco; M.A., Ph.D., Political Science, UCLA.
Place: BMG Building, Hollywood, California.
Dates, length of sessions: June 14, 1991 (92 minutes); September 27, 1991 (71); October 4, 1991 (84).
Total number of recorded hours: 4
Persons present during interview: Young and Isoardi.
This interview is one in a series designed to preserve the spoken memories of individuals, primarily musicians, who were raised near and/or performed on Los Angeles's Central Avenue, especially from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s. Musician and teacher William Green, his student Steven Isoardi, and early project interviewee Buddy Collette provided major inspiration for the UCLA Oral History Program's inaugurating the Central Avenue Sounds Oral History Project.
In preparing for this interview, Isoardi consulted jazz histories, autobiographies, oral histories, relevant jazz periodicals, documentary films, and back issues of the
The interview is organized chronologically, beginning with Young's early life and musical training and continuing through his years performing on Central Avenue and his career as a studio musician. Major topics discussed include clubs on Central Avenue and elsewhere in the Los Angeles area, bands Young played with, discriminatory hiring practices in the motion picture industry, and Young's employment in the record industry.
Alex Cline, editor, edited the interview. He checked the verbatim transcript of the interview against the original tape recordings, edited for punctuation, paragraphing, and spelling, and verified proper names. Whenever possible, Cline checked the proper names of nightclubs against articles and advertisements in back issues of the
Although Young did not read the entire transcript, he reviewed a substantial portion of it with editor Susan E. Douglass, verified proper names, and made extensive corrections and additions.
Douglass prepared the table of contents and interview history. Cline assembled the biographical summary. Derek DeNardo, editorial assistant, compiled the index.
The original tape recordings of the interview are in the university archives and are available under the regulations governing the use of permanent noncurrent records of the university. Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Oral History Program.