Snooky Young

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"Eugene Young" redirects here. For the character from The Practice, see Eugene Young (character).

Eugene "Snooky" Young (born 3 February 1919) is an American jazz trumpeter. He is known for his mastery of the plunger mute, with which he is able to create a wide range of sounds.

Young was lead trumpeter of the Jimmie Lunceford band from 1939 to 1942. He played with Count Basie (three stints totalling eight years) and Lionel Hampton, among others, and was an original member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. His longest engagement was with NBC, where as a studio trumpeter he joined the Tonight Show Band in 1967 and stayed with them until 1992, when the band was replaced by a new, smaller group. He then continued to perform in Los Angeles, appearing on the classic 1976 Coconut Grove recording Bobby Bland and B.B. King Together Again...Live. As late as 2008 he was still playing and recording with the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra. Young recorded only three albums under his own name, and only one (Horn of Plenty, 1979) as sole leader.