Family stories are not always reliable. Memory plays tricks, and some relatives tend to boast, but a man from a suburb of Richmond now has evidence. His father was telling the truth when he boasted a famous jazz musician who wrote him a song.
When he’s not creating websites for clients, Zak Young sometimes sits in a bedroom on the second floor of his Glen Allen home surrounded by a collection of more than 700 record – composing beats – items for local hip-hop artists like Rep.
Zak shared a love of music with his father.
“When my dad took me to shop for CDs, I would always come up to him with a handful of CDs and say, ‘I’m not sure which one to get,'” he recalls. “He said, ‘Get them all! ‘You know I bought rap CDs and tapes. He didn’t really connect with that music, but he saw in me the same passion for music that he had. I mean, he was really into jazz. He really liked classic rock and at some point he would give me all of his records and I spent years researching that. I still have notes from him upstairs that I have not received. “
His grandfather Paul Young also loved music and had a nightclub in DC called the Romany Room.
“We’re talking about the 1940s in Washington, DC. I think back then it would have been some kind of loungey and jazz – that kind of scene. The most famous act was Nat King Cole, ”says Zak Young.
There were still separate times in Washington. White nightclubs usually didn’t hire black artists, but Paul Young did, and Zak’s grandpa claimed he and Cole were close together.
“When my father was born, that would have been 1941, Nat King Cole was playing in my grandfather’s club and recording a song for him to celebrate my father’s birth.”
His father would actually sing the song, but Zak was skeptical and it never crossed his mind that the tune was recorded.
“I mean, we live in a time when you can record things on your computer or your phone. Of course we had tapes and everything else before that, but back then there was no way to just record music. “
But while combing through his father’s record collection, he came across an old single that was recorded at 78 revolutions per minute. He didn’t have a stereo to play it, so he sent the recording to a studio for it to be converted to a digital file.
“It was maybe a week later when they emailed me, and once I played the file, it was the song my father had literally sung.”
Still unsure if this was really a Nat King Cole song that was never officially released, he tracked down an expert – Jordan Taylor – who happened to live in Richmond.
“I said to him, ‘I think I have a one-off recording of Nat King Cole that no one has heard before,’ and he said, ‘Okay. For sure. What makes you think that?’ I told him the backstory and he said, “Let me do a little research,” and he got back to me pretty quickly and said, “You know what?” I looked at the historical record and he actually played in DC back then. ‘So I sent him a clip of the recording and he said,’ It’s the real deal! ‘ “
Of course, Zak Young shared the news with his own son Max, who plays the clarinet and saxophone. He was fascinated.
“I’m getting older now, so I’m more interested in my family,” says Max. “I think that’s really cool.”
The story inspired a trip to his grandfather’s grave and a long conversation with his grandmother. Jordan Taylor eventually arranged for the song to be released, and now Zak Young is sharing his own piece of family history – with you.