Product Dimensions: 8”x10” photo in 11”x14” matte
Author/Artist: Center for Southern Folklore Archives

This photograph of Evelyn "The Whip" Young was taken in July 1984 at the Center for Southern Folklore's Beale Street Interpretive Center at the Old Daisy Theatre. Evelyn Young (1928-1990) learned the fundamentals of music in the Memphis City School system and played in the popular Manassas High School Swing Band, "The Rhythm Bombers." By the age of 14 she was performing professionally (accompanied by a chaperone) on Beale Street in the famous house band of Mitchell's Hotel, led by the master saxophonist, Bill Harvey. Beale Street, she remembered, was a college for musicians. We would have jam sessions that would go on for hours. All I wanted to do was play, play, play. In the late 1940's she became friends with B.B. King when they performed at Mitchell's Hotel and toured with King for 8 years. She performed on B.B. King's historic recordings Three O'Clock in the Morning, and Story From My Heart. Young played with Memphis music legends Bobby "Blue" Bland, Little Milton and Memphis Slim as well as with the bands "The Blues Alley All-Stars" and "The Fieldstones." Young's extraordinary feats on the saxophone were show-stoppers, They called me "The Whip" because I used to blow that sax so hard it'd sound like I was whipping it