Larry Vuckovich
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Larry Vuckovich (8 December 1936, Kotor, Montenegro) is an American jazz pianist of Yugoslavian origin.
Biography
During his childhood in Yugoslavia, Vuckovich received classical piano training. Through listening to radio broadcasts of AFN and Voice of America, he became familiar with jazz. Under Tito, his family was persecuted and emigrated to the US in 1951. The family settled in San Francisco and received political asylum. In San Francisco, Vuckovich visited local jazzclubs where he listened to jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, but also started to play in jam sessions with musicians from the local jazz scene such as John Handy and Cal Tjader. He studied music at San Francisco State University alongside Roland Kirk, Mickey Roker and Bob Cranshaw. From Vince Guaraldi, he received further instruction.
In 1959, Larry Vuckovich started his career as a professional musician in the band of Brew Moore. Soon thereafter, he would accompany singers like Irene Kral or David Allyn, starting in 1963 even Mel Tormé. In 1965, he joined the band of Jon Hendricks to tour with him throughout the world, before settling in Munich as house pianist of the jazz club "Domicile". While working there, he accompanied musicians like Lucky Thompson, Pony Poindexter, Clifford Jordan, Dexter Gordon, Slide Hampton and Dusko Goykovich. Later, he returned to San Francisco to take a similar engagement at the Keystone Korner where he played until 1983. While working there, he accompanied among others Arnett Cobb, Buddy Tate, Leon Thomas, Philly Joe Jones and Charles McPherson. From 1985 to 1990, Vuckovich worked in New York City with Curtis Fuller, Milt Hinton, Al Cohn, Tom Harrell and many others. Afterwards, he returned to the West Coast in order to pursue projects of his own, which included bands such as Blue Balkan, Young at Heart and La Orquesta el Vuko. He also performed with Bobby Hutcherson and Larry Grenadier, and became artistic director for the West Coast Jazz Festival and the Nappa Valley Jazz Festival.
Vuckovich recorded under his own name for Concord Records, Hot House, Inner City Records and Palo Alto Jazz. In 2000, he founded his own label "Tetrachord Music", for which he also acts as producer. He continued to record with other musicians, among them Jon Hendricks, Dusko Goykovich, Hadley Caliman, Cal Collins and Eddie Vinson.
Discographical References
- Blue Balkan: Then & Now (Tetrachord Music 2002; with Bobby Hutcherson, Eric Golub, Tommy Kesecker, Jeff Chambers, Paul Breslin, John Heard, Vince Delgado, Eddie Moore, Eddie Marshall)
- Cast Your Fate (Palo Alto Records 1983, with Jon Hendricks, Hein van de Geyn, Gaylord Birch, Kenneth Nash)
- Dusko Goykovich As Simple As It Is – Live at the Domicile Munich (MPS 1970, with Ferdinand Povel, Isla Eckinger, Clarence Becton)