BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.10.5// X-WR-CALNAME:www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco X-WR-CALDESC:www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco X-WR-TIMEZONE:US/Pacific BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20120517T012337CEST-5587hVw2H8@www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco DTSTAMP:20120516T230537Z DESCRIPTION: \;\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLarry Vuckovich has won acclaim from criti cs and jazz audiences for his deeply imaginative style and repertoire hear d at prestigious North American and European jazz clubs\, concert halls an d festivals. He is equally at home in world music/classically influenced m odal jazz as he is with hard-swinging bebop\, post-bop\, contemporary jazz \, and down-home blues. The New York Times notes that his unique outlook a nd collection of influences &ldquo\;set him apart from most pianists who a re heard regularly in New York&rdquo\;. The Village Voice comments on his &ldquo\;book of piano gems that will keep you guessing.&rdquo\; The Toront o Globe and Mail calls him &ldquo\;a musician who sits apart from the rest by virtue...of his taste for both the exotic and the exquisite.&rdquo\;  \;\nCited by piano legend Barry Harris as &ldquo\;one of the premier West Coast pianists\, Mr. Vuckovich brought his Jazz-Latin Trio/Quartet\, featured on his two current piano trio/quartet CDs\, to Lincoln Center&rsq uo\;s Dizzy&rsquo\;s Club in New York on a recent East Coast tour. On the same tour\, he performed with Marian McPartland on her Piano Jazz show\, b roadcast to national and global NPR affiliates. Mr. Vuckovich has appeared as soloist at the Fazioli piano series in San Francisco\, New York and Ch icago\, and also leads an 18-piece band that sold out the 600-seat 2007 Ja zz at Filoli show in Woodside\, CA.\n \;\nHis two latest recordings\, High Wall: Real Life Film Noir and Street Scene\, on his Tetrachord Music label\, placed in the Top 10 of the JazzWeek national radio reporting char ts\, and are heard regularly on XM Satellite Radio. They have won praise f rom top critics:\n \;\n \; &ldquo\;He&rsquo\;s a passionate expone nt of what most people call straight-ahead jazz ... there is a consistentl y tasteful quality to his music that makes it very appealing to the ear. & quot\;\n&ndash\; Leonard Maltin\, Movie Crazy\n \;\n \; &ldquo\;&h ellip\; he creates an earthy post-bop style of richly varied improvisation al expression.&rdquo\;\n- Jazz Podium (Germany)\n \;\n \; "\;. .. a pianist whose evocative touch and poetic (but unsentimental) sensibil ity convey the wisdom of deep musical life experience"\;\n&ndash\; Tho mas Conrad\, Jazz Times\n \;\n \; "\;A true musician's musicia n...originality\, elegance\, dexterity and most of all great sense of swin g\, time\, space and phrasing. For those who are keen on a superior jazz t rio\, Street Scene is highly recommended."\;\n- Gilbert Mathieu\, Jazz Improv\n \;\n \; "\;... any discussion of the best jazz piano players in the world must now include Larry Vuckovich!"\;\n-Brad Ston e\, Music Director\, KSJS\, San Jose\, CA\n \;\n \; "\;A MONST ER of a player who should be much more well known.&rdquo\;\n- Gary Walker\ , Music Director\, WBGO\, NJ/NYC\n \;\nHis Blue Balkan ensemble has wo n praise from critics as a pioneer in world music jazz fusion. The CD reis sue with new material of his acclaimed 1980 recording (Downbeat 4 1/2 star s)\, was named one of the top CDs of 2002 by critic Gary Giddins in The Vi llage Voice. The ensemble combines modal modern jazz of John Coltrane\, Th elonious Monk\, Randy Weston\, Duke Ellington\, and Balkan/Roma (gypsy) el ements. His other bands include the two-tenor Young at Heart sextet\, whic h played at the San Francisco Jazz Festival\, and was called &ldquo\;one o f the happier surprises&rdquo\; of the Monterey Jazz Festival by Scott Yan ow in L.A. Scene. He also leads a Dexter Gordon-Sonny Clark tribute quinte t and the Latin-based La Orquesta El Vuko. He has developed several clinic s\, including: the History of Jazz Piano\, the Art of the Ballad\, and a S tudy of Bebop and Post-bop Pianists\, featuring the styles of Bill Evans\, Erroll Garner\, Bud Powell\, Thelonious Monk\, and Red Garland\, that was successfully presented at the 2005 IAJE (International Association for Ja zz Education) conference in Long Beach.\n \;\nBorn in Kotor\, a small Montenegrin coastal town in the former Yugoslavia\, the pianist was classi cally trained as a child\, but was also drawn to jazz music he heard on Ar med Forces Radio and Voice of America during World War II and the Communis t regime that followed. After the war\, Tito&rsquo\;s communists took his home\, including the family piano\, and imprisoned his father and brother. Jazz came to symbolize freedom. Finally\, in 1951\, when he was 14\, his family was granted political asylum in the United States\, arriving in San Francisco at the height of a flourishing jazz scene. The young pianist be gan listening to local KJAZ radio\, hanging out at record shops and later frequenting legendary clubs to hear visiting jazz giants\, such as Miles D avis\, John Coltrane\, Dizzy Gillespie\, Bill Evans\, and others. He also heard and sat in with locally based masters\, such as John Handy and Brew Moore with whom he later began his professional career. Among the famous c lubs he visited was the Black Hawk\, where he met Cal Tjader pianist\, Vin ce Guaraldi\, who agreed to engage him as his only piano student. Mr. Guar aldi later featured Mr. Vuckovich in a two-piano quintet and sent him to s ubstitute as accompanist for vocalists Irene Kral\, David Allyn\, and Mel Tormé\;\, for whom Mr. Vuckovich became first-call pianist in San Fr ancisco.\n \;\nHe began a 25-year on and off association with vocalist -lyricist Jon Hendricks\, which included performances in Hendricks&rsquo\; long-running musical Evolution of the Blues and two Hendricks recordings. (The famous scat master later appeared on Mr. Vuckovich&rsquo\;s Reunion CD\, released in 2004\, placing in the top 25 on JazzWeek charts.) He tour ed with Mr. Hendricks throughout North America and Europe\, where he also led the house band at Germany's top jazz club\, The Domicile\, in Munich\, playing with such artists as Lucky Thompson\, Slide Hampton\, Pony Poinde xter\, Clifford Jordan\, and others. He worked with European trumpeter Dus ko Goykoyich and became a member of his International Quintet\, recording a live album with the band at The Domicile. He also performed with drum ma ster Philly Joe Jones\, at the club and later toured Europe with him. He m et Dexter Gordon and toured with him in Austria and in Copenhagen\, appear ing at the famous Montmartre jazz club. He performed at festivals at Jazz Ost/West Nurnberg\, Cologne\, Berlin\, Vienna\, Bologna\, Lugano\, Pescara \, and Ljublijana (Yugoslavia)\n \;\nMr. Vuckovich worked with Philly Joe again in San Francisco as house pianist for five years at Todd Barkan& rsquo\;s Keystone Korner\, where he also played with jazz legends Arnett C obb\, Buddy Tate\, Charles McPherson\, Leon Thomas\, Scott Hamilton and Ed die "\;Cleanhead"\; Vinson\, with whom he appears on a Savant Reco rds CD from a live Keystone recording. He has also recorded for Concord Re cords\, Hot House\, Inner City Records\, and Palo Alto Jazz\, and originat ed his own label Tetrachord Music in 2000\, producing six highly successfu l CDs.\n \;\nMr. Vuckovich worked for five years on the New York scene where he appeared at all major jazz clubs\, including Village Vanguard\, Blue Note\, Bradley's Zinno\, West End\, Hanratty's\, and others\, working with Billy Higgins\, Cecil Payne\, Al Cohn\, Curtis Fuller\, Milt Hinton\ , Mel Lewis\, Michael Moore\, Tom Harrell\, and Charles McPherson\; the la tter two have appeared on Mr. Vuckovich&rsquo\;s CDs. His two shows in the PBS Club Date jazz series\, both with Tom Harrell in 1982 and 1991\, rece ived a New York Times critique as being &ldquo\;well worth tuning in for.& rdquo\; The series is archived in the U.S. Library of Congress.\n \; He returned to San Francisco for a second long-term engagement as house pi anist and music director of Club 36 atop the Grand Hyatt Hotel from 1990 t o 1997\, having first presided there from 1980 to 1984. He featured visiti ng musicians from New York and Europe\, presented concerts showcasing dist inguished San Francisco-based musicians\, including a popular &ldquo\;Bop City Night&rdquo\;\, and hosted San Francisco Jazz Festival events there. He also presented several West Coast Jazz Festival performances and served as music director of the Napa Valley Jazz Festival for six years. He has performed at San Francisco\, Monterey and San Jose jazz festivals\, Aspen/ Sonoma Jazz Festival and the Palo Alto Jazz Alliance\, as well as major Ba y Area concert venues\, such as Yoshi&rsquo\;s\, Jazz at Pearl&rsquo\;s\, Herbst Theater\, The Bach Beach House\, Napa Valley Opera House\, COPIA\, Kimball&rsquo\;s East and Kimball&rsquo\;s West\, and recent European fest ivals at La Teste de Buch (France)\, Silda (Norway)\, Basel (Switzerland)\ , Belgrade (Serbia) and Bankiya (Bulgaria). .\n \;\nLarry was acknowle dged as a "\;Jazz Legend"\; for the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center in San Francisco. Larry was honored along with Eddy and Vernon Alley\, Wil lie Bobo\, Vince Guaraldi\, Paul Desmond\, Bop City&rsquo\;s Jimbo Edwards \, John Handy\, Noel Jewkes\, Frank Jackson\, Jon Hendricks\, Bobby Hutche rson\, Pat Nacey\, Cal Tjader\, Allen Smith\, and others who contributed t o the greatness of the San Francisco jazz scene. Larry Vuckovich Day\, Dec ember 8th was proclaimed in San Francisco on his birthday.\n \;\nMr. V uckovich lives in Calistoga in Napa Valley\, with his wife\, Sanna Craig\, vocalist-percussionist\, and producer with him on the couple&rsquo\;s Tet rachord Music label. Besides his own recordings\, he has released a record ing of Sanna&rsquo\;s son\, guitarist Josh Workman&rsquo\;s Jumpin&rsquo\; at the Border\, named one of the top four instrumentals of 2004 in the IA JE journal. His son Alexi Vuckovich is a classical piano student at San Fr ancisco State University\, where Mr. Vuckovich received a music degree. DTSTART:20091221T000000 DTEND:20091221T000000 DURATION:PT3H LOCATION:San Francisco SUMMARY:Larry Vuckovich New Blue Balkan Ensemble END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR