Whatever it Takes

Biography

Larry Goldings (born August 28, 1968, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American jazz pianist, organist, and composer. His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. In high school he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music. During this period Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Dave McKenna, Red Garland, and Bill Evans were prime influences. As a young teenager, Larry studied privately with Ran Blake and Keith Jarrett. Larry moved to Ne...

Larry Goldings (born August 28, 1968, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American jazz pianist, organist, and composer.

His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. In high school he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music. During this period Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Dave McKenna, Red Garland, and Bill Evans were prime influences. As a young teenager, Larry studied privately with Ran Blake and Keith Jarrett.

Larry moved to New York in 1986 to attend a newly formed jazz program under the leadership of Arnie Lawrence at The New School. During college he studied piano with Jaki Byard and Fred Hersch. While still a freshman, Sir Roland Hanna invited Larry to accompany him to a three-day private jazz party in Copenhagen. While there, Larry met jazz legends Sarah Vaughan, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, and Hank Jones; and he also played piano in a band with Sarah Vaughan, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Al Cohn. Later he went on a worldwide tour with Jon Hendricks and worked with him for a year. A collaboration lasting almost three years with jazz guitar legend Jim Hall followed.

In 1988, Larry began his development as an organist during a regular gig at a pianoless bar called Augie's (now Smoke) on New York's Upper West Side. He was featured with several bands, and his own trio with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart got its start there. His own first release was Intimacy Of The Blues in 1991. He has released ten or more albums since then, and has appeared as a sideman on hundreds of recordings. Over the course of his career, his distinctive keyboard sound has been sought out more and more by pop and alternative artists, including De La Soul, India.Arie, Madeleine Peyroux, Walter Becker, Till Bronner, Sia, John Mayer, and Norah Jones. He has had long term collaborations with diverse artists ranging from John Scofield to Maceo Parker, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny to John Pizzarelli, in genres including Brazilian jazz, pop, funk and even folk music as pianist (since 2001) for James Taylor.

Larry's melodic style of organ playing has often been compared to that of Larry Young. On organ, Larry cites as his first inspirations the solo piano style of Dave McKenna "who walks his own bass lines better than anyone" and Billy Preston accompanying Aretha Franklin on "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Other influences were the Wes Montgomery records featuring Mel Rhyne and Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott, Chester Thompson, Joe Zawinul, and Jack McDuff.1 Among jazz enthusiasts, Larry's organ trio with Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart has been recognized for charting new ground, with the musicians' synergistic playing and their hard-swinging, yet very thoughtful, music.

In addition to performing, Larry is a composer, arranger, and producer of music. His music reflects a wide listening palette, from Beethoven and Gabriel Faure to contemporary artists like The Beatles, Randy Newman, and Björk. His compositions have been recorded by Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Bob Dorough, Jim Hall, John Scofield, and Toots Thielemans, among others; and his songs and arrangements appear in the films "Space Cowboys" and John Madden's "Proof." His composing, arranging and producing credits include four albums with the vocalist Curtis Stigers in which one can hear their original co-writes as well as Larry's musical arrangements of a variety of contemporary songs and jazz standards.

In 2007, Larry Goldings, Jack DeJohnette and John Scofield, received a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Jazz Instrumental Album Individual or Group for their performance on the album, "Trio Beyond - Saudades" (ECM). The album captures their live performance in 2004 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Its title is in reference to the musicians' collaboration that began as as a tribute to the music of Tony Williams Lifetime group and has now moved beyond to include original works and other music in a similar vein.

He is the perpetrator of the hoax Hans Groiner Plays Monk, which purports to be the MySpace page of an Austrian pianist "from Braunau, also the birthplace of Hitler, but please don't hold that against me," who plays easy listening versions of Thelonious Monk tunes.

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