Larry Vuckovich, the highly versatile jazz pianist, will perform solo at the Napa Valley Opera House on Thursday, November 15 at 8 p.m. Vuckovich returns to Napa after a fall tour that included a debut at New York’s Lincoln Center, an appearance on “Marian McPartland’s NPR Piano Jazz” and performances at the Fazioli solo piano series in Chicago and New York.
During his Opera House performance, Vuckovich will play music that spans several eras from Cab Calloway, Mel Torme and Dexter Gordon to Bobby McFerrin and Charlie Haden. His wide-ranging repertoire reveals influences of down-home blues, ragtime/stride, swing/bebop, Afro-Cuban and other world music.
Vuckovich has performed with top musicians from various jazz influences, including Anita O'Day, Joe Williams, Helen Humes, Cab Calloway, Red Norvo, Don Byas, Charlie Haden, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Grenadier, Tom Harrell and Charles McPherson. He arrived in San Francisco as a teenager at the height of a flourishing jazz scene in 1951. Classically trained, he studied with Cal Tjader pianist Vince Guaraldi and began his professional career playing with Brew Moore, John Handy and Monk Montgomery. Vuckovich began accompanying singers when he subbed for Guaraldi with Irene Kral and David Allyn. He later became first-call pianist in San Francisco for Mel Tormé. In 1963, he began a 25-year association with vocalist/lyricist Jon Hendricks, appearing in Jon's long-running musical, “Evolution of the Blues.”
While working for long periods in Europe with Hendricks, he led the house band at Germany's top jazz club, The Domicile, in Munich, playing with great jazz masters, as well as toured with Dexter Gordon and Philly Joe Jones. On is return to San Francisco, he became house pianist for five years at Keystone Korner, where he also played with jazz legends Arnett Cobb, Buddy Tate, Charles McPherson, Leon Thomas, Scott Hamilton and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson.
Mr. Vuckovich then enjoyed a five-year stay from 1985 to 1990 in New York where he appeared at all the major jazz clubs, including the Village Vanguard and Blue Note, working with Billy Higgins, Cecil Payne, Al Cohn, Curtis Fuller, Milt Hinton, Mel Lewis, Tom Harrell, and Charles McPherson, receiving top acclaim from critics at “The New York Times” and “Village Voice.” He returned again to San Francisco in 1990 for a 10-year tenure as music director and pianist at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, presenting concerts featuring local artists, hosting out-of-town musicians and providing a venue for the San Francisco Jazz Festival.
He has recorded with Concord, Inner City, Palo Alto and other prestigious labels and founded his own Tetrachord Music label with his wife Sanna Craig in 2000. “Street Scene,” his fourth CD, on this label, has gained top print reviews and radio airplay. -- www.napavalleyoperahouse.org
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