Biography
Grammy Award-winning producer, bassist, and collaborator Larry Klein has partnered with leading and emerging talents worldwide across jazz, pop, rock, samba, R&B, and cinematic scores. Among his many projects, he has played on and produced multiple albums for Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Luciana Souza, Tracy Chapman, Madeleine Peyroux, Walter Becker, Melody Gardot, Don Henley, and Thomas Dybdahl. In 2007 he helmed River: The Joni Letters, which earned Grammy honors for Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Jazz Album, alongside Herbie Hancock and an ensemble of prominent vocalists. Widely regarded as one of the foremost bassists, Klein appears on the majority of the recordings he produces. He has also composed, produced, and performed on several film projects, including the underscore and music production for the Martin Scorsese-produced Allison Anders film Grace of My Heart and the biopic Crazy about country session guitarist Hank Garland. His film contributions began with Scorsese’s Raging Bull in 1980 and continued with the series Queer as Folk. Klein’s activity continued unabated into the twenty-first century; during 2018 he produced albums for Souza, Dybdahl, Peyroux, and Jeff Goldblum.
Born in Southern California, Klein received formal training after an after-school program at The Community Schools at U.S.C. introduced him to university professors who refined his instrumental and compositional abilities while he was still in high school. At Cal State he performed with jazz and Latin ensembles and spent five years on the road with Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Willie Bobo. His production career began when he issued two singles by the funk group Catch on his own LK Records imprint. He first worked with Mitchell on 1982’s Wild Things Run Fast and married her that year. Their next collaboration, the 1985 album Dog Eat Dog, also marked his initial experiments with synthesizers and modern programming. Those Mitchell sessions opened doors to high-profile work with Don Henley on 1984’s Building the Perfect Beast, Peter Gabriel on 1986’s So, Robbie Robertson’s 1987 solo debut, Benjamin Orr’s 1986 album The Lace, and the Innocence Mission’s self-titled 1989 debut. Klein’s third Mitchell record, 1988’s Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, was followed by Night Ride Home in 1992. During the making of 1994’s Turbulent Indigo the marriage ended, after which he produced projects for Holly Cole, Mary Black, Rodney Crowell, Shawn Colvin, and Julia Fordham. He also contributed to the 1996 soundtrack Grace of My Heart. In 1997 he co-produced Dinosaur Jr.’s single “Take a Run at the Sun” with J. Mascis, Kyle Eastwood’s From There to Here, and Lynn Miles’ Night in a Strange Town. Although he maintained strong jazz ties, evidenced by his work with Cole, Klein produced Chris Botti’s 1999 breakthrough Slowing Down the World. At the start of the new century he oversaw Mitchell’s Both Sides Now and Travelogue. He began his long association with Peyroux on her 2004 album Careless Love and has produced all but two of her subsequent releases. In 2006 he produced Til Brönner’s Oceana for Verve and Souza’s The New Bossa Nova; the pair married that year. The following year he produced Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, featuring Peyroux, Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corrine Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen, and Mitchell. The album reached number five on the Billboard 200 and appeared on charts in four European countries. At the 50th Grammy Awards it became only the second jazz album to win Album of the Year, after Stan Getz and João Gilberto’s 1965 Getz/Gilberto. Demand remained high in 2008; Klein worked on eight albums that year, among them the Crazy soundtrack, Walter Becker’s Circus Money, Brönner’s Rio, and Rebecca Pidgeon’s Behind The Velvet Curtain, in addition to extensive session playing. In 2009 he reunited with Souza for Tide, produced Eddy Mitchell’s Grand Ecran, Raul Midon’s Synthesis, and Melody Gardot’s My One and Only Thrill.
Klein produced and played bass on Pidgeon’s 2011 album Slingshot, co-writing eight of its twelve tracks. Subsequent international projects included Anna Bergendahl’s Something to Believe In, Dybdahl’s What’s Left Is Forever, Ana Moura’s Desfado, Otis Brown III’s The Thought of You, Mitchell’s Héros, and Billy Childs’ Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro. During 2015 he produced Lizz Wright’s Freedom & Surrender, Lisa Bassenge’s Canyon Songs, Gardot’s Currency of Man, and Souza’s Speaking in Tongues. In 2016 he moved into classical repertoire with Lang Lang’s New York Rhapsody and Kandace Springs’ Blue Note debut Soul Eyes. The following year brought the ambitious double album The Passion of Charlie Parker, which recounts the saxophonist’s life through a noir radio-play format voiced by Peyroux, Jeffrey Wright, Gregory Porter, Kurt Elling, Barbara Hannigan, Souza, and Springs, with instrumental support from Donny McCaslin, Craig Taborn, Ben Monder, Eric Harland, Scott Colley, and Larry Grenadier. Klein also produced Hailey Tuck’s debut Junk that year. His 2018 schedule encompassed production, performance, and songwriting on five acclaimed releases: Souza’s Book of Longing, Peyroux’s Anthem, Jeff Goldblum’s The Capitol Studios Sessions with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, Dybdahl’s All These Things, and Molly Johnson’s Meaning to Tell Ya.
Born in Southern California, Klein received formal training after an after-school program at The Community Schools at U.S.C. introduced him to university professors who refined his instrumental and compositional abilities while he was still in high school. At Cal State he performed with jazz and Latin ensembles and spent five years on the road with Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Willie Bobo. His production career began when he issued two singles by the funk group Catch on his own LK Records imprint. He first worked with Mitchell on 1982’s Wild Things Run Fast and married her that year. Their next collaboration, the 1985 album Dog Eat Dog, also marked his initial experiments with synthesizers and modern programming. Those Mitchell sessions opened doors to high-profile work with Don Henley on 1984’s Building the Perfect Beast, Peter Gabriel on 1986’s So, Robbie Robertson’s 1987 solo debut, Benjamin Orr’s 1986 album The Lace, and the Innocence Mission’s self-titled 1989 debut. Klein’s third Mitchell record, 1988’s Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, was followed by Night Ride Home in 1992. During the making of 1994’s Turbulent Indigo the marriage ended, after which he produced projects for Holly Cole, Mary Black, Rodney Crowell, Shawn Colvin, and Julia Fordham. He also contributed to the 1996 soundtrack Grace of My Heart. In 1997 he co-produced Dinosaur Jr.’s single “Take a Run at the Sun” with J. Mascis, Kyle Eastwood’s From There to Here, and Lynn Miles’ Night in a Strange Town. Although he maintained strong jazz ties, evidenced by his work with Cole, Klein produced Chris Botti’s 1999 breakthrough Slowing Down the World. At the start of the new century he oversaw Mitchell’s Both Sides Now and Travelogue. He began his long association with Peyroux on her 2004 album Careless Love and has produced all but two of her subsequent releases. In 2006 he produced Til Brönner’s Oceana for Verve and Souza’s The New Bossa Nova; the pair married that year. The following year he produced Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, featuring Peyroux, Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corrine Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen, and Mitchell. The album reached number five on the Billboard 200 and appeared on charts in four European countries. At the 50th Grammy Awards it became only the second jazz album to win Album of the Year, after Stan Getz and João Gilberto’s 1965 Getz/Gilberto. Demand remained high in 2008; Klein worked on eight albums that year, among them the Crazy soundtrack, Walter Becker’s Circus Money, Brönner’s Rio, and Rebecca Pidgeon’s Behind The Velvet Curtain, in addition to extensive session playing. In 2009 he reunited with Souza for Tide, produced Eddy Mitchell’s Grand Ecran, Raul Midon’s Synthesis, and Melody Gardot’s My One and Only Thrill.
Klein produced and played bass on Pidgeon’s 2011 album Slingshot, co-writing eight of its twelve tracks. Subsequent international projects included Anna Bergendahl’s Something to Believe In, Dybdahl’s What’s Left Is Forever, Ana Moura’s Desfado, Otis Brown III’s The Thought of You, Mitchell’s Héros, and Billy Childs’ Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro. During 2015 he produced Lizz Wright’s Freedom & Surrender, Lisa Bassenge’s Canyon Songs, Gardot’s Currency of Man, and Souza’s Speaking in Tongues. In 2016 he moved into classical repertoire with Lang Lang’s New York Rhapsody and Kandace Springs’ Blue Note debut Soul Eyes. The following year brought the ambitious double album The Passion of Charlie Parker, which recounts the saxophonist’s life through a noir radio-play format voiced by Peyroux, Jeffrey Wright, Gregory Porter, Kurt Elling, Barbara Hannigan, Souza, and Springs, with instrumental support from Donny McCaslin, Craig Taborn, Ben Monder, Eric Harland, Scott Colley, and Larry Grenadier. Klein also produced Hailey Tuck’s debut Junk that year. His 2018 schedule encompassed production, performance, and songwriting on five acclaimed releases: Souza’s Book of Longing, Peyroux’s Anthem, Jeff Goldblum’s The Capitol Studios Sessions with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, Dybdahl’s All These Things, and Molly Johnson’s Meaning to Tell Ya.