Larry Vuckovich

Born on December 8, 1936, in Kotor, Yugoslavia, Larry Vuckovich reached San Francisco in 1951 just as its bop jazz scene reached full bloom. Although his training was classical, Armed Forces Radio ignited a deep jazz devotion that drew him regularly to the Blackhawk and the Jazz Workshop, where Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bill Evans appeared. There he met Cal Tjader and Vince Guaraldi, later becoming Guaraldi’s sole piano student while completing his music degree at San Francisco State University, whose jazz program reflected the strong influence of John Handy. Handy not only worked with students but also presented visiting artists who performed alongside Vuckovich’s classmates, among them Milt Jackson, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Mickey Roker, Bob Cranshaw, and Larry Gales.

Vuckovich launched his professional career in 1959 beside tenor saxophonist Brew Moore and began substituting for Guaraldi in 1960 behind vocalists David Allyn and Irene Kral, sharing bills in the same period with Handy and Monk Montgomery. In 1963, while supporting Mel Tormé, he formed a lasting musical rapport that made him the singer’s preferred pianist in San Francisco. Two years later he began a durable partnership with vocalist and lyricist Jon Hendricks, appearing at major festivals and clubs worldwide and taking part in the long-running stage production Evolution of the Blues.

During the late 1960s Vuckovich led the house band at Munich’s Domicile, accompanying visiting artists that included Lucky Thompson, Slide Hampton, Pony Poindexter, Clifford Jordan, Dusko Goykovich, Philly Joe Jones, and Dexter Gordon. Back in the United States in the late 1970s, he again worked with Philly Joe Jones as house pianist at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner, supporting Arnett Cobb, Buddy Tate, Charles McPherson, Leon Thomas, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, and Scott Hamilton until the club closed in 1983. In 1985 he relocated to New York, performing at major jazz venues while backing Billy Higgins, Cecil Payne, Al Cohn, Curtis Fuller, Milt Hinton, Mel Lewis, bassist Michael Moore, Tom Harrell, and Charles McPherson.

Returning to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1990, Vuckovich became a mainstay of the regional jazz community, serving as music director for the West Coast Jazz Festival and the Napa Valley Jazz Festival, appearing at Pearl’s and Yoshi’s, and performing at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society near Half Moon Bay, the Herbst Theater, and the Palo Alto Jazz Alliance. At the 2005 International Association for Jazz Education convention in Long Beach he presented a successful piano clinic devoted to the styles of Bill Evans, Erroll Garner, Bud Powell, and Red Garland. He lives in Calistoga in the Napa Valley area north of San Francisco with his wife, vocalist and percussionist Sanna Craig. In addition to his trio he leads Blue Balkan, Young at Heart, and La Orquesta el Vuko, and has collaborated with Bobby Hutcherson, John Heard, Noel Jewkes, Jules Broussard, Josh Workman, Harold Jones, Eric Golub, Eddie Marshall, Eddie Moore, Akira Tana, Larry Grenadier, Chuck McPherson, Paul Keller, Dottie Dodgion, John Santos, Omar Clay, and Orestes Vilató.