A vital link to a golden era of jazz in San Francisco, pianist Larry Vuckovich has been tending the bebop torch since the mid-1950s. He performs an evening of Thelonious Monk masterpieces and Great American Songbook standards with his iron-clad trio.

As the only protégé of North Beach piano legend Vince Guaraldi, the Yugoslav-born Vuckovich has cultivated an encompassing and supremely cosmopolitan sensibility. He’s a scintillating stylist who is fluent in a multitude of modern jazz dialects, each with its own particular rhythmic and harmonic inflections. For many years he was known as a stimulating accompanist for some of the music’s greatest singers (Jon Hendricks, Mel Tormé, and Bobby McFerrin), but beginning with his seminal 1980 release Blue Balkan (featuring the late vibraphone legend Bobby Hutcherson), he became known as a pioneer of Balkan jazz who paved the way for the contemporary scene’s fascination with the intricate meters and raucous energy of Eastern European folk forms.

Larry Vuckovich Trio

Oct 14, 2023

Larry Vuckovich Trio Plays Thelonious Monk

Larry Vuckovich Trio