Larry Willis
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via Wikipedia: Larry Willis · see source
Born in New York City on December 20, 1942, Lawrence Elliott Willis was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked across bebop, jazz fusion, Afro-Cuban jazz, and avant-garde. After his first year studying music theory at the Manhattan School of Music, he began performing regularly with Jackie McLean. His first jazz recording was McLean's Right Now! in January 1965, which included two of Willis's own compositions.
He later spent several years as keyboardist for Blood, Sweat & Tears (starting in 1972) and played for trumpeters Nat Adderley, Woody Shaw, Roy Hargrove, and Jerry Gonzalez's Fort Apache Band. He received the Don Redman award in 2011 and the Benny Golson Jazz Master Award at Howard University in 2012. Willis died of an aneurysm in Baltimore at age 76.
Background
Willis's first recording of any kind was not as a pianist but as a singer with the Music and Arts Chorale Ensemble, performing an opera by Aaron Copland under Leonard Bernstein. He chose to focus on jazz because African-American musicians faced difficulties finding work in concert music.
His composition 'Sanctuary' began exploring works with strings, and after a successful performance at Frank Lloyd Wright's Annie Pfieffer Chapel during Florida Southern College's Child of the Sun Jazz Festival, he was commissioned to write a full-scale orchestral work for jazz trio and orchestra. He also worked with Hugh Masekela on a South African Suite and participated in the Round About Midnight tour of Miles Davis's music. His late recording with Paul Murphy, Exposé, demonstrated fusion principles of bebop and avant-garde jazz.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Larry Willis (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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