Larry Vuckovich International 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 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. With this adventurous sprirt, it's no wonder Vuckovich was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from his former home at the Nišville Jazz Festival in Serbia.
A supple purveyor of Latin jazz, Vuckovich can dig into buoyant Afro-Cuban grooves, or wax moody and melancholic with noir-tinged ballads. His International Trio covers a lot of this ground, while adding Japanese modes into the Middle Eastern and Balkan mix.