The NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 14, 1985

Jazz: Larry Vuckovich

LARRY VUCKOVICH, a jazz pianist whose career has developed for the past 25 years on the West Coast, moved to the East Coast five months ago, bringing with him an outlook and a collection of influences that set him apart from most pianists who are heard regularly in New York.

At Zinno, 128 West 13th Street, where he appeared through last night accompanied by the bassist Walter Booker, Mr. Vuckovich mixed a mainstream swinging attack, romanticism that bordered on the expansive Erroll Garner manner, a strong blues sensitivity and exotic reflections of his native Yugoslavia. The jazz influences that he cites as affecting his playing include some of the expected, familiar names – Bud Powell and Miles Davis as well as Red Garland, Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris. But he also mentions John Handy and Monk Montgomery, echoes of his long residence in SanFrancisco, and the saxophonist Brew Moore.

This gives him a broad range of sources on which he draws in imaginative fashion, taking elements with which he can build peformances that are given unity by his own musical background. Playing a Yugoslavian folk theme, he evokes visions of minarets as readily as he develops a broad, deep exploration of the blues from Avery Parrish’s “After Hours.” His playing is warmly emotional, melodic and very positively swinging, an element that is underlined and extended by Mr. Booker’s strong support.

John S. Wilson

The New York Times

THE NEW YORK TIMES Television MONDAY, JULY 28, 1986
TV Reviews
JAZZY ‘Club Date’ on 31

JAZZ musicians with Eastern European roots can be seen tonight on Channel 31 in “Club Date,” two half-hour jazz programs presented back to back at 9 o’clock. The
Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo plays pop-jazz with a diluted flamenco element; the pianist Larry Vuckovich leads a superior quartet that adds hints of Mr. Vuckovich’s Yugoslavian heritage to aggressive hard-bop.

But the second “Club Date,” a 1982 set by Larry Vuckovich, is well worth tuning in for at 9:30 P.M. – especially because the pianist has made only a few albums. Mr. Vuckovich can summon the aggressive, modal style of 1960’s jazz or a more ornate, more traditionalist approach. His quartet includes the trumpeter Tom Harrell, the drummer Sherman Ferguson and the first-rate bassist John Heard, who is based in Los Angeles and rarely performs in New York. In the final selection, a barrelhouse-flavored “After Hours,” the alto saxophonist Charles McPherson joins the group for a wailing guest solo.

“Village Voices,” which opens the program, mixes angular Slavic folk tunes with the modal style of McCoy Tyner. Mr. Vuckovich plays a romantic solo version of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” and the punchy hard-bop of Mr. Harrell’s tune “Blue News” completes the segment. For those who haven’t heard the pianist in New York clubs, the program is a fine sampling.

Jon Pareles

QUICK FIXES

LARRY VUCKOVICH
Deja Vuk
MUSETTE 9402 (59 min)
Performance: Engaging
Recording: Superb

Yugoslav-born pianist Larry Vuckovich came to this country when he was 14 and settled in San Francisco, where he has been a part of the jazz scene since the mid-Sixties. A fine technician whose musical ideas are as well grounded as they are eclectic (he studies with pianist Vince Guaraldi and saxophonist John Handy). Vuckovich has performed here and in Europe but remains largely unknown. That may change thanks to this wonderful solo album. The title is an acknowledgement of the pianist's varied approach; besides familiar tunes, you'll recognize a number of familiar jazz styles, but Vuckovich weaves his influences together in a most engaging way, adding occasional strokes of Balkan music. Through it all, however, one influence prevails: blues. Vuckovich obviously has an affinity for the form, and he treats it with utmost care. Another striking aspect of his playing is the lyricism with which he inbues such songs as Gershwin's The Man I Love-some thing. All in all "Deja Vuk is a CD well worth hearing and re-hearing. C.A.

Chris Albertston