During his formative years, pianist Larry Fuller haw worked with jazz legends like singer Ernestine Anderson, drummer Jeff Hamilton, guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli and bassist Ray Brown. These experiences helped to shape him into the artist he is now.
The Larry Fuller Trio — Fuller, bassist Lorin Cohen and drummer Carmen Intorre Jr. — will perform at Hotel Congress’ Century Room to honor Brown on Sunday, Nov. 24.
Fuller, a New Jersey-based musician, has been leading the trio for 10 years. While the trio’s lineup has changed, the current group has been together for about a year.
Fuller has a meaningful Arizona connection. Drummer Lewis Nash recorded on his album “Overjoyed,” and the two musicians recently took part in a recording session with Houston Person.
His trio often performs songs from the Great American Songbook, including jazz, blues and pop tunes, along with original music.
Fuller tries to play music that is accessible and resonates with audiences. He learned this important lesson while working with jazz greats such as Brown.
“I try to play very high-quality jazz but also music that people can relate to,” Fuller said.
“It’s not real avant-garde music. We just try to swing and hopefully uplift people with the music. That’s the ultimate goal that hopefully people feel better when they leave than when they first came.”
Fuller often brings a jazz spin to music by artists such as Stevie Wonder, George Gershwin, Joni Mitchell, Oscar Peterson and Cedar Walton.
The trio will pay tribute to Brown during its Tucson show. Fuller has very fond memories of working with the bassist.
“Playing with Ray was just a thrill. It was definitely intimidating as well,” he said.
“He was just a giant of music. It was so much material that I had to learn when I joined that group. He had over 100 arranged pieces in the library, and he didn’t really want any music on the bandstand, so you had to memorize all that.
“A lot of the things he didn’t really have music for, so he just sent me these CDs, and I had to learn all the music by transcribing these CDs. What a tremendous experience and opportunity to get to play with somebody like that.”
Fuller is a Yamaha-endorsed artist, which means he prefers the brand and helps to promote it.
“I just really love Yamahas,” Fuller said.
“I feel like they’re very consistent in the way they build them. I think it’s a mutual situation where I endorse the instrument, and they, as a company, feel that I’m at a certain level in my musicianship to endorse their product.”
As part of the endorsement, Yamaha will provide a piano for Fuller if one isn’t available at a venue.
Fuller said although pianos are made similarly, there are differences between them.
“If you had 10 Steinways, and they were all the same model, each one would be a little different. When you build an instrument that’s made out of wood, there are going to be a few unique characteristics. The same with violins…One might have a real dark sound, one might have a brighter sound,” Fuller said.
“A piano has a big piece of wood inside called the ‘soundboard,’ and anytime you’re dealing with wood, the qualities of it, the grain and one piece might really resonate a lot more than another soundboard.”
Fuller said that working with artists like Anderson and Brown early in his career, he got to develop in a different way than musicians today.
“I feel like I’m the last age group that their journey was more through playing with artists and learning on the bandstand, as opposed to now everybody goes to some kind of academic program for jazz. I learned differently, but there were more opportunities back then to play with the artists that traveled,” Fuller said.
A Toledo, Ohio, native, Fuller started to play the piano by ear using an old upright piano his brother brought home. He first studied blues and boogie-woogie music on his own, before he began taking lessons.
He said he developed a love of jazz from a young age.
“I love the freedom of it, the improvisational element of the music and not being just tied down to written scores like when you’re studying classical literature,” Fuller said.
Growing up, he admired pianists such as Oscar Peterson, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, Gene Harris and Monty Alexander.
One of his mentors growing up was saxophone player Floyd “Candy” Johnson.
“He selected different kids out of each school in the district and then formed this group called the Toledo All City Jazz Ensemble,” Fuller recalled.
“When I was about 14, he started taking me on some of his own gigs around Toledo. So, I got a start as a very young musician, and then after high school, I played around that region of Detroit, Ann Arbor and Toledo. I accompanied the singer Ernestine Anderson at the Bird of Paradise in Ann Arbor, and then she hired me to travel with her as her piano player.”
This led to other high-profile gigs.
“That was my entry into the bigger leagues of jazz, traveling and playing the big clubs in different cities and festivals,” Fuller said.
“Through her, I met a lot of musicians because just her and I would travel, and then we used local bassists and drummers in each city. They were always the cream of the crop. That’s how I met Jeff Hamilton. When we played in Los Angeles, we played at this club called the Loa in Santa Monica, which the bassist Ray Brown owned. So, I met Jeff, and then later, when he formed his own trio, he thought of me. Then playing with Jeff led to me having the opportunity to play with Ray Brown because Jeff was Ray’s drummer for years.”
