LIVE at Piedmont Piano Company
John Calloway & Larry Vuckovich
In their premier performance as a duo, John Calloway and Larry Vukovich will each draw from their musical experiences and cultural backgrounds to perform a rich and varied program of jazz repertoire that will include music from Latin America and Eastern Europe, both original compositions and jazz and Latin standards. John will play an assortment of flutes with Larry accompanying on piano, as well as performing some solo pieces, creating an intimate dialogue between them.
General Admission
$25 in advance / $30 at the door
We are offering a limited number of seats for this performance. Advance purchase is recommended. Masking is optional.
JOHN CALLOWAY
Dr. John Calloway is a nationally recognized multi-instrumentalist and composer, primarily known for his flute playing and improvisations in jazz, Afro-Latin, and popular music. In addition to leading his own Bay Area-based jazz and Latin ensembles, he has recently performed at venues in the Philippines and Havana, Cuba. John has performed with internationally known musicians Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Omar Sosa, and Max Roach, and in the Bay Area, with John Santos, Marcus Shelby, La Moderna Tradición, and Conjunto Karabali. John is also the creator and curator of The Flute Odyssey, an ongoing collaborative ensemble formed in 2008 that features flutes from cultures around the world.
As a composer and arranger, John has contributed to several GRAMMY-nominated recordings, received an Emmy Award for his composition "No Hay Nada Mas SF," and arranged music for the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn. His recording projects include the CD Asere Ko (2016). Most recently, he has written for the Bel Canto Flute Choir and serves as producer and artistic director of the Afro Filipino Project — an initiative encompassing the Afro Filipino Jazz Project, Buffalo Soldiers in the Philippine American War: A Crisis of Conscience, and Afro Filipino New Voices. johncalloway.com
LARRY VUCKOVICH
Larry Vuckovich is recognized as a pioneer, being the first in the US to fuse Balkan ethnic, Gypsy – Roma folk elements with American jazz. His 1980 LP, Blue Balkan, featuring Bobby Hutcherson, is a landmark recording in this genre. Here is a link to major reviews https://larryvuckovich.com/audio-blue_balkan_2002.htm. This recording has been remastered into an attractive CD digipak format with enhanced sound. The airplay starts on October 21.
Cited by piano legend Barry Harris as "one of the premier West Coast pianists," Mr. Vuckovich brought his Jazz-Latin Trio/Quartet, featured on his two piano trio/quartet CDs, to Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in New York. On the same tour, Marian McPartland invited him to interview and perform with her on her Piano Jazz show, broadcast to national and global NPR affiliates.
In 2019 Larry Vuckovich received a Lifetime Achievement Award from his former country Yugoslavia – this time being in Serbia at the Nišville Jazz Festival, where he also performed. He also holds the recognition for being one of the very few musicians on the scene today who for over a period of 6 decades has performed with such greats going back to the 30s and on: Red Norvo, Cab Calloway, Don Byas, Dexter Gordon, Tony Bennett, Jon Hendricks, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Joe Williams, Bobby McFerrin + many more. He has been selling out major venues such as the SF Jazz Festival – doing a tribute to Thelonious Monk, Bach Society in Half Moon Bay, Sonoma Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s and the Meyhouse Jazz Venue in Palo Alto. larryvuckovich.com