Larry Ridley

Larry Ridley (b. Indianapolis, September 3, 1937 - ) – Bass player, scholar, director and educator. After first playing violin in public schools in Indianapolis, Ridley switched to the double bass in the interest of learning jazz. As a teenager, he played his first professional gig while sitting in for Monk Montgomery in brother Wes’s band at Indy’s Turf Club. After completing a Bachelor’s degree at Indiana University in 1959, Ridley played professionally and amassed an impressive discography, which includes work—mainly on Blue Note—with Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Philly Joe Jones, the Ellington Band, Dexter Gordon, and Thelonious Monk. He has also recorded with his own Jazz Legacy Ensemble since 1985. In the world of academia, he was a Professor of Music at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1999 and was chairman of the music department from 1972 to 1980. From 1974 to 1978, Ridley served as a Jazz Panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts, and he was the national coordinator for the Jazz Artists in Schools Pilot Program from 1978 to 1982. Beginning in 2000, he has been the executive director of the African American Jazz Caucus. Lastly, he was inducted into Down Beat’s Jazz Education Hall of Fame in 1999.