BIO

As a piano performance major at the University of Oregon, Steve Larson was busily learning to play the music of classical composers (especially his favorites — Bach and Chopin) in diligent study with master teacher Victor Steinhardt. But at the same time, he was also playing keyboards (and a host of other instruments, including flute, trumpet, and trombone) in a in a rock-and-roll band called SCANDAL. The group made several recordings (on vinyl!) and toured, first as a cover band, then in a series of concerts to promote their records. Eventually, the band became so successful that Steve dropped out of school to devote his full time to practicing, performing, and concertizing with SCANDAL. Life on the road was a great pleasure — and honed his pool-playing skills! It also left a lasting impression on his pianism. Three aspects of that rock-and-roll experience remain central to his jazz playing: an emphasis on boogie-woogie-influenced and blues-driven piano styles, an "orchestral" desire to draw as many distinctive colors and texture-based arrangements as possible out of the piano, and a grounding in the repetition and simplicity that make for catchy melodies.

This excerpt from SCANDAL's 45rpm recording of Steven Myers' song "Too Much Complaining" illustrates boogie-woogie-influenced and blues-driven piano styles.

Excerpt from SCANDAL's recording of "Too Much Complainin' " (0:23)
click here to hear the complete excerpt

The complete excerpt also shows the influence of Steve's classical studies: the beginning of the final piano solo quotes Chopin's "Thirds" Etude (Opus 25, Number 6), and the cascading piano figures in the fade-out are derived from Chopin's "Ocean" Etude (Opus 25, Number 12).

Larson's synthesizer solo on Myers' "In and Out of My Life" (from the LP Really Worth Waiting For) illustrates his his search for distinctive sounds. It was created on a very simple synthesizer — the original "Micro Moog" — but Steve designed and built a special device that allowed him to combine different effects (changing the tone color and the amount of vibrato simultaneously).

Excerpt from SCANDAL's recording of "In and Out of My Life" (1:13)
click here to hear the complete excerpt

While both excerpts use simple repeated figures to hook listeners' expectations, both solos stretch those expectations with interesting departures from (and returns to) the predictable.

When he returned to school, Steve deepened his study of jazz piano with work that included note-for-note transcriptions of seminal recordings into music notation as a part of his PhD dissertation work at the University of Michigan with James Dapogny. Here is a recording of Steve playing his transcription of Oscar Peterson's performance of " 'Round Midnight".

Excerpt of Steve playing his note-for-note transcription of Oscar Peterson's performance of Thelonious Monk's " 'Round Midnight" (0:45)
click here to hear the complete excerpt

Steve eventually transcribed a number of Bill Evans' performances. Some of the most fascinating of these are his transcriptions of the Evans' overdub album Conversations with Myself. On that album, Evans first recorded one piano track and then overdubbed one or two more to create a richly-layered multi-piano sound. To hear Steve — and the rest of the Jazz Piano Collective — play one of those transcriptions, visit the JPC page.

Steve now holds an endowed chair at the University of Oregon as the Robert M. Trotter Professor of Music and performs with a variety of musicians, both locally and internationally. The navigation sidebar to the right will take you to see and hear about some of those musical collaborations.