That
interest in jazz turned into a passion while stationed in Europe in a US
Army band, and from exposure to the surrounding music scene of the times.
'I was ready for Europe at that time [1975] because their brand of jazz
comes from the symphony rather than blues or bebop so it seemed like I had
found my home'.
Indeed Larry had come full circle with his interests. Now he was back listening
to the symphony while maintaining a foothold in jazz as well as other forms
of popular music.
Today Larry resides in Los Angeles California and has well earned the respect of the established jazzmen. He is in constant demand for his many skills including guitar [see Larry's guitar page on Myspace] and performs regularly with the San Fernando Valley Symphony and the Orchestre Surreal. (on trumpet)
"I
only want to be remembered as a nice guy." Count Basie
It all started when his father, James Williams (also a trumpeter) put a horn in little 8 year old Larry's hands and gave him his first lessons.


"I didn't even want to play the trumpet," Larry recalls, "As I was heading for the drums at a band camp just before 7th grade, I felt my dad's hand grab the back of my shirt collar and reposition my footsteps toward the brass section, so it was my Destiny?"
After entering
the 7th grade Larry immediately took the 1st chair in the high school band
at Oviedo, "challenging" his way up through the ranks.
Everyone soon realized there was something about this child that was beyond
their experience so his mother promptly set him up with a private instructor.

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'I was training to
be a symphonic player early on, but after holding down the principal chair
in the Florida Youth Symphony for several years I realized
the traditional role of trumpet in the orchestra left me craving more involvement
in whatever piece we would be performing'. (lots of bar-counting for us trumpeters
before entering with our short fanfares)
Throughout his tenure, instead of concentrating on his own parts, Larry found
himself constantly tuning in to the other orchestral voices while formulating
his own opuses in his mind.
Thus, the interest in composition had already begun to develop.
It wasn't until college that Dr. Bill Hinkle (SCC) managed to interest Larry in Jazz and some of the great players of that idiom. After being exposed to Doc Severinsen, Freddie Hubbard, and Maynard Ferguson Larry abandoned the symphony and turned his focus exclusively to Jazz.
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