Larry Luttinger
Music, Events and Sticking to the Beat
Larry Luttinger has been on the Central NY music scene for a long time, now. Today, he is the Founder and Executive Director of the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit performing organization that presents jazz in concert, cabaret, scholastic, and festival settings across the region, to an annual audience of 58,000 in public and in schools.
He has served as Chairman of the Syracuse University Music Industry Department and Director of SU Jazz Ensembles. He has also chaired the Music Departments of the Summerfame High School for the Performing Arts and the Metropolitan School for the Arts, and he was Executive Treasurer of the International Association for Jazz Education-NYS Chapter. He is recipient of the 2008 Updowntowner Award for Excellence, the 2010 Civic Morning Musicals Ruth Edson Award, the 2010 Cazenovia College Jazz ‘N’ Caz award, and is a member of the SAMMYS Hall of Fame and the Liverpool Fine Arts Hall of Fame.
As a performing artist, he has been a member of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra since 1986, he is currently a member of Symphoria, and he plays drum set for the CNY Jazz Orchestra. He recorded and toured extensively for the award-winning Society for New Music during his 14-year tenure as their percussionist. He has performed with many well known jazz artists, including Rob McConnell, Clark Terry, Grady Tate, Frank Foster, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Buddy DeFranco, Doc Severinson, Bucky Pizzarelli and Howard Alden, Lorne Lofsky, Lena Horne, Maxine Sullivan, The Four Freshmen, Phil Woods and Antonio Hart, among many others.
He has more than 50 touring show credits including Sugar Babies, Grand Hotel, City of Angels, Will Rogers Follies, The Producers, Frank Sinatra Jr, Aretha Franklin, Ben Vereen, Suzanne Somers, and Johnny Mathis. He has toured or performed with dozens of rock personalities, including Chuck Berry, Del Shannon, Chubby Checker, Petula Clark, and the Moody Blues.
Here we are today chatting with Mr. Luttinger.
Chuck Schiele: Hi Larry. Thank you again for sitting with us here at Sounds of Syracuse to talk about Jazz in Central New York. I’m a huge fan of jazz and the people who keep it going from all directions. Drumroll please…“Welcome, Larry Luttinger!”
Larry Luttinger: Glad to be here, Chuck.
CS: You’ve had many involvements and chapters and experiences in music. Many roads, and countless names and faces along the way. Right now, spanning all that, what sticks out as foremost to you?
LL: Wow, there are so many, Chuck, not only in jazz, but in rock and roll, classical music, country, every kind of work I’ve done over the years. I’d say, in no particular order, getting to perform with rock and soul legends like Chuck Berry, Del Shannon, Gary U.S. Bonds, the Coasters, the Shirelles, and countless others, pop icons including Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra Jr, and Marvin Hamlisch, the great comedians and actors, like Rickles, Joan Rivers, Suzanne Somers, and especially Mickey Rooney.
In jazz, playing for Bobby Caldwell, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Rob McConnell, David Liebman, and so many others. And of course playing the world’s greatest music in our symphony here since 1986. It’s been a wild ride, believe me.
CS: What would you consider some of the more crucial moments in jazz, historically speaking?
LL: Double wow. That’s a huge subject. Jazz history is really 20th century American cultural history. The birth of jazz as a mix of European, Creole, and Afro-Cuban culture, with Louis Armstrong as its first superstar and ambassador. Its recognition as an art form with the first Carnegie Hall concert in 1938 with Benny Goodman. Nat King Cole getting a cross burnt on his lawn in Beverly Hills in the 50s. The freedom jazz that came up in the 60s and 70s in the fight for civil rights. Jazz has become the world’s music now, totally global, it’s dizzying how many ways there are to improvise. It’s a ball to watch it evolve.
CS: What would you consider some of the more crucial moments in your own career?
LL: Well that one I can answer pretty well. I think the landmarks of any musician’s career are recordings. They’re hard work. They fix your best ideas in time for the world to hear and hopefully appreciate. As a kid barely in my twenties, the single called “Every Girl in the World Loves a Boy in Saddle Shoes” that a touring group I was in released and hit the charts with, recording in Carnegie Hall with the Syracuse Symphony and Keith Jarrett, and the two albums that the CNY Jazz Orchestra released, both top 10 big band releases, all speak for themselves. That’s what every artist wants to leave behind. Along with raising a great family, but my wife gets the lion’s share of credit for that.
CS: If there was a “front office” consisting of the people who shaped Jazz, who’s in it?
LL: If you mean producers, Teo Macero, Quincy Jones, Rudy Van Gelder, Les Paul, and Larry Rosen come to mind.
CS: You’ve been very busy here in Central New York, not just as a working musician all over the place, but also as a perpetuator of jazz events in the community. Tell us a little bit about that…how it’s gone so far?
LL: Well, so far it’s been 30 years since I founded CNY Jazz and it never seems to get any easier. The arts will always be a struggle, and art music will always be undervalued. But we persevere. Arts orgs are like any other small businesses, we’re fragile. We get hit hard by recessions, political change, pandemics, even the weather. It’s the joy that we create that makes it a life’s work. I wouldn’t turn the clock back for anything. It’s about passing the torch to a new generation. That’s why we’re so serious about all of our education programs, workshops, our youth orchestra, our high school jazz festival. These kids are the future.
CS: You have things going on and coming up. Please tell!
LL: Now we’re talking! If you’ve never experienced jazz at all, we produce several fun dining series around the city and county. Our annual January Jazzfest is a ball. Our Black History Month Cabaret is an amazing sell-out every year, and we travel through the city producing the Jazz in the City concert series with national acts every summer. That keeps us pretty busy, like 24/7 busy.
CS: What is the best way for these nice folks to stay in touch with your music and music efforts?
LL: If we could just get a few more thousand folks to check us out at www.cnyjazz.org, sign up to get our weekly e-newsletter, have fun at a few of our over events, and donate to us annually, we’d be in clover. We’re a non-profit like any other.
CS: Thank you, Larry for taking time to chat with us today at Sounds of Syracuse. And, thank you for the efforts you make to bring music to the area.
LL: Thanks Chuck. Keep the faith, everybody!
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