Larry Willis was a jazz composer and pianist who worked in a range of styles
crossing jazz fusion, bebop, Afro-Cuban jazz and avant-garde.
Born in New York in 1940, Willis studied at the Manhattan School of Music in the
early 1960s and went on to play with Jackie McLean and Hugh Masekela. After a
foray into opera singing he made his first jazz recording in 1965, appearing on
McLean's 'Right Now!' with two of his own compositions. Over the course of the
'60s he also performed with Stan Getz and Kai Winding, recording with Robin
Kenyatta in '69.
The 1970s saw Willis turn to...