Adam Larson

A chess player from the age of 6, I’ve always been hyper-competitive. That competitive drive made me a die-hard Chicago Bulls fan during the Jordan-era and I proudly hold the distinction of the only fourth-grader to ever receive a technical-foul in a youth sports league in Normal, IL. When I turned 13, I rode the bench for the junior high team partially due to leaving practice to go to jazz band, partially due to my lack of jump-shot. At any rate, I took one solo using the Bb blues scale at a concert that year and a girl said “wow, that was cool”, and that was pretty much the end of my interests in playing basketball. From 14-18, I dedicated most of my life to practicing, playing gigs and hanging out with friends. At 18, I left Normal, IL for NYC to attend the Manhattan School of Music. I suffered badly from “big fish, small pond syndrome” and almost quit entirely halfway through my sophomore year. For better or worse, I pressed on and have been making a living playing a toy for the better part of 15 years now. I met the love of my life at a party I did not want to go and we bonded over our shared love of golden-era hip-hop, good alcohol and the cartoon “Family Guy”. We ended up getting hitched in 2014, had our first child in 2016 and our second in 2019. Music has been great to me, but I’ve already won life 3 times over. I currently teach at UMKC, privately via FaceTime, tour September-May, flounder in the summers and enjoy the constant butt-kicking of being a father and husband, year-round.
http://www.adamlarsonjazz.com