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Born September 3, 1937, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
2005 -- Doctor of Performing Arts - University of Maryland Eastern Shore. 1993 -- Master of Arts, Cultural Policy - State University of New York/Empire State College. 1971 -- Bachelor of Science, Music Education - Indiana University (1955-1959)/New York University (1968-1971). Professor of Music, Emeritus - Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, beginning 1999 Professor of Music - Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 1971-1999 Chairman - Music Department, Livingston College of Rutgers University, 1972-1980 Chief Architect, beginning 1971, Rutgers University undergraduate/graduate Jazz performance degree programs. Adjunct Professor of Jazz Bass - Manhattan School of Music, NYC, 1991 - Present. Lecturer - Jazz at Lincoln Center "Swing University" - Beginning 2011. National Endowment for the Arts: Jazz Panelist, 1974-1978 (Panel Chairman, 1976-1978); National Coordinator - Jazz Artists in Schools Pilot Program, 1978-1982. Music Panelist - NY State Council on the Arts, 1987-1990; United States Information Agency, 1992; and numerous other State arts agencies beginning in the 1970s to the present, e.g., NC, PA, MI, NJ, OH, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; New York Foundation for the Arts; Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) Annual Congressional Black Caucus Jazz Issues Panel and, his Jazz Issues Task Force. Executive Director - African American Jazz Caucus (AAJC) (a former affiliate of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), beginning in the Fall of the year 2000 to the present. 9/16/2001 - 6/30/2002 Member Board of Directors, Madame C.J. Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis, IN. 2012 - Became a Bass Artist Clinician/Endorser of the Yamaha Musical Instrument Co. 2012 - Inducted into the Indianapolis Public School System (IPS) Hall of Fame as a 1955 graduate of Shortridge High School. Joining such Shortridge High School graduate luminaries as the Honorable U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). 2011 - Recipient of the "Don Redman Heritage Award" presented by the Don Redman Society, Piedmont WV; Jefferson County, WV NAACP; and the Harpers Ferry Historical Association, an affiliate of the US National Parks Service. 2011 - Recipient of the Rutgers University/Livingston College "Livingston Legacy Award" Presented by the Livingston Alumni Association. 6/19/2006 - Recipient of the Proclamation by the City Council of the City of New York acknowledging Larry Ridley for his outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the field of Jazz music and beyond - The Honorable Charles Barron, Council Member, 42nd District, Brooklyn, NY. 2001 - Recipient of the Howard University "Benny Golson Award". 1999 - Inducted into the Down Beat Magazine Jazz Education Hall of Fame. 1998 - Inducted into the International Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame, NYC Conference. 1997 - Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's "Living Legacy Jazz Award", Kennedy Center, Washington DC. 1985 to the Present - Leader, Bassist and Artistic Director - the JAZZ LEGACY ENSEMBLE®, JAZZ LEGACY INC.® 1982 - CoFounder & Partner - Jazz Cultural Theatre, NYC, w/Barry Harris, Jim Harrison, Frank Fuentes. 1977 - While performing in Lesotho, Southern Africa - Given the Sesotho name, Tsepo , which means Hope, Trust. JAZZ ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: Grambling College; Southern University; University of Utah; Drake University; Creighton University; Colorado College; Penn State University; Bowdoin College; Alcorn State; Bennington College; College of the Virgin Islands; University of Natal-Durban (under the auspices of the United States Information Service); Madame Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis, IN - 7/1/2002 to 9/30/2002; Northern Illinois University; University of Maryland Eastern Shore; University of the Virgin Islands; Schomburg Center/New York Public Library - 1993 to the present; Indiana University School of Music - April 11 - April 14, 2011. INTERNATIONAL CONCERTS, NIGHTCLUBS, RADIO, TELEVISION, RECORDINGS: with Pepper Adams; Toshiko Akiyoshi; Mousey Alexander Trio; Ernestine Anderson; "Killer" Ray Appleton; Harold Ashby; Dave Bailey; Chet Baker Quartet; Dave Baker Big Band and small groups; Bill Barron; Kenny Barron; Benny Barth; Gary Bartz; Edgar Bateman; Alvin Batiste; Marcus Belgrave; Louis Bellson; George Benson; Walter Benton; Leonard Bernstein; Eddie Bert; Gene Bertoncini; Skeeter Best; Walter Bishop Jr.; Art Blakey; Carla Bley; Ruby Braff; George Braith; Buster Brown; Hallie "The Comet" Bryant; Darius Brubeck; Kenny Burrell; Jaki Byard; Charlie Byrd; Donald Byrd; George Cables; Candido Camero; Jay Cameron; Conte Candoli Quartet (w/Slide Hampton, Benny Barth); Harry Carney; Joe Carroll; Benny Carter; Betty Carter; Nell Carter; Joe Chambers; Dennis Charles; Doc Cheatham; Ray Chew/Alicia Keys; Don Cherry; Jimmy Cobb; Al Cobine; Jimmy Coe; Al Cohn; Cozy Cole; Cy Coleman; George Coleman; Ornette Coleman; Eddie Condon; Junior Cook; Keith Copeland; Chick Corea; Hank Crawford; Harold Cumberbatch; Andrew Cyrille; Albert Dailey; "Dameronia" -- Leader-Philly Joe Jones, after Joe's death, drummer Kenny Washington played a few gigs with us, Walter Davis Jr., Johnny Coles, later Virgil Jones, Cecil Payne, Frank Wess, Charles Davis, later Clifford Jordan, Britt Woodman, later Benny Powell, Don Sickler- trumpet and Dameron music transcriber along with John Oddo; Charles Davis; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis; Walter Davis Jr.; Vic Dickenson; Roger Dickerson; Phyllis Diller; Sam Dockery; Eric Dolphy; Bobby Donaldson; Lou Donaldson; Dorothy Donegan; Kenny Dorham; Hobart Dotson; Kenny Drew; Ted Dunbar; Frankie Dunlop; Harry "Sweets" Edison; Duke Ellington & his Orchestra; Mercer Ellington; Herb Ellis; Booker Ervin; Tal Farlow; Art Farmer/Jim Hall Quartet,with Walter Perkins; Tommy Flanagan; Frank Foster; Panama Francis; Bud Freeman; Don Friedman; Curtis Fuller; Red Garland; Errol Garner; Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell; Stan Getz; "Giants of Jazz"--Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Curtis Fuller, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey & LR; Dizzy Gillespie; John Gilmore; Spaulding Givens; Benny Golson; Paul Gonsalves; "Babs" Gonzalez; Benny Goodman; Dexter Gordon; Lulu Gotsana; Stephane Grappelli; Benny Green (trombonist); Bunky Green; Chuck Green; Everett Greene; Freddie Green; Grant Green; Urbie Green; Charles "Majeed" Greenlee; Tiny Grimes; Sol Gubin; Bobby Hackett Quintet; Al Haig; Jim Hall; Chico Hamilton; Jimmy Hamilton; Lionel Hampton; Slide Hampton Octet and small groups; Herbie Hancock; Roland Hanna; Barry Harris; Lanny Hartley; Coleman Hawkins; Louis Hayes; Roy Haynes Quartet; Albert "Tootie" Heath; Jimmy Heath; Joe Henderson; Al Hibbler; John Hicks; Billy Higgins; Andrew Hill; Lonnie Hillyer; Milt Hinton; Johnny Hodges; Uncle Ben Holiman; Elmo Hope; Lex Humphries; Roger Humphries; Joe Hunt; Earmon Hubbard Jr.; Freddie Hubbard; Bobby Hutcherson; Milt Jackson; Oliver Jackson; Billy James; Clifford Jarvis; "Jazz Legacy Ensemble", Leader; Paul Jeffries; Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson; Gus Johnson; Sonny Johnson; Elvin Jones; Hank Jones; Papa Jo Jones; Philly Joe Jones; Thad Jones; Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra; Virgil Jones; Clifford Jordan; Duke Jordan; Connie Kay; Wynton Kelly; Barney Kessel; Joe Kennedy, Jr.; Alan Kiger; Willis Kirk; Lee Konitz; Gene Krupa; Steve Kuhn; Don Lamond; Cliff Lehman; Mel Lewis; John Lewis; Abby Lincoln; Booker Little; Mundell Lowe; Harold Mabern; Shelly Manne; Albert Mangelsdorf; Lawrence Marable; Charlie Mariano; Hugh Masekela; Johnny Mathis; Stu Martin; Ronnie Mathews; Lenny McBrowne; Larry McClellan; Brownie McGee; Howard McGhee; Dave McKenna; Jackie McLean; Marian McPartland; Charles McPherson; Carmen McRae; Mabel Mercer; Don Michaels; Walt Miller; Harold Minerve; Charles Mingus; Al Minns/Leon James; Blue Mitchell; Hank Mobley; Grachan Moncur III; Thelonious Monk Quartet; James Moody; Danny Moore; Buddy Montgomery; Monk Montgomery; Wes Montgomery; Lee Morgan; Benny Morton; Ray Mosca; J.C. Moses; Ray Nance; Phineas Newborn; David "Fathead" Newman; Joe Newman; Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars; Herbie Nichols; "Big Nick" Nicholas; Red Norvo; Jimmy Nottingham; Anita O'Day; Jimmy Owens; Buddy Parker; Leo Parker; Paul Parker; Donald Patterson; Cecil Payne; Freda Payne; Walter Perkins; Coleridge Taylor Perkinson; Charli Persip; Oscar Peterson Trio; Flip Phillips; Sonny Phillips; John Pierce; Bucky Pizzarelli; Al Plank; "The Platters"; Paul Plummer; Bernard "Pretty" Purdie; Sonny Redd (nee Sylvester Kyner); Dizzy Reece; Melvin Rhyne; Dannie Richmond; Ben Riley; Max Roach; Timmie Rogers; Sonny Rollins; Bobby Rosengarden; Charlie Rouse; Ernie Royal; "Rutgers/Livingston Jazz Professors"- Larry Ridley(Leader), Ted Dunbar, Kenny Barron, Frank Foster, Freddie Waits; Davey Schildkraut; Hazel Scott; Tony Scott; Don Shirley Trio; Woody Shaw; Wayne Shorter; Horace Silver Quintet (w/Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Roger Humphries, later Tyrone Washington); Zoot Sims; Pete (La Roca) Sims; Hal "Cornbread" Singer; Jimmy Smith; Willie "The Lion" Smith; Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra; Jimmy Spaulding; Marvin Stamm; Slam Stewart; Sonny Stitt; Clarence (Scobey) Strohman; Frank Strozier; John Stubblefield; Sun Ra Arkestra; Ralph Sutton; Lew Tabackin; Buddy Tate; Grady Tate; Arthur Taylor Jr.; Billy Taylor Trio, Les Taylor Jr., Coleridge Taylor-Perkinson, Clark Terry, Sonny Terry; Ed Thigpen; Bobby Thomas; Willie Thomas; Charles Toliver; Ross Tompkins; Tommy Turrentine; McCoy Tyner; Jerry Tyree; Earl VanRiper; Joe Venuti; Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson; Freddie Waits; Earl "Fox" Walker; Cedar Walton; James "Jabbo" Ware; Dinah Washington; Chuck Wayne; George Wein; Frank Wess; Randy Weston; Josh White; Joe Wilder; Cootie Williams; Earl Williams; Joe Williams; Richard Williams; Tony Williams; Larry Willis; Gerald Wilson; Phil Woods; Jimmy Wormworth; Richard Wyands; Cecil Young; David Young; Snooky Young; "Young Giants of Jazz" (Joe Henderson, Jimmy Owens, Gary Burton, Cedar Walton, Roy Haynes, & LR); Trummy Young; Kiane Zawadi; Attila Zoller; etc. Opening speech at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival "Humanity and the Importance of Jazz" "God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create - and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations. Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument. It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of "racial identity" as a problem for a multi-racial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these." Remembering Dr. Billy Taylor: His stature and accomplishments are monumental in the history of Jazz. He was one of my big brothers, my mentor, my guru, my fellow artist, teacher and friend. Dr. Billy Taylor is the number one multifaceted historical giant leader at the top of the Jazz Mountain." --- Dr. Larry Ridley |