Larry Ritchie (born March 5, 1932) [1] [2] was an American jazz drummer and record/CD producer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York as Lawrence Ritchie to Walter Ritchie, an electrician, and Pearl Ritchie, a domestic worker, both of whom were migrants from rural Virginia.
Ritchie has recorded with John Coltrane, [3] Ray Draper, and Jackie McLean. Examples of his jazz work are provided by McLean's Strange Blues (1957) and Freddie Redd's Music from The Connection (1960). [4]
Ritchie was also a talented painter and by the mid-1960s, he devoted more of his time to painting than to music.
With John Coltrane
With Ray Draper
With Jackie McLean
With Freddie Redd
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in the year of their death.
Raymond Allen Draper was an American jazz tuba player.
William Franklin Hardman Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop. He was married to Roseline and they had a daughter Nadege.
Arthur S. Taylor Jr. was an American jazz drummer, who "helped define the sound of modern jazz drumming".
Douglas Watkins was an American jazz double bassist. He was best known for being an accompanist to various hard bop artists in the Detroit area, including Donald Byrd and Jackie McLean.
Webster English Young was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist.
Freddie Redd was an American hard-bop pianist and composer. He is best known for writing music to accompany The Connection (1959), a play by Jack Gelber. According to Peter Watrous, writing in The New York Times: "Mr. Redd hung out at jam sessions in the 1950s and played with many of the major figures, Sonny Rollins to Art Blakey, and worked regularly with Charles Mingus. When things got tough, he just moved on, living in Guadalajara, Mexico, and in Paris and London."
Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet, also known as Quintet/Sextet is a studio album by trumpeter Miles Davis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson released by Prestige Records in August of 1956. It was recorded on August 5, 1955. Credited to "Miles Davis and Milt Jackson", this was an "all-star" session, and did not feature any of the members of Davis's working group of that time. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean appears on his own compositions “Dr. Jackle” and “Minor Apprehension”.
The Believer is a jazz album by John Coltrane released in 1964 on Prestige Records, catalogue 7292. It was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1957 and 1958.
The Connection is a 1959 play by Jack Gelber. It was first produced by the Living Theatre, directed by Living Theatre co-founder Judith Malina, and designed by co-founder Julian Beck. The play has a play-within-a-play format, with characters Jim Dunn as the "producer" and Jaybird as the "writer" attempting to stage a production about the underbelly of society using "real" addicts. Some of the addicts are jazz musicians. They all have one thing in common: they are waiting for their drug dealer, their "connection". The dialogue of the characters is interspersed with jazz music. The music for the original production was composed by jazz pianist Freddie Redd.
The Music From "The Connection" is an album of music composed by jazz pianist Freddie Redd for Jack Gelber's 1959 play The Connection. This first recording of the music was released on the Blue Note label in 1960. It features performances by Redd, Jackie McLean, Michael Mattos, and Larry Ritchie.
Jimmy "Spanky" DeBrest was an American jazz bassist.
Julian Euell was an American jazz bassist.
Gil Coggins was an American jazz pianist.
George Andrew Tucker was an American jazz double-bassist.
Shades of Redd is an album by American pianist Freddie Redd recorded in 1960 and released on the Blue Note label.
Redd's Blues is an album by the American pianist Freddie Redd, recorded in 1961 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1988.
Strange Blues is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean, recorded in 1957 and released on the Prestige label. It features three tracks with McLean in a quartet featuring pianist Jon Mayer, bassist Bill Salter and drummer Larry Ritchie, one with a quartet featuring pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Art Phipps and drummer Art Taylor and one with a quartet featuring pianist Gil Coggins, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Louis Hayes. Trumpeter Webster Young and tuba player Ray Draper appear together on two tracks.
Benjamin Alexander Riley Jr. was an American jazz drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ahmad Jamal, and as a member of the group Sphere. During the 1970s and 1980s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet.
Fat Jazz, also referred to as Jackie McLean Plays Fat Jazz, is an album by American saxophonist Jackie McLean, which was recorded in late 1957 and released by the Jubilee label in 1959. It features McLean in a sextet with trumpeter Webster Young, tuba player Ray Draper, pianist Gil Coggins, bassist George Tucker and drummer Larry Ritchie.