Album Notes

Pianist Craig Larson was born in Preston, Idaho, to parents who encouraged his involvement with music at a very early age. At age fourteen he was playing regularly with his father's band--mostly for dances in the area where he learned a lot about about tempos and good, solid time. In 1965, at the age of 16, Larson won the prestigious "Benny Goodman Award" from Selmer Band Instruments and two years later played in the jazz quintet which represented the intermountain region at the National Collegiate Jazz Festival in St. Louis. Together with his trio and in other formats, Craig has performed in the Salt Lake area for the past 30 years. Craig has a definite predilection for American musical theater compositions and the popular songs of the 1920's, 30's and 40's and finds great satisfaction in adding his own distinctive harmonies and rhythmic nuances to their familiar melodies. Indeed, one of Craig's lifelong goals has been to perpetuate the music of the great American songwriters through the medium of acoustic, rhythmic jazz-the kind of toe-tapping, accessible music that puts smiles on faces. In 1997 Craig released his first CD, "Classic Standards", with bassist Jeff Campbell, drummer Bob Campbell and guitar great Frank Vignola. In March of 2002, Craig, joined by his son Matt Larson on bass and yet another of the world's great guitarists, Ron Eschete, released a second CD, "Legacy".

Bassist Matt Larson, at age 26 is the "youngster" of the trio. But his roots in jazz run deep and he plays with great maturity and savy. He holds a bachelors degree in jazz composition from the University of Utah and has played professionally in the Salt Lake City area since he was 13.

Guitarist Ron Eschete, is perhaps best known for his work with the Gene Harris Quartet, although he has played with a long list of other jazz greats and is in high demand as a soloist and leader as well as the consummate side man. Ron is an extremely gifted guitarist-one of those rare "complete package" players who works for the group not for his own ego. His musicality, harmonic sense and feel for the blues are about as good as it gets.