Larry Ridley

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Larry Ridley (born September 3, 1937) is an American jazz bassist and music educator.

Ridley has recorded few sessions as leader; he is known primarily as a sideman. Artists that Ridley has toured, recorded, or performed with include Wes Montgomery, Hank Mobley, Freddie Hubbard, Slide Hampton, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Chet Baker, Dinah Washington, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan, Gerald Wilson, Clark Terry, Randy Weston, and George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars.

Larry Ridley was born and reared in Indianapolis, IN. He began performing professionally while still in high school in the 1950s. Ridley began his undergraduate education at the Indiana University School of Music and later transferred to New York University where he completed his Bachelor of Science degree in music education. His Master of Arts degree was earned at Empire State College of the State University of New York (SUNY). He has a Doctor of Performing Arts degree from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and is a Professor of Music, Emeritus at Rutgers University. During his tenure at Rutgers, Ridley structured the undergraduate and graduate degree programs in jazz performance. He continues to actively teach as Professor of Jazz Bass at the Manhattan School of Music.

Dr. Ridley served as chairman of the Jazz Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and was the organization's National Coordinator of the Jazz Artists in Schools Program for five years (1978-1982). Dr. Ridley is a recipient of the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation’s “Living Legacy Jazz Award”, an inductee of the International Association for Jazz Education Hall of Fame (IAJE) an inductee of the Downbeat Magazine Jazz Education Hall of Fame, a recipient of the Benny Golson Jazz Award from Howard University, and was honored by a Juneteenth 2006 Proclamation Award from the New York City Council.

Dr. Ridley is currently the Executive Director of the African American Jazz Caucus, Inc., an affiliate of IAJE. He is also the IAJE Northeast Regional Coordinator.

Dr. Ridley credits Dr. David Baker, another Indianapolis native and notable jazz musician, as one of his prime mentors.

Dr. Ridley is currently serving as Jazz Artist in Residence at the Harlem based New York Public Library/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He established an annual series there dedicated to presenting the compositions of jazz masters that are performed by Dr. Ridley and his Jazz Legacy Ensemble.