Larry Pattis' Biography

Named one of the "Top 10 Best Acoustic Music Artists of the Decade" by the International Acoustic Music Awards, Larry Pattis has been a featured headline performer at such illustrious venues as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Millennium Stage in Washington DC.

Pattis, a Chicago native, experienced music in his early years listening to his father sing (and singing along) during family car rides (and at every other family gathering), and in listening to such diverse music as Bach & Mozart, Allan Sherman, Benny Goodman, and more on the hi-fi at his grandparent's apartment on the near-north side of Chicago. It wasn't until his senior year of high school that he chanced upon solo steel-string and classical acoustic guitar music.

Smitten with folk and classical guitar music, Pattis also discovered the still-thriving greater Chicago folk music scene at clubs such as The Earl Of Old Towne, Amazing Grace and moreā€¦and he found himself influenced as much by the touring singer-songwriters as he was the guitar music itself. He began performing in the local coffeehouses of Bloomington, IN during his college years.

The Montreal International Jazz Festival said, "Larry Pattis blends the emotional commitment of folk and the prowess of classical, a harmonious union of beauty, melody, nuance and technique that demand- and reward- serious listening."

Yet, beyond the words and accolades, in listening to his superb recordings or experiencing the magic of a live concert, Pattis succeeds in merging styles of instrumental guitar music not normally found together in the same room. Both Folk and Classical styles are fully represented within Larry's playing and compositions. His musical vision is a blending of emotive beauty with technique, to bring forth the many voices that the steel string guitar can manifest; his goal is to delight the audience with landscape and mood of the life experiences that are the foundation of his music.