Larry Baeder – musician, teacher, leader, rock-star
Larry Baeder A Link In The Chain
Larry and his twins at the Green Parrot back in 2011 – Max is six foot tall!
Larry Baeder is a consummate figure in the Key West music scene. Charlie Bauer, then manager of the Hog’s Breath Saloon, brought Larry and a full band that included Chris Clifton and Wayne Hammond to Key West just before Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Larry returned to Key West, performing often. After 9/11, his opportunities dried up in New York and he moved here full time.
During the past 24 years, Larry has become an active member of the music scene, a teacher, a community leader, and long-time affiliate of the Bahama Village Music Program (BVMP). In 2011, he asked me to come by and photograph the Joyful Voices Choir knowing as soon as I saw all those smiling children’s faces, I would be hooked like he was. He was right.
We have both been members of the board of directors and past presidents of the organization (Larry is the current president). It’s an amazing program that has produced some very good young musicians that have gone on to become good citizens of our community.
Larry helped BVMP expand their program beyond the existing Joyful Voices choir. He trained the first BVMP Jazz Ensemble, and later, encouraged the formation of the School of Rock, Suzuki Strings, Ukulele Orchestra, and House of Pan (steel pan drums). He has taught music theory and improvisation classes almost every year. Prior to Covid-19, BVMP taught music to over 220 children weekly for free.
In 1979, Larry graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It’s one of the most prestigious music colleges in the nation. Some call it the Harvard of music schools.
Larry’s association with Danny “Mo” Morris (now professor at Berklee) helped him to connect BVMP directly to the college. Berklee now provides two scholarships for their five-week summer program to BVMP students and continuous access to their online Berklee Pulse Program.
From Larry’s perspective, “You can’t play American music without feeling you’re a link in the chain”. A musician needs the understanding of musical history – not just who played what or when, but an understanding of the subtle and not so subtle intricacies, and sometimes slight differences, that separates musicians from one another. Most importantly needed is an appreciation and thirst to learn those differences. Without that, Larry feels you’re just a music technician.
Ben Harrison, Bill Blue, and Larry Baeder together at the Green Parrot.
Larry’s beautiful twins Max and Julia were students at BVMP learning music, performing in several ensembles, and later as student teachers. They have grown up and moved away but return often and are still very close to their father.
Larry has been pushing the envelope a little hard for a 71-year-old. He suffered a stroke in September and another one on Monday, October 19. He is currently in Baptist Hospital in Kendall. The doctors are determining the extent and complications from his stroke. His longtime partner Kim Pucik is by his side and providing updates to his many friends.
The information Kim is getting from the doctors includes an MRI taken a few days ago that shows multiple ischemic strokes to the left side of his brain. When he is awake, he seems to have full dexterity. Kim asked him to “show me that finger trick.” I remember he’d do this before every guitar lesson. He nailed it perfectly.
Kim recently posted “Tonight he was hallucinating again but he thought he was at a gig and sang a five-song set, nailed the lyrics & scatted the solos – the Music is still there! The nurse was kinda freaked out at first but became a fan during “ain’t no sunshine”.
He is very weak and cannot stand on his own. All of his many friends and music fans have their fingers crossed. Fellow guitarist Jesse Wagner started a GoFundMe that will be needed to help his rehabilitation please consider a contribution.
One of the things that made Key West so attractive to Larry is our warm sense of community – how we come together as “One Human Family.” Larry would always say when someone is hurt or in need, the music community always turns out to perform for a fundraiser. Larry has volunteered for countless fundraisers and supported the non-profit BVMP for over a decade. Those words now sound so prophetic regarding this amazing musician and friend.
I keep hearing some of Larry’s cornball jokes in the back of my head. He was always making light of himself and wisecracking situations in the corniest way possible. Please say a prayer for my corny friend’s full recovery.
Full disclosure, Larry Baeder is one of my best friends and is currently teaching this author ‘the art of the guitar’, hopefully to become another link in the chain.
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