Updated: April 7, 2024
Born: November, 1980
David Larsen is the director of instrumental studies at Spokane Falls Community College. He holds a PhD from Washington State University and degrees from Pacific University, University of Oregon, and Western Oregon University. David has been a presenter/performer for the Jazz Education Network, North American Saxophone Alliance, and several other conferences and festivals.
David is an active adjudicator and works with various festivals around the US.
David has performed with a variety of artists including Ken Peplowski, Francisco Torres, Dave Glenn, Ron Vincent, Bill Mays, Dean Johnson, and the internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist, Halie Loren.
David’s release, The Mulligan Chronicles (2021), is an homage of Gerry Mulligan and has received international radio play and rave reviews. Recently, David appeared on the Origin Records release New Normal (2021) by Greg Yasinitsky and was featured on the award-winning Halie Loren album Butterfly Blue (2015). Larsen’s previous releases include Borrowed Time (2018), One of a Kind (2016), and Night Shift (2016).
David is an active composer. His published works cover a wide variety of styles and genres. His compositions have won numerous awards including JW Peppers Editor’s Choice for 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. His music has been performed and recorded by a wide variety of groups around the U.S. and abroad.
His compositions and arrangements have been played by Washington State University, University of Oregon, and others around the country.
Awards
Applied Physics won Editor's Choice from JW Pepper 2018 Bright Days won Editor's Choice from JW Pepper 2019
Tags
All About Jazz Articles
David Larsen: Cohesion
by Jack Bowers
For Cohesion, baritone saxophonist David Larsen's tenth album as leader of his own ensemble, he chose as his teammates a quartet of East Coast musicians who so impressed him during a tour of the Northwest that he invited them back to his Seattle, Washington home base to take part in a workshop, play some gigs and ultimately record Cohesion with him. As it turns out, it was a splendid decision, as Larsen and the others, even though ...
read moreDavid Larsen: The Peplowski Project
by Jack Bowers
The Peplowski Project was a labor of love for saxophonist David Larsen, a longtime admirer of fellow reedman Ken Peplowski who sits in with Larsen's impressive quartet on each of the album's eleven numbers, playing clarinet on six, tenor saxophone on five. As for Larsen, he plays his Gerry Mulligan-flavored baritone sax on five of the session's first six numbers, then sets it aside in favor of the alto (on Al Cohn's “Jazz Line Blues"), tenor or ...
read moreTake Five with David Larsen
by AAJ Staff
Meet David Larsen David Larsen is a saxophonist, composer, and educator. He has performed with a variety of artists including Ken Peplowski, Francisco Torres, Dave Glenn, Ron Vincent, Bill Mays, Dean Johnson, and the internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist Halie Loren. Recently, Larsen appears on the Origin Records release New Normal (2021) by Greg Yasinitsky and was featured on the award winning Halie Loren album Butterfly Blue (2015). Larsen's previous releases include Borrowed Time (2018), One of a Kind (2016), and ...
read moreGreg Yasinitsky YAZZ Band: New Normal
by Jack Bowers
As one good album clearly deserves another, Greg Yasinitsky, who wears many hats—composer, arranger, woodwind specialist and educator among them—has released New Normal, the second impressive outing by his admirable Washington state-based ensemble, the YAZZ Band, which varies in size from septet to tentet. Unlike Yasinitsky's earlier album, YAZZ Band, which was recorded basically in one session with fixed personnel, the coronavirus pandemic upended any such plan this time, forcing an end to in-person studio sessions after five tracks had ...
read morePrimary Instrument
Saxophone, baritone
Location
Spokane
Willing to teach
Intermediate to advanced
Credentials/Background
David Larsen is the instrumental music director at Spokane Falls Community College. In addition to running large ensembles, David is an accomplished saxophonist and composer. David teaches lessons at the college as well as for students seeking to improve their skills on saxophone or as a composer and arranger. Skype lessons are okay.
Clinic/Workshop Information
David Larsen is an active adjudicator and clinician
Zoot Sims
saxophone, tenor
Paul Desmond
saxophone, alto
Stan Getz
saxophone, tenor
