Larry Harlow

by Max SalazarWas infuenced by father Buddy Kahn Harlow, a bassist. Began piano studies at age five. Wanted to be a jazz pianist until he first heard the mambo while attending Music and Art High School during the early 1950s. During the 1964 Flushing Queens Worlds Fair, Harlow played piano for Johnny Pachecos conjunto before creating the Larry Harlow orchestra. Heavily influence by the Arsenio Rodriquez sound, Harlow modernized it and was hailed a disciple of El Ciegito Maravilloso (The Marvelous Blind One) and was dubbed El Judio Maravilloso (The Marvelous Jew). After Arsenios death on December 31, 1970, Harlow emotionally moved the Latin music world with the Fania album Tribute to Arsenio Rodriquez in 1971. This was the best recording to the year. Two years later Harlow made headlines again with his Fania album Hommy, A Latin opera, which was staged at Carnegie Hall.