Larry Koenigsberg

I was exposed to jazz primarily by my high school classmates, some of whom had careers as jazz musicians. And many others were fans and/or other sorts of musicians, who put me on to a lot. I didn't much understand jazz until I had a few lessons on piano, an instrument that I did not play at all until I was 20 or so, from my neighbor Nancy Guy — I owe her so much! But once I could play lead sheets and improvise on them, rudimentarily to be sure, it all made sense to me. I also had a couple of piano lessons each from Meredith D'Ambrosio (at the time living in Eugene) and my son, Toby Koenigsberg. I had about twenty years experience as a volunteer DJ on KLCC/Eugene, initially classical music and then jazz. This introduced me to many artists of whom I'd known little or nothing previously, like Jeanne Lee, Walt Dickerson, Paul Bley. I modeled my shows on the album title "From Ragtime to No Time." My son and his wife gave me a subscription to the old Cadence Review: Jazz & Blues / Creative Improvised Music, which deepened my acquaintance with the discography and the performers's voices.