Otmaro Ruiz / Larry Koonse / Ahmet Türkmenoğlu / Jimmy Branly

Born into a musical family in Southern California, Larry Koonse has been playing the guitar since he was seven years old. In his early years he studied with legendary guitar master Jimmy Wyble, and at the age of fifteen he recorded an album with his father, guitarist Dave Koonse, entitled Dave and Larry Koonse; father and son jazz guitars. Larry was the first recipient of a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California in 1984. He has received numerous grammy nominations for his work with Billy Childs and Luciana Souza. He has also toured with Seth MacFarlane, Billy Childs, John Patitucci, David Friesen, Karrin Allyson, Bob Mintzer, Luciana Souza, Natalie Cole, Tierney Sutton, Peter Erskine, Hubert Laws, Bob Brookmeyer, and Warne Marsh. Having been featured on over 300 albums Larry has recorded with Cleo Laine, Al Hirt, Jimmy Rowles, Bob Brookmeyer, Luciana Souza, Lee Konitz, Larry Goldings, Mel Torme, Alan Broadbent, Ray Brown, Bill Perkins, Toots Thielemanns, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, David Friesen, Warne Marsh, Charlie Haden, Natalie Cole, Seth MacFarlane, and many other jazz artists. His solo guitar work was featured throughout “Crazy”, a feature film chronicling the life of the great guitarist Hank Garland. As a leader Larry has made nine recordings and his recent recording, Conversations, features the great pianist David Roitstein in a duo recording of mostly original compositions. Larry has been a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts since 1990.

Jimmy Branly was born in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in a rich musical environment of Cuban flavors. Jimmy’s professional career began at the young age of 15.  Jimmy started playing with "Cuarto Espacio”, Issac Delgado, NG La Banda, Gonzalo Rubalcava, Keiko Matsui, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, Rebeca Mauleon, Francisco Aguabella, Brandon Fields, Alan Pascua, Lyle Mays, Otmaro Ruiz, Abraham Laboriel, Michael Nezmith, Sheila E, Alex Acuna, Celia Cruz, Strunz  & Farah, Luis Conte, Justo Almario, Andy Narell, Carol Welsman, Jimmy Haslip, Russel Ferrante, Oscar Hernandez, Bob James, Dave Valentin, Don Grusin, Omar Sosa, Ken Pleplowski, Tom Scott, Ronnie Foster, John Patitucci, Bob Mintzer, Doc Severinsen, Bryan Linch, Cecilia Noel, Colin Hay & Men At Work, The LA Latin Jazz All Stars, Poncho Sanchez, Giovany Idalgo, Bill Cunliffe, Playing For Change.

All shows at Sam First are 21+ (no one under the age of 21 will be permitted)

Show Times: 7:30pm & 9:00pm, and a separate ticket is required for each show.

Notice of Recording: Sam First live streams and records all concerts. By entering Sam First, you understand that your image and/or voice might be included in those recordings. Sam First reserves the right to use any photography, video or audio recording taken at this event, without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.