Larry Ochs

by Joslyn LayneSaxophonist Larry Ochs was born in N.Y.C. in 1949. Although he studied the trumpet a bit, he is most accomplished on the tenor and sopranino saxophones. Ochs has experience in musical production, as well, having founded Metalanguage Records in 1978, and owned and operated northern California's Twelve Stars Studio. A co-founder of the world-renowned saxophone quartet Rova, Ochs has received Meet the Composer grants from across the U.S. and commissions from various programs throughout the '80s and '90s (including the year-long festival Antwerpen '93). He composed music for Leslie Scalapino's play Goya's L.A. (1994) and for the film Letters Not About Love, winner of the 1998 South by Southwest Film Festival's best documentary film. Ochs was a founding member of the Glenn Spearman Double Trio (Black Saint) and is a member of the new music trio Room. Still active in Rova, he also played in What We Live, a trio that released three albums by the end of the '90s. Ochs formed his Sax & Drums Core as the millenium turned, releasing Neon Truth on his own imprint in 2002 and then moved to Atavistic for 2007's Up from Under.