Larry Gootkin Music & Entertainment
San Fernando Valley Wedding Entertainment16921 Ventura Blvd
Encino, CA 91316
Phone: 818/885-5551
www.larrygootkin.com
Email or request a proposal for your event from Larry Gootkin Music & Entertainment
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Service Area: Southern California, will travel
About This Company
Larry Gootkin almost never hears his favorite compliment directly. It’s usually whispered to the bride or the groom during one of the weddings where he emcees and performs: “How does this band leader know you so well? You’ve hidden your musician friend from us all these years!” Comments like these are music to Larry’s ears, because he makes it his business to make every wedding personal. So personal, in fact, that people mistake him for a family friend. So personal that generation after generation (three generations is the record, so far) in the same family hire him. Why? “He reads and leads the audience through the event,” says a top event designer. “Plus, he plays a lot of hot stuff.”
Musician extraordinaire and suave master of ceremonies, Larry knows what’s hot and what’s not. The son of a veteran violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he has music in his genes. At age twelve, he was already working professionally as a singer and a guitarist—you couldn’t keep him off the stage. At the same time, he formed the Town Criers, a five-piece band that sings four-part harmony. Unlike most teenage bands that dissolve within months of inception, this one has continued for over two decades. No wonder it delivers such a consistently good sound—the band members rarely change, working together for years at a time.
During his career Larry has developed a repertoire that includes swing, jazz, rock, country, disco, ethnic music, pop, reggae and rap. He’s also established a solid network of professional musicians, giving him easy access to a solo pianist or harpist for a small affair and enabling him to add musicians to his own group to create a big band sound. “I’d give him a high recommendation for having one of the finest bands in the city,” says an event planner with a critical ear. “They’re capable of playing all kinds of music and playing it well.” Larry also knows how to make the music an integral part of the wedding. “When you work with Larry,” adds a luxury hotel catering director, “you know the event will go smoothly.”
After devoting so much of his life to the music business, Larry understands how to make every wedding memorable. “People remember two things about a wedding,” he says. “That they had a good time and that there was something unusual or different about it.” Larry takes care of the “good time” factor himself. He pays constant attention to the audience, and his experienced musicians can instantly adjust to mood swings or different tastes. At one wedding, for instance, the bride and groom had requested hours of disco, selecting a long list of their favorite songs. But thirty seconds into the first tune, the floor cleared. Without missing the proverbial beat, Larry and his orchestra subtly segued into a pastiche of swing and pop music, delighting the audience and bringing back the dancers—including a relieved bride and groom. As for creating something “unusual or different,” Larry encourages the bride and groom to personalize the event, with aunt Louise reading an ode or college buddy Rick delivering his best wishes in rap.
Larry’s clients number in the thousands (including celebrities like Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Scorcese, Danny De Vito and Robin Williams), but they all have one thing in common: they cherish his talent, energy and professionalism. “He’s a wonderful guy…what a personality! I’m using him myself,” says a top wedding coordinator. “In all honesty, there are not a lot of Larry Gootkins in the world.”
In Business Since 1966
818/885-5551
www.larrygootkin.com
Email or request a proposal for your event from Larry Gootkin Music & Entertainment
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