People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Larry Marotta

Larry Marotta is a guitarist and composer based in Columbus, Ohio. He is best known for his performances of free improvised music that combine his wide range of musical interests, odd sense of humor, and passion for sound as sound. In the past few years, he has performed in Chicago, New York City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Miami Beach.

In addition to exploring music on the fringe, he has also played with hip-hop group Poets of Heresy, surf trio Porterhouse, free-form rock band Schtick, and modernist jazz ensemble Honk, Wail and Moan, as well as giving solo concerts of traditional ragtime fingerstyle guitar.

For the last several years, he has been involved in the scoring of classic silent films. He has scored the Douglas Fairbanks short The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1917), which is part of a DVD release, produced by Kino International, of the Fairbanks film The Gaucho (1927).

Larry is strongly committed to creating a world-class new music scene in his home city. He promotes new music shows at the MadLab theater. He also runs his own CD label, Gramajones Records. His next release will be a recording of solo acoustic guitar improvisations. Also in the works is a CD of duets with North Carolina guitarist Bret Hart.

Larry Marotta was born in New Jersey but raised in Miami, Florida. His professional musician father exposed him to a steady diet of jazz and standards, but it wasn’t until he heard the band Kiss that Larry decided to take up guitar. Except for a year and a half of lessons in his early teens, he is primarily self-taught.

After discovering British progressive rock band King Crimson in his early teens, he began an exploration of more experimental music styles that continues to this day. While in college in the late 80s, he became actively involved in the Miami punk and new music scene.

After receiving his BA in Philosophy from Florida Atlantic University in 1989, Larry relocated to Columbus where he currently lives with his wife Becky Sicking and their daughter Kate.

References: Larry Marotta.