Career
Early career
Larkin was an autodidact on the trumpet, and got his start playing in Texas in the 1930s with Chester Boone and Giles Mitchell. Between 1936 and 1943 he led his own band, touring the southwest United States, with gigs in Kansas City, and at the Apollo Theater in New York City, as well as a 9-month residency at the Rhumboogie Café in Chicago, on occasions coinciding there with, and backing, T-Bone Walker. Personnel in the band included Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet (both of whom went on to join Lionel Hampton), Eddie Vinson (who left to join Cootie Williams), Tom Archia, Cedric Haywood, Wild Bill Davis, Alvin Burroughs, Joe Marshall and Roy Porter.
Vinson and Cobb had been with the band since its creation at the Aragon Ballroom in Houston in 1936.
Having already lost several members to the draft board, Larkin disbanded the group when he himself entered the Army. From 1943 to 1946, he played in Sy Oliver"s army band, also playing on trombone.
Larkin first recorded after leaving the service, recording with a number of ensembles over the next decade. In 1956, he moved to New York and led a septet at the Celebrity Club.
In the 1970s he returned to Houston and retired.
Later career
He was the recipient of the Jefferson Award for community service and performed regularly on the Annual Houston Jazz Festival and the Annual Juneteenth Blues Festival in Houston. Milt Larkin was featured in a documentary which was produced and aired on Public Broadcasting Service called The Bigfoot Swing. Although he suffered from Alzheimer"s disease in the last few years of his life, he performed flawlessly at the Milt Larkin birthday bash on October 10, 1994 for his 84th birthday.