Larry Grenadier was born February 6, 1966, in San Francisco, California, the brother of jazz trumpeter Phil Grenadier. His career began in the mid-1980s with the album Blues for Red as a member of Larry Vuckovich's quartet alongside Charles McPherson and Dusko Goykovich, and his early New York years included work with saxophone icons Joe Henderson, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, and Stan Getz.

The most enduringly fruitful relationship of Grenadier's career has been with pianist Brad Mehldau: the two formed a trio with drummer Jorge Rossy in 1994, debuting on record the following year, with Jeff Ballard replacing Rossy in 2005. Grenadier has also worked extensively with Pat Metheny, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, and with Paul Motian, co-leads the cooperative trio Fly with Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard, and co-leads the quartet Hudson with John Scofield, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, John Medeski, and Jack DeJohnette.

Praised by The New York Times as "a deeply intuitive" musician and by Bass Player magazine for his "fluid sense of melody," Grenadier issued his first album of unaccompanied bass solos, The Gleaners, on ECM Records in February 2019, featuring originals alongside readings of pieces by George Gershwin, John Coltrane, and Paul Motian, plus two works written especially for him by Wolfgang Muthspiel.

Grenadier's decades-long partnership with Brad Mehldau, alongside his extensive work with Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, and the cooperative groups Fly and Hudson, established him as one of the most trusted and versatile bassists of the contemporary post-bop scene, with The Gleaners demonstrating his standing as a solo voice in his own right.