Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia,[2] he studied violin, piano, trombone and voice in his early years in New Jersey.

[4] After studying at Howard, he spent time in New York City pursuing a career as a stand-up comedian and actor, as well as playing Fender Rhodes electric piano in a jazz-rock band ‘Winds of Change’.

It also resulted in an expansion of his mystic studies with such gurus as Swami Satchidananda and Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, founder of the Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York.

[9] In 2022, Laraaji joined with Medicine Singers—a group of Native American ritual performance artists in partnership with other artists—to play on their self-titled album.

In 2023, Pitchfork awarded Segue To Infinity "Best New Reissue" and declared that the album "should definitively put a nail in the coffin of the narrative of Laraaji as a street busker who was simply “discovered” by (Brian) Eno, instead cementing him as an preeminent figure in ambient and new-age music’s history.