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Larry Coryell
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell's definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he's done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion, light pop and guitar duos and trios with some of the top names in jazz.
Born April 2, 1943 in Galveston, Texas, Coryell grew up in Richland, Wash., and got his musical start in the Seattle rock and pop scene. He also studied classical guitar, and developed his jazz chops after moving to New York City in 1965. He played with groups led by Chico Hamilton and Gary Burton before starting his own bands. In 1973, he formed The 11th House with Randy Brecker, Mike Mandel, Danny Trifan and Alphonse Mouzon, and their debut, Introducing The 11th House, was one of the pioneer jazz-rock fusion albums.
In a 1997 interview, Coryell told journalist/musician Mike Starling about the atmosphere that led jazz players to experiment with rock music: "Today, everybody loves straight-ahead jazz, but during that time, straight- ahead jazz was a little flat compared to all the exciting things that were going on in rock and pop music," he said. "I mean, barriers were being broken down right and left, icons were being smashed. I remember going into (a club) and hearing a very, very, very famous guy - I won't say who it was - play 'Round Midnight' and it just sounded boring as hell to me. But that passed. After the exciting part of the fusion era died off, straight-ahead started sounding better again."
Three years and four albums later, the group disbanded, and Coryell focused for a while on acoustic guitar, recording a series of solo, duo and trio sessions with guitarists such as Joe Beck, Steve Khan, Emily Remler and Philip Catherine. Later acoustic outings included a tour with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia under the name The Guitar Trio - a film called Meeting of Spirits documented their concerts.
Not that Coryell ever strayed far from the electric. He reunited with Mouzon in the Coryell/Mouzon Band in the late ’70s. In the ’80s, he participated in a five-way guitar session with John Scofield, Larry Carlton, John Abercrombie and Tal Farlow, one of his early jazz heroes. In the 1990s, he recorded a series of albums geared for the smooth jazz market - a move that he later called “too limiting.” In 1997 he reunited with drummer Billy Cobham (with whom he recorded the fusion album Spaces 23 years earlier) on a session called Spaces Revisited.
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2000-2004 with Alain Caron, Gebe Lake, Tony McAlpine and Jeff Berlin
by Len Davis
2000-2004 continued with Alain Caron, drummer Gene Lake, bassist Kai Eckhardt and Stuart Hamm. Guitarist Tony McAlpine, the band Karizma, Jeff Berlin and Larry Coryell-Victor Bailey-Lenny White from Electric. Playlist Alain Caron “Baby Step" from Call Me Al (Las Productioins) 00:00 Gene Lake “Face Da Funk" from Cycles (Passin' Thru) 7:36 Kai Eckhardt “Melting Pot" from Honour, Simplicity, Respect The Flow (Naim Audio)15:12 Stuart Hamm “Castro Hustle" from Outbound (Favoured Nations) 22:52 Tony McAlpine “City Beneath The Sea" from Chromaticity ...
Continue ReadingLarry Coryell's Souls Dirge
by Michael Ricci
Mike Jakobs' recommendation of Michael Shrieve's “Palace Of Dreams“ immediately made me think of Larry Coryell's “Souls Dirge" from Fairlyland (live from Montreux, 1971) with Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie. Sounds even better on pink vinyl. Jam on! ...
Continue ReadingLarry Coryell: Improvisations: Best of the Vanguard Years
by Josef Woodard
There have been many smoother operators in the world of jazz guitar than Larry Coryell, the brainy rough rider who was a natural-born fusioneer, in the best sense. There have been cleaner technicians on the instrument, with a more lucid sense of identity and careers that have followed a logical, rolling landscape. But not many have quite attained Coryell's strange, madly eclectic state of grace: into music he came, he saw and heard things not yet articulated, he conquered on ...
Continue ReadingChico Hamilton: The Dealer
by Zachary Weg
Although it came out in 1966, Chico Hamilton's The Dealer (Impulse! Records) still sounds as fresh as Long Beach mist. Leading a quartet that introduced the late guitar virtuoso Larry Coryell and which placed saxophone master Archie Shepp on piano, drummer Hamilton made a record that both showcased his fellow jazz princes and radiated his signature charm. He also crafted an as-yet-unheralded, unexpectedly resonant work of art. Hamilton, who played in high school with Charles Mingus and ...
Continue ReadingLarry Coryell & Philip Catherine: The Last Call
by Phillip Woolever
ACT Music released this exceptional concert recording four years to the day after the February 19, 2017 death of 73-year old master guitarist Larry Coryell. The album documents a sensational set Coryell played with the equally skillful Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine at the Berlin Philharmonic. The event was an unplanned but fitting conclusion to their series of collaborations that began at the same location some forty-five years before. The sound dynamics and song selections create a vivid testimonial of musical ...
Continue ReadingLarry Coryell: Larry Coryell's Last Swing With Ireland
by Ian Patterson
In his latter life, Larry Coryell was a frequent visitor to Ireland, where he would invariably hitch up with bassist David Redmond and drummer Kevin Brady, the esteemed rhythm team for the likes of Tommy Halferty, Bill Carrothers, Norma Winstone and Ian Shaw. In May 2016, during Coryell's last trip to Ireland, he entered Dublin's Hellfire Studios, with Redmond and Brady, to record what would be his final studio album. At around forty-five minutes in duration, Larry Coyell's Last Swing ...
Continue ReadingChet Baker / Wolfgang Lackerschmid: Quintet Session
by Chris May
Quintet Session is the second of two albums the trumpeter Chet Baker recorded in Stuttgart, Germany with the vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid in 1979. It was originally released as Chet Baker / Wolfgang Lackerschmid (Sandra Music, 1980). The combination worked well on the first session, which produced the lovely Ballads For Two (Sandra Music, 1979), and almost as well on the second session, nine months later. The fly in the ointment second time out was Baker's German tour ...
Continue ReadingJazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell's definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he's done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion, light pop and guitar duos and ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell's definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he's done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion, light pop and guitar duos and ...
read more
Larry Coryell and Ralph Towner: First Videos
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Late yesterday afternoon, I heard from Kristian St. Clair, a filmmaker whose work includes This Is Gary McFarland, a superb documentary on the composer-arranger (more here and here). Kristian tells me he is busy on a new film project about Seattle jazz multi-instrumentalist Chuck Mahaffay. In the process, he said, he came across what he says are likely the earliest known videos and first gigs of guitarists Larry Coryell and Ralph Towner in the early 1960s. Given the hacking cough ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell's definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he's done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion, light pop and guitar duos and ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell's definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he's done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion, light pop and guitar duos and ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell\'s definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he\'s done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion... Read more.
Place our Musician of ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell\'s definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he\'s done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion... Read more.
Place our Musician of ...
read more
World Premiere Of Larry Coryell’s Last Opera in Kaluga, Russia
Source:
Roman Miroshnichenko
The 20th international World Of Guitar music festival took place on May 22-26, 2017 in Kaluga, Russia. This year, at the festival’s opening, Larry Coryell’s last opera, based on Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina was presented. The world premiere was dedicated to Larry Coryell, the “godfather of fusion," who passed away in New York in February. Mr. Coryell worked on the opera until his final days and it was completed posthumously by his friends and collaborators Roman Miroshnichenko and Nenad ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Larry Coryell
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Larry Coryell's birthday today!
Musician magazine named him to its list of 100 greatest guitarists alive today, and after releasing more than 60 albums as a leader and playing on dozens more as a sideman in the last 40 years, Larry Coryell\'s definitely earned that honor. Exploring the sound of the six- string in an extraordinary number of settings, he\'s done straight-ahead jazz, classical-influenced solo guitar, funk- rock fusion... Read more.
Place our Musician of ...
read more
Larry Coryell in Cologne: 1994
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1994, Larry Coryell was in Cologne, Germany, and gave a superlative performance, with French guitarist Bireli Lagrene and the mighty Hungarian bassist Aladár Pege. Fortunately the concert was captured by German television. The results not only are blissful to hear but you really get to see what jazz is all about—the warm intimate improvisational conversation between good friends. A special thanks to Jimi Mentis for sending along the link What a glorious way to end the week and pay ...
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