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PROGRAM NOTES
In today’s VINYL VIBRATIONS podcast, we explore jazz guitarist and composer Larry Coryell.
INTRO TO “LARRY CORYELL”:
Larry Coryell was born in 1943 in Galveston. He is an american jazz fusion guitarist. A long background as a musician, he played in local bands in Texas and later in the Seattle area. He moved to NYC in 1965 – age 22 – and was part of Chico Hamilton’s quartet. In the late 1960s he recorded with jazz vibraphonist great, great Gary Burton. He also played in the band Free Spirits. He formed his own group, The Eleventh House, in 1973. Later in the 1970s in 1979, Coryell formed “The Guitar Trio” with jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin and flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. Coryell’s music combined influences and styles of rock, jazz and eastern. That eastern influence was not doubt a result of his interest in the spiritual leader Sri Chimnoy. Coryell’s discography is impressive. As leader, there are 36 albums, and as sideman, there are many other albums. This podcast follows Larry Coryell’s work from a rich time in his younger years, 1968-1975, or from age 25-32, recording in New York City for Vanguard Apostolic, Mega records and Arista.
In today’s podcast we will hear six of Larry Coryell’s best !! Starting with…
- M1 Song Treats Style Album Lady Coryell
- M2 Song After Later Album Larry Coryell at the Village Gate
- M3 Song Further Explorations for Albert Stinson Album Fairyland
- M4 Song Low-Lee-Tah Album Introducing the Eleventh House w Larry Coryell
- M5 Song Pavane For A Dead Princess Album The Restful Mind
- M6 Song Level One Album Level One Album Artist Eleventh House featuring Larry Coryell
M1 Song Treats Style Album Lady Coryell. Album Artist Larry Coryell. Composer Jim Garrison
Larry Coryell was just 25 when this album was recorded in 1968. It is his first album as a leader.By now, LC had recorded two albums with vibraphonist Gary Burton, in his group The Free Spirits. Decades of collaboration would follow between LC and jazz-great Burton, king of the four-mallet style, on jazz vibes. And now in 1968, two more jazz masters are with Coryell – – Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums … guest artists on this album. Bassist and song composer Garrison played as a sideman with the John Coltrane classic quartet — along with pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones, from 1962-1967. Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones formed the “rhythm section” of the John Coltrane Quartet. They gave bold physicality to Coltrane, due to the focused intensity of their rhythm section. You will hear that focused intensity of the rhythm section on this song. This rhythm machine, plus Coryell’s licks provide an outstanding TRIO performance. And there is a Milestone Event for Coryell …on this song, “Treats Style”, Coryell takes his first guitar solo!! Larry Coryell’s blues guitar signature is imitated but never duplicated, such as his solo here in TREATS STYLE. This is great early LC, in his formative years, in the 1960s, as jazz guitarist, composer, arranger and co-producer. The album was produced by David Weiss and LC. Treats Style, was composed by the bassist, Jimmy Garrison, who was 35 at the time of this album. By Vanguard Apostolic. Year 1969
Featuring the trio – – –
- Larry Coryell guitar
- Jim Garrison Bass
- Elvin Jones drums
M2 Song After Later, Album Larry Coryell at the Village Gate, Album Artist Larry Coryell, Composer Larry Coryell, Year 1971, By Vanguard Recording Society
Featuring
- Larry Coryell guitar
- Mervin Bronson bass
- Harry Wilkinson drums
Larry Coryell is almost 28 at the time of this show at the Village Gate in NYC. After Later is a jazz-rock guitar instrumental, done, in 10/4 time. On this song we have the driven lead guitar jazz rock style of LC, with distortion and feedback effects.
Some of that overdrive is the unique combination of LC’s choice of what is typically a jazz guitar, a hollow-bodied Gibson ES-185 guitar, very sympathetic to stage vibration, such as from Coryell’s amplifier, feeding back into the guitar body. We also hear the use of the wah-pedal later in the lead guitar and even some guitar-shredding style is heard, to produce those ferocious 16th or 32nd note flurries. And finally, the bending of the notes – owed to blues and rock.
I hear a bit of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in this song. A historical note, Hendrix had died just months before this show, in September of 1970. Maybe it’s my imagination, the connection from Hendrix into Coryell’s powerful lead lines in this song, After Later.
Melodic and powerful. This is an early combination of a jazz-type of guitar (such as the gibson ES-185) and rock-like effects, like guitar overdrive, feedback and a strong rhythm section supplied by bass and drums to 10/4. This was early Jazz Rock and very exciting, Coryell was definitely on to something, and breaking new ground with this unique guitar sound. This is a jazz format, with the song intro and ending using a formal theme, and the “in between” segment, containing a lengthy guitar improvisation supplied by Coryell. It’s not unlike a fine novel, propped up by two book-ends.
I would have loved to be at that show in 1971, “Larry Coryell at the Village Gate”, New York City. What was I doing. I was a freshman in college…and I had to get my hands on this incredible live album, his fifth album.
I missed the show, but I have played this song, After Later, EASILY a hundred …maybe two hundred or more times !
M3 Song Further Explorations for Albert Stinson, Album Fairyland ,Album Artist Larry Coryell, Composer Larry Coryell, Year 1971 recorded live at Montreux Switzerland, By Mega Records & Tapes
Featuring
- Larry Coryell guitar
- Chuck Rainey Bass
- Pretty Purdie Drums
Coryell is 28 at the is time of this live album, released in 1971. The album was recorded at Montreux, Switzerland. This is again a trio. Again, you can hear Coryell’s large hollow-bodied electric guitar. From the album cover, it appears to be a Gibson ES-185, a very LARGE electric guitar indeed.
Albert Stinson was a American jazz double-bassist who worked with Larry Coryell in 1967-1969. He was nicknamed “sparky” because of his huge, bright tone, and aggressive attack. Stinson died in 1969, of a heroin overdose, while on tour with Coryell. Stinson was 24. His bass playing with Coryell can be found on another 1969 Vanguard album titled “Coryell”, where he supplies the bass tracks for two of the album’s seven cuts. Bassist Chuck Rainey supplies the other bass tracks for the album. And here, on today’s show, from the Fairyland album, Chuck Rainey performs on Further Explorations for Albert Stinson, the song, no doubt, is a tribute to this promising young bassist.
This time period was a particularly TRAGIC one for the music world, with MANY prominent artists lost in the three years of 1969, 1970 and 1971, including Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Albert Stinson, the subject of this song, Jimi Hendrix, Alan ‘Blind Owl’ Wilson of Canned Heat, Janice Joplin, Jim Morrison of the Doors, and Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band.
M4 Song Low-Lee-Tah, Album Introducing the Eleventh House w Larry Coryell, Album Artist Larry Coryell, Composer Larry Coryell, Year 1974, By Vanguard Recording Society
Featuring
- Larry Coryell guitar
- Randy Brecker trumpet
- Alphonse Mouzon percussion
- Mike Mandel piano & synth
- Danny Trifan bass
Coryell is 31 at the time of this album, in 1974.
He had created the group Eleventh House in 1973 —and it was active for 3 years. The Eleventh House was a change in format for Coryell. He does create a new sound with Eleventh House. Coryell composes this angular, Mahavishnu sounding piece. It’s a rock instrumental, with off beats, improvisation for guitar and trumpet. Earlier, Coryell had played in a trio format, such as from the three albums we heard earlier, LADY CORYELL, LIVE AT THE VILLAGE GATE, and FAIRYLAND. Eleventh House will add two parts to the trio format. In addition to the trio’s bass-drums-guitar, we add the keyboard-synth of Mike Mandel, and Trumpet of Randy Brecker. Pretty cool. A trumpet part that can drive just as fast, and just as strong as the HOUSE’s lead guitar part. Brecker’s trumpet sound is reminiscent of Miles Davis with reverb, and a mix of melodic lines with …angular lines..The percussionist, Alphonse Mouzon gives a command performance. Alphonse Mouzon was supplied courtesy of Blue Note Records. This is a jazz format, with a long middle section of improvisation. Coryell composed this angular, Mahavishnu sounding piece. The song is in mixed time. It’s approximately 4/4, but rhythm is broken into segments having 8-beats measures, followed by several 6+8 beat measures. It’s a pretty catchy rhythm, more of the cerebral level of appeal, a sophisticated style and sound, that sets it apart from anyone else on the jazz-rock scene. Coryell uses pedal effects, including EQ and a synthesizer-like sound effect, sweeping across the soundscape. This song LOW LEE TAH, is directed toward the trumpet line and solo, with Larry Coryell in the role of guitar sideman, with his “Sri Chimnoy” or Mahavishnu sounding rhythm guitar backing and brief guitar solo.
M5 Song Pavane For A Dead Princess, Album The Restful Mind, Album Artist Larry Coryell, Composer Maurice Ravel 1899, Year 1975, By Vanguard Records.
Featuring
- Larry Coryell in a solo performance on guitar
On THE RESTFUL MIND album we hear another, fantastic side of guitarist Larry Coryell in Pavane For A Dead Princess.
Coryell is 32 at the time of this recording. If you like the work of Maurice Ravel, the french composer, who lived between 1875-1937, you may recognize this song. But the song title, means nothing, as RAVEL stated…”Do not be surprised, that title has nothing to do with the composition. I simply liked the sound of those words and I put them there, c’est tout”. So, the Pavane, title meaning nothing, …is in slow, 2/2 time. This Ravel song, composed in 1899, received luke-warm early reviews, but has enjoyed popularity both in French and English forms. The song was written for solo piano. This is Larry Coryell’s interpretation — he plays the Lo Prinzi acoustic guitar.
M6 Song Level One, Album Level One, Album Artist Eleventh House featuring Larry Coryell, Composer Mike Mandel, Year 1975, By Arista Records
Featuring
- Larry Coryell guitar
- Michael Lawrence trumpet and flugelhorn
- Alphonse Mouzon percussion
- Mike Mandel piano & synth
- John Lee bass
- Steve Kahn 12-string guitar
With Level One, we hear more of the angular Eleventh House sound, now with Michael Lawrence on Trumpet. Larry Coryell, and his lead guitar performance on Level One is against a rhythm framework supplied by the fiery percussion of Alphonse Mouzon and bass of John Lee. Eleventh House featured the dynamic keyboard synth sounds of Mike Mandel, the composer of this tune. LEVEL ONE is similar in terms of the impact and the feel of the music with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The 1971 Mahavishnu album My Goal’s Beyond, was inspired by John McLaughlin’s decision to follow the Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy, to whom he had been introduced in 1970 ….by Larry Coryell’s manager. Coryell and McLaughlin worked together in 1974 in the group SPACES and again in 1979 with a guitar trio of McLaughlin, Coryell and flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. Collaboration continues today with McLaughlin and Coryell, as recently as 2011.
That was
Song Level One
Album Level One
Album Artist Eleventh House featuring Larry Coryell
Composer Mike Mandel