The Larry Coryell Appreciation Thread

Working my way through my "listening to all my records project", I just finished listening to the last of the 10 Larry Coryell albums I have in my collection. Coryell was such an amazing guitarist and I'm so glad to have gotten to see him perform in three very different configurations- with an early high powered jazz/rock fusion trio, in an acoustic trio performance with Laurindo Almeida and Sharon Isben that blended many styles, and in a straight up jazz trio at Kimball's, San Francisco.

I stumbled across a copy of either Lady Coryell or Coryell (both are favorites) back around 1970 or so and instantly became a huge fan. I've returned to his music many, many times in the nearly 50 years since then and always am stunned and amazed by his creative playing.

Here is one of my many favorite Coryell pieces and I would very much enjoy hearing stories from other fans here:

 

Surely there are Coryell fans here, right?

 

I love the Vanguard and Eleventh House albums. Fairyland is an all time favorite. I’m not familiar with anything past the 70’s, though.

 

I like his music. I first heard him by way of a video of his performance at the Prerov Jazz Festival in Prerov, Czech Republic in 1995. Upon returning to the states to live I picked his albums up whenever I saw them. I really like Barefoot Boy on Flying Dutchman.

 

I like Spaces!

 

To be honest I'm not a big fan of his fusion records but he was great in a couple of straight ahead gigs I saw in the early 00's in Chicago.

 

Coryell pretty much abandoned jazz/rock fusion in favor of other explorations like what perhaps could be called jazz/classical fusion, and a number of more straight ahead jazz outings. Here are two post- 70's albums I think are great:

Twin House feature some fine duets with Phipip Catherine:


and the harder to find Bolero, features some great compositions by the guitarist, overdubbing on most tracks by himself:

 

Apart from the Eleventh House albums and his work with Alphonse Mouzon I like this one very much


I also like his 90's smooth jazz albums

 

I don't know that record! Will have to check it out, thanks!

 

Hey, thanks for suggesting Fairyland. When I saw you'd mentioned it, I realized I didn't have this one. It came in today and I just gave it a spin. Great stuff! I'm really happy to have this one to add to my Coryell collection. It will get a lot of play.

 

Live from Bahia is also one of my favorites. It was released on VHS and I wish it would be rereleased on DVD.

 

I love his 11th House stuff, Level One is a great album (if heavily Mahavishnu influenced).

Spaces is another great one.

Here's a full televised set from '75 (I think) with Mouzon on drums.

 

I like his acoustic albums Bolero, The Restless Mind, Splendid w/ Philip Catherine, and Standing Ovation.

 

I've only ever owned Spaces, although I think I possibly had Coryell at one point briefly.

In going through the shelves for a cull recently, I played Spaces again (first time in years).

It was not culled, nor ever will be. What a great album.

 

I first discovered Larry when Spaces came out and I spent a lot of time with that LP. I saw him several times when I moved to Boston in 72, and used to talk to his keyboard player, Mike Mandel, when he came into the record store I worked in, which was just down the street from Paul's Mall and the Jazz Workshop, the scenes of the crimes. I saw him with his small combos and then with 11th House. I also saw him play with Phillipe Catherine, and that made me realize how angular LC's playing actually was, as PC was really inside and melodic, so it made for a fascinating study of contrasting styles. The last time I saw him was in the early 1990s at Nightstage , in Cambridge in a solo guitar performance.

 

Coryell's one of the greats. My first album was Eleventh House Level One. Found it in the racks of an Antique Store when I was about 15. This was after knowing his name from his years of Guitar Player magazine columns. Got the Vanguard Best of soon after. Hearing Stiffneck and Jam With Albert changed my life. Finally got to see him play up close and personal nearly 35 years later in Dec. 2016. He died a very short time after. I like the Muse straight ahead sessions a lot too. Equipoise, Coming Home, Toku Du.

 

One vote for side two of Barefoot Boy, aka "Call to the higher consciousness"

 

I guess y'all have heard his 1978 collaboration with Miles Davis. Really interesting.

 

Restless Mind also a favorite.
Splendid too.

 

engineered by Eddie Kramer
and recorded at Electric Ladyland
in 1971. Jimi's spirit very present.

 

I love major jazz minor blues as it was one of my first jazz guitar albums I heard when learning to play the genre on guitar. I also love his albums tricycles and spaces.

 

Listening to this one right now. Fantastic stuff!

 

Coryell's album Lady Coryell contains a grab bag of various musical styles, some of them rather bizarre, but I love it.
On one hand we have Coryell accompanied by Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones on the bluesy "Treats Style," and
his tender solo version of "You Don't Know What Love Is," and at the other extreme you have "Love Child is Comin'
Home," a country ditty with nasally Dylanesque vocals by Coryell! The other two head-scratchers are "Sunday Telephone,"
which might be described as psychedelic grunge, with dirty hard-rock chording and fat wah-wah licks, and Coryell's
odd and unique singing, "One more dime, operator, can't you see Doctor Strange move down the liiiiine!" and the
strangely beautiful "Herman Wright," a mournful sounding waltz with Coryell's weird vocals again, which ends with
chattering wah-wah guitars weaving around each other in a tumbling dance. Coryell's singing voice is strained and
honking, and is likely a love-it-or-hate-it thing. Personally I love it; it just works somehow.

I would also recommend his Offering album, with Mike Mandel on keyboards, and Steve Marcus on sax. I would
describe it as pre-Mahavishnu fusion. Coryell, Marcus, and Mandel with his fuzzed and wah-wahed electric piano,
complement each other perfectly, and when things get heated up it's a real treat. It's early jazz-rock fusion, I would say,
more down-to-earth than what Mahavishnu and Return to Forever would be doing in a year or two--no synthesizers
or Marshall amps--and the tunes on the album run from the peaceful to the totally frenetic.