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2 April 1943 – 19 February 2017
Pioneering jazz fusion guitarist, Larry Coryell passed away
in his sleep in his New York City hotel room of natural causes.
He was 73 years old.
Born in Galveston, Texas on April 2, 1943 Coryell grew up in the
Seattle, Washington area where his mother introduced him to the
piano at the tender age of 4. He switched to guitar and played rock
music while in his teens. He didn't consider himself good enough
to pursue a music career and studied journalism at The University
of Washington while simultaneously taking private guitar lessons.
By 1965 he had relocated to New York City and began taking classical
guitar lessons which would figure prominently in later stages of
his career. Although citing Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry as early
influences he also took cues from jazzmen such as John Coltrane
and Wes Montgomery. He was also inspired by the popular music of
the day by the Beatles, The Byrds and Bob Dylan and worked diligently
to meld both rock and jazz stylings into his technique. This was
reflected on his debut recording performance on drummer Chico Hamilton's
album “The Dealer” where he sounded like chuck Berry
at times with his almost distorted ‘fat’ tone. Also
in 1966 he formed a psychedelic band called The Free Spirits on
which he also sang vocals, played the sitar and did most of the
composing. Although conceptually the band’s music conformed
to the psychedelic formula with titles like “Bad News Cat”
and “I’m Gonna Be Free” it foreshadowed jazz rock
with more complex soloing by Coryell and Sax/flute player Jim Pepper.
However, it wasn't until three years later after apprenticing on
albums by Vibraphonist Gary Burton and flutist Herbie Mann and gigging
with the likes of Jack Bruce and others that Coryell established
his multifarious musical voice, releasing two solo albums which
mixed jazz, classical and rock ingredients. In late 1969 he recorded
“Spaces,” the album for which he is most noted. It was
a guitar blow-out which also included John McLaughlin who was also
sitting on the fence between rock and jazz at the time and the cogitative
result formed what many aficionados consider to be the embryo from
which the fusion jazz movement of the 1970s emerged. It contained
insane tempos and fiery guitar exchanges which were often beyond
category not to mention some innovating acoustic bass work by Miroslav
Vitous and power drumming by Billy Cobham both of whom were to make
contributions to Jazz rock throughout the ‘70s.
His career, however, began in era of guitar rock, where he was
able to rise for a time with legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Carlos
Santana, and Eric Clapton. As this era came to a close, his musical
expression took him on a diverse journey, and though he did not
receive the level of commercial fame the aforementioned musicians
had, he was still able to make his mark in music by way of the jazz
& fusion world. His music continues to influence musicians and
fans internationally and will continue to do so for a very long
time.
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