Tag Archives: Larry Coryell

From The Vaults: Hidden Treasure No. 8

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Tenor saxophonist Steve Marcus introduced guitarist Larry Coryell to Gary Burton, master of the vibraphone, sometime in 1966. I always thought it was the other way around, i.e. Burton saw Coryell in The Free Spirits in New York, which he actually did, and then the Coryell-Marcus association came later.

Count's Rock Band SmallAccording to notes from the reissue of Marcus’ album Tomorrow Never Knows, he already knew Coryell through mutual friend and pianist Mike Nock, who lived with Coryell in Greenwich Village. After Burton saw Coryell play in 1966, he asked him to join his quartet with drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Steve Swallow. What resulted was a truly inspiring combination of players, who played jazz with a difference. They were all well-schooled in the bop and contemporary jazz traditions but they also skirted rock and pop territory with rhythms and feels you just didn’t find in jazz.

The quartet produced the landmark Duster, then Bob Moses replaced Haynes and the group recorded two more albums, Lofty Fake Anagram, which pushed further into rock territory, and the exquisite Live at Carnegie Hall. Coryell was incorporating rock tendencies more than anyone in the group with a fierce, biting tone at times and the use of feedback and rock phrasing juxtaposed with his masterful jazz leanings.

Shortly after Coryell left the quartet, he joined Marcus for two of three albums that were among the first to fuse rock and jazz. The records featured jazz-schooled players, who loved rock and pop as much as the jazz tradition they came up in, and showed them displaying more of a rock attitude than ever before for jazz players. These albums are certainly among the first genuine examples of the fusion of the two genres.

The first, Tomorrow Never Knows in 1968, featured the Beatles psychedelic title track, along with another Fab Four offering Rain, the Byrds’ Eight Miles High, Mellow Yellow by Donovan and two other tracks, including a Coryell composition, Half A Heart. A fine album with outstanding interpretations.

Then came Count’s Rock Band, the peak of this triptych and our Hidden Treasure No. 8 in ’69, followed by the mostly forgettable The Lord’s Prayer, sans Coryell, also in ’69. According to Marcus’ notes, Gary Burton, who was a neighbor of Marcus’, actually produced the first album, but when it landed on Herbie Mann’s new imprint Vortex, distributed by ATCO, Mann got credit for production on all three outings. Joining Marcus and Coryell on Count’s Rock Band and Tomorrow are Moses on drums, Nock on piano and Chris Hills on bass.

Count’s Rock Band follows the pattern of Tomorrow and includes covers of Simon & Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair with Marcus on soprano sax and The Stones’ Back Street Girl. But the two Hills compositions, Theresa’s Blues and Ooh Baby are easily the album’s highlights and make this record a gem. Continue reading From The Vaults: Hidden Treasure No. 8 →

Concerts, Vol. 12: Jack Bruce and Friends

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Jack Bruce & Friends. From left, Bruce, guitarist Larry Coryell, keyboardist Mike Mandel and drummer Mitch Mitchell.
Jack Bruce & Friends. From left, Bruce, guitarist Larry Coryell, keyboardist Mike Mandel and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

After the breakup of Cream in 1968, it became a point of fascination to see what was next for the three members.

Eric Clapton got together with Steve Winwood to form Blind Faith, which lasted from late 1968 to the end of the summer of ’69, producing one album and an ill-fated tour. He then took up with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett in their touring band, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. That led to Clapton’s first self-titled solo album, produced by Delaney, which still stands as one of Clapton’s very best.

Ginger Baker quickly formed an all-star band of sorts after Blind Faith, dubbed Air Force and recorded a double live and a studio album under the name. It was short-lived. He went through many other musical vehicles in the ’70s and ’80s but always seemed to produce his best work when recording what we now call World Music, then in the ’90s recorded two extraordinary jazz albums with Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden.

As for Bruce, he had already recorded a straight jazz album, which bordered on free jazz, in August of ’68, Things We Like, even before the Farewell Cream tour of that fall.

That was followed by Songs For A Tailor (September, 1969), a truly amazing mix of R&B, soul, blues, folk and rock blended with his Celtic sensibilities, particularly in his vocals, and the enigmatic yet compelling lyrics of his writing partner from Cream days, Peter Brown.

After Songs For A Tailor, probably his most successful commercial album, he has continued to blaze his own path with a string of artistic achievements in his solo career and with others, particularly Kip Hanrahan in the ’80s and ’90s, that has in most cases escaped the music world at large and especially the rock press. That notwithstanding, it can be easily argued Bruce has been the most creative and successful artistically of the three members from Cream.

Jack Bruce & Friends poster 3 SmallIn early 1970 Bruce put an intriguing and accomplished band together to tour in support of Songs For A Tailor. Called Jack Bruce & Friends, I noticed they were to play at the Fillmore East the weekend of January 30-31 as the opening act for Mountain! Leslie West’s group, at the time, was of course doing very well commercially in the wake left by Cream, but it startled and somewhat annoyed me that Bruce would actually be opening for them.

Nonetheless, my girlfriend and I secured tickets and went to one of the early shows. As I recall it was the Saturday night performance, although it’s possible it was Friday. In the 1990s, I became aware of a recording of one of the shows from that weekend. That kind of stunned me at the time, but it’s now happened more often than you would think possible. At first I believed it was the actual show we attended but I have seen it variously listed as either early show Jan. 30 or late show Jan. 31. So it’s impossible to pin down.

Suffice to say, the setlist is the same as the show we saw. And the recorded document confirms that although this band had not been together that long, it was producing dynamic and intricate versions of Bruce’s tunes, mainly from Songs For A Tailor. Continue reading Concerts, Vol. 12: Jack Bruce and Friends →

An Original CAST! Performance

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I went up to Black-Eyed Sally’s in Hartford Saturday to catch an exciting and talented group of young musicians, Coryell Auger Sample Trio (CAST!). The group played two sets, providing a smokin’ blend of funky fusion, steeped in bebop, blues and rock via Venice, California, where the trio hales from.

All three have well-known fathers in the world of jazz-rock, but each stands clearly on his own as a proficient player and composer of note.

castGuitarist Julian Coryell is the son of jazz-rock pioneer and legend Larry Coryell, Karma Auger’s dad is Brian Auger, who played with Julie Driscoll and led the Trinity and Oblivion Express in the ’60s and ’70s, and Nicklas Sample is the son of Joe Sample, the keyboard player from L.A. based fusion band The Crusaders.

CAST! played material from their first album, Coolidge Returns, which they sell at live shows and on their web site, including Walk Of The Dragon, Rice Krispy Socrates, Nadine and Purple Panther, as well as tunes from an upcoming second album. The band cooked in the first set, but really opened up in the second with a slant more toward the rock end of things.

Each player displayed his virtuosity within the context of the band. Coryell mixes high doses of blues-inflected playing with flights of jazz lines that combine stunning technique with deep feeling. Auger lays down infectious funk grooves that create a solid foundation and augments them with brilliant latin-flavored to straight-ahead rock flourishes around his kit. And Sample is equally at home providing soulful funk, driving rock or matching Coryell on swift, doubled melodic lines.

I saw Karma play with Brian and his sister, Savannah, two years ago in the latest version of the Oblivion Express at Stage One in Fairfield for a night of extraordinary organ-fueled tunes, many classics from the Express repertoire. Brian Auger was in fine form that night playing with the fire, virtuosity and abandon he has always exhibited on his timeless jazz-funk compositions. Highly recommended when they make their way back to the East Coast. Check tour dates and a definitive collection of his work on his web site.

After playing a string of West Coast dates, CAST! has been on the East Coast for the past week and plays for one more week in Baltimore, Boston and New York before heading home.

In all, a wonderful night of music from three outstanding, rising stars.

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