Larry Carlto Alone ut Never Alone

Larry Carlton has been very generous to students of guitar over the course of his career. He’s given us countless solos and rhythm parts to study and emulate across his 3,000 sessions, 200 hit singles and 100 gold albums as a session player (some of us are still trying to nail that Kid Charlemagne solo!). Then he gave us the gift of 31 albums as a solo recording artist earning him 4 Grammys and 19 Grammy nominations. He’s treated us to a master series of lessons revealing his signature techniques, harmonic approaches and improvisational prowess in 335 Blues and 335 Improv. Yet over all these years, Larry’s never showed us exactly how he plays his hit songs from the first measure to the last… until now!

Following up his surprise hit debut on acoustic guitar, Alone/But Never Alone, Carlton offers a collection of easygoing, laid-back, Wave-oriented smooth jazz that slowly reveals hints of the full range of his capabilities. At first, it sounds as if the guitarist would be merely killing time here, but starting with the funky "Knock on Wood," things get progressively more interesting as Carlton seems to find his funky bearings. "Discovery" is actually quite nice with its cushiony vamp; "My Home Away From Home" finds Carlton flashing his acoustic chops quite effectively; the shuffling "Minute By Minute" garnered a lot of airplay.

Following up his surprise hit debut on acoustic guitar, Alone/But Never Alone, Carlton offers a collection of easygoing, laid-back, Wave-oriented smooth jazz that slowly reveals hints of the full range of his capabilities. At first, it sounds as if the guitarist would be merely killing time here, but starting with the funky "Knock on Wood," things get progressively more interesting as Carlton seems to find his funky bearings. "Discovery" is actually quite nice with its cushiony vamp; "My Home Away From Home" finds Carlton flashing his acoustic chops quite effectively; the shuffling "Minute By Minute" garnered a lot of airplay. Kirk Whalum can be relied upon for stock, crowd-pleasing R&B tenor solos on several tracks, while Terry Trotter plays digital synths, John Pena handles the bass, and Rick Marotta is on drums. Nice stuff, not too demanding, but it wears well.

Much of Larry Coryell's work is as difficult to find as it is to categorize – the man seemed to have spent the late '70s and early '80s making albums for anyone who could come up with a microphone and a tape recorder. That said, it's surprising how high the quality level is on most of these releases. Bolero/Scheherazade is one of the most difficult, as it seems to have been released only in Germany and Japan. The album's obscurity may have something to do with the fact that it is confusingly named; Larry Coryell released an album two years before called Bolero, which has nothing to do with this CD. The "Bolero" on that album was a short, improvised piece composed by Coryell, while the one featured here is a reworking of the classic by Maurice Ravel.