Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943
In Coryell's teens, he switched to guitar. After his family moved to Richland, Washington, he took lessons from a teacher who lent him albums by Les Paul, Johnny Smith, Barney Kessel, and Tal Farlow. When asked what jazz guitar albums influenced him, Coryell cited On View at the Five Spot Cafe by Kenny Burrell, Red Norvo with Strings, and The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. He liked blues and pop music and tried to play jazz when he was eighteen. He said that hearing Wes Montgomery changed his life.
Coryell graduated from Richland High School, where he played in local bands the Jailers, the Rumblers, the Royals, and the Flames. He also played with the Checkers from Yakima. Coryell then moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. After moving to New York, he listened to classical composers such as Bartók, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. Of the latter, Coryell first saw them live in 1967 at the Manhattan nightclub The Scene and was "very impressed" by them. Coryell's continued attendance to The Scene exposed him to further music of a similar ilk, catching the performances of Frank Zappa, Buddy Guy, The Velvet Underground, Stevie Winwood, The Doors and others.
In 1969, former Miles Davis Quintet drummer Tony Williams invited Coryell to join his new band, The Tony Williams Lifetime. While flattered by the invitation, he politely declined and suggested, in his place, his British friend and NY newcomer John McLaughlin, then known as "Johnny Mac." It was a career-making move for McLaughlin. Because of his tenure with the Lifetime, he was invited to join Davis's electric band, recording In a Silent Way (1969), the Bitches Brew (1970) double-album and Jack Johnson (1971).
1970s
In the 1970s, Coryell led the group Foreplay with Mike Mandel, a friend since childhood, although the albums of this period, Barefoot Boy, Offering, and The Real Great Escape, were credited only to Larry Coryell.
In the wake of the success of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra he formed The Eleventh House in 1973, with drummer Alphonse Mouzon.
Their debut album, Introducing Eleventh House with Larry Coryell (1974), peaked at No. 163 in Billboard 200 and stayed 11 weeks in the charts. It was deemed unfocused and overindulgent when compared with the quintet's inspiration source, the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Coryell himself admitted to such, stating that the record was a "search party", a product of a group still in search of its identity.
Larry Coryell recorded with Al Di Meola on Return to Forever drummer Lenny White's solo debut, Venusian Summer (1975). Coryell and Di Meola traded solos on "Prince of the Sea", the album's last track. The pairing caused a stir on the fusion community, with fans wondering who played what solo. Coryell reveals this was the only time he and Di Meola played together with electric guitars.
Although enthusiastic about his contemporaries – namely Bill Connors, Allan Holdsworth, Di Meola and McLaughlin – in retrospect Coryell offered the following of mid-1970s fusion: