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Chattin' with MR.335
by Peter Sprague
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From studio sessions to jazz heroics, Larry Carlton does it all. An interview with the man whose guitar is as famous as he is.
Larry Carlton is one of the most prolific
guitar players of our time. Though the term
“prolific” gets bandied about quite freely,
Larry is truly the definition of the word
– each time Larry conquers one avenue,
he finds new opportunities to excel.
From playing and arranging more than 3000 sessions
for acts like Michael Jackson and
Steely Dan, to an internationally successful
solo career, to commercial work and playing
in groups like The Crusaders and Fourplay,
Larry has really done it all. Recently, Larry
launched a new record label, 335 Records,
and an online TV station, Mr. 335 TV. We
caught up with Mr. 335 himself to chat
about his amazing start in the business,
his newfound freedom, and everything in
between.
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How did you get started playing the guitar?
You know I started playing the guitar when
I was six years old. My mother played guitar
when she was a teenager, so there was an
old acoustic guitar lying around the house.
My parents say that by age four I was fascinated
with the guitar, but I was too small to
hold it. My parents told me, “When you’re
physically big enough to hold a guitar you
can take guitar lessons,” so I started taking
guitar lessons when I was six years old. I
studied with the same teacher for about
eight years, then my teacher actually told
my parents, “I just can’t teach the kid anymore,
we’re just going to be reiterating the
same thing.”
Six years old is very young to start lessons
– what was your teacher like?
His name was Slim Edwards, and he did a
very cool thing that I appreciate in reflection.
Because I was so young, my attention
span for reading music and paying attention
was more limited than an older kid. So for
the first ten minutes of the 30 minute session,
Mr. Edwards and I would just jam – a
simple little boogie-woogie song, tap our
feet and have fun. Then the next 20 minutes
was focusing on some kind of scale,
chord or reading exercise. I think it was very
important for my development the way that
Slim enticed me and kept me interested in
pursuing the technical part of the guitar.
I practiced at least a half an hour each
day. If you picture an eight year old,
that’s discipline, because there’s baseball
and there are girls, and bubblegum and
other things that boys do. The discipline
was enforced by my parents, and they
had to keep me on it sometimes. As
much as I loved to play, I didn’t want
to practice, and they would say, “Larry,
come in and practice your guitar.” So I
appreciate that discipline.
“You know I started playing the guitar when I was six years old. My mother played guitar
when she was a teenager so there was an old acoustic guitar lying around the house.”
So how did you make the move into
jazz?
Around age 14, I came home one day
and I heard the great jazz guitarist Joe
Pass for the first time. Well that completely
changed my life as a player. I
wanted that. We went out and ordered
the record that Joe was playing on. It
arrived two weeks later, and my passion
for jazz was born. I wanted to learn the
solos, so I would sit with my guitar and
the record, using my ear – I didn’t read
the music at all. I developed my ear this
way. Throughout my teens I played in surf
bands, jazz trios and pop gigs, all while
going to school.
You must have gotten a lot of attention
as such a young player.
Well, it was obvious from age six to age
16 that I was this young kid with quite an
aptitude for what he’s doing, so a lot of
people were paying attention to my playing
because I was so young. That attention
continued through my teen years. When I
would be playing at a club – a supper club,
because I was too young to go into bars
– people would notice. The more people
started talking, and the better I started
playing, the word spread beyond the
Southern California and Los Angeles area
to other communities – “Have you heard
this young kid?”
All of a sudden I started getting calls for
demo sessions and at 16-17 years old, I’d
gone from playing in little clubs to being in
the studio occasionally. One transition point
for me happened when I was 18. I was getting
called regularly to play guitar on demos
for April Blackwood Music Publishing in Los
Angeles. After a few weeks of these demos,
I actually became the arranger because I
had the ideas and I was into it. Once again,
I’m networking and building a small reputation
by just playing what I love. It snowballed
and I got a call for a big session. At this
point, I was still only 20 years old and word
was spreading that I was playing well.
Is there any time that you would consider
a major turning point?
I was in junior college in 1967 at Harbor
Junior College in the San Pedro area of
Southern California. I was in the music
department, and they decided to put on
a jazz concert. My little jazz trio headlined
and by chance a record producer
was there. His name was Harry Mitchell,
and he wasn’t a big time producer,
but he was in the music industry. He
came up and introduced himself and
asked if I wanted to make a record. Of
course I said yes, and my first record
was made in 1968. I was basically a
Wes Montgomery clone – not nearly as
good as Wes Montgomery – but I was
in process of starting to express myself
at another level. I made that record and
it was played a lot on the jazz stations in
Southern California during the summer
after it was made.
In the meantime, I got a call from a gentleman
who produced commercials for Ford.
They had on-camera commercials for a
group called “The Going Thing” – the jingle
went, “Ford has a better idea, it’s the Going
Thing!” They wanted to know if I would
join their group, record these commercials,
and then go do their corporate gigs during
the summer. I had to make a decision
now; do I make my second album or do I
join this group? I chose to join that group,
and I started to meet studio musicians.
Like before, the studio musicians heard me
play, word spread and I started getting calls
for session work.
Had I not taken “The Going Thing” Ford gig,
I probably would have ended up being a jazz
soloist from age 20. I’m very happy about
the decisions I made, because in the studio,
playing with the greatest musicians every
day, it elevated my musicianship to a much
higher level and at a much faster pace than it
ever would have been developed otherwise.
How long did you do session work?
I was a studio musician for seven solid
years – 1970 to 1977 – starting at age 23.
I averaged 15-16 three-hour sessions each
week for seven years. During this time I
did just over 3000 recording sessions and
was fortunate enough to have worked with
many of the better-known stars of the time
– Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Joni
Mitchell, Steely Dan, David Cassidy and the
Partridge Family. I did 13 albums with the
Crusaders. I was a very blessed man to
have all of that happen, and I learned from
the musicians I was playing with. Imagine,
I was 23 years old and playing with Joe
Sample of the Crusaders. That kind of input
influenced the rest of my life musically. It’s
been a wonderful ride; that session part of
my life was very special to me.
Are there any pieces of advice that stick
out in your mind from working with so
many great musicians?
When Louis Shelton – the most tasty guitar
player of his time, in my opinion – would play
on a record, after it was mixed and I would
hear it on the radio, his guitar was right up
front by the vocalist with the perfect part. I
had played on many sessions and my guitar
was always kind of mixed back in the track
and not so prominent. One day I was walking
down Sunset Boulevard between sessions
with Louis Shelton and I asked him, “Lou, how
come they mix you so hot and they don’t mix
me as hot as they do you on a record?” He
responded, “Larry, I try to think like an arranger.”
That was a light bulb moment for me – I’d
been thinking like a guitar player.
When did you hook up with the 335?
The romance between Larry Carlton and
the ES-335 started in 1969. I was getting
calls to do sessions, and I had to jump from
studio to studio, but I never knew what
style of music I was going to be called
upon to play. I love jazz, I can play rock
and roll and I can play country music, so
I was looking for a guitar that could cover
all those bags. I needed a guitar that was
– and is – as versatile in sound as I was as
a player. After checking out a few things, I
decided that the Gibson ES-335 was right
for me. I could play my jazz things – I love
jazz and I love the f-hole and the semi-hollowbody
sound – but when you put on the
treble pickup, you can get it to scream on
the amplifier. Versatility, versatility, versatility
– that’s why I chose this guitar.
“I was a studio musician for seven solid years – 1970 to 1977 – starting at age 23. I
averaged 15-16 three-hour sessions each week for seven years. During this time I did just
over 3000 recording sessions and was fortunate enough to have worked with many of
the better-known stars of the time – Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell,
Steely Dan, David Cassidy and the Partridge Family.”
Why do you think your session career
blew up so much?
I think there are a number of reasons that
my studio career continued as it did. I
would work for a producer once, and the
next time he worked, he would call me
back to play on the next session. I know
that one of the reasons those call backs
came was because of my versatility.
The era in which I was born and started
playing the guitar was unique to me. As
a six-year-old kid in the late ‘50s, I heard
doo-wop music on the radio while I was
studying the guitar. In the early ‘60s, rock
n’ roll was starting to happen with pop
music – the Beatles in ’64, for example. I
was exposed to all these different styles
while maintaining my passion for jazz. As
I matured into my 20s, I had an arsenal
of different styles that I was very familiar
with and could bring to the studio scene.
That was definitely one of the major contributions
that I could make to a session.
Versatility was my calling card.
Prior to the ‘70s, there seemed to be
two kinds of studio guitar players. On
one hand, there were the gentlemen who
could read any sheet music at all, but
they didn’t listen to rock n’ roll. On the
other hand, you had guys who were listing
to Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and
all those guys, and they could play like
fire but they couldn’t read any music, so
they had no versatility. When I stepped
on the scene, I seemed to have been
the first guy who understood both of
those worlds because of the time I was
brought up in.
When did you stop doing session work?
During the last couple of years of my session
work, I was also being called as an
arranger for records. I arranged things for
Barbara Streisand, Joan Baez, and a number
of people. I enjoyed doing that because I
had been playing the guitar so much that it
felt good to just not play the guitar, but to
write the parts out and lead the session. I
was in transition from being studio player to
studio arranger.
In 1977 I felt like it was time for another
transition, and that was to producer record.
I discontinued all session work as a guitarist
and only put the word out that I
was now producing. At the same time, I
started playing at a local jazz club for fun
because I wasn’t burnt out doing sessions
all day. When playing at the local jazz club,
a representative from CBS records came
up after listening to me play and said,
“Ever think of making a solo album?” It
just happened; I was in the right place at
the right time, the gentleman heard me
and my solo career started from there.
CBS said, “We want to sign you, but we
want X producer to produce you.” And I
was strong enough, just cocky enough to
know that until I failed at producing myself,
I didn’t want somebody else telling me how
to play. I was willing to pass on the gig. So I
said, “No, no, let me produce myself, and if I
fail, I’ll go with one of your guys.” And they
said no. So I took one of my demos and
sent it to Warner Bros., who said, “Go do
your thing.” I produced myself in my own
studio and I’ve produced myself ever since.
Tell us about your solo career a bit.
In 1979 I made Larry Carlton, the first
Warner Bros. album and it became quite
successful worldwide. I went to Japan
and played major venues. It was interesting
– in ’79 the Larry Carlton album came
out and in 1980 I won my first Grammy
with Mike Post for the television theme
“Hill Street Blues.”
By 1984, I’m still on Warner Bros. and I
decide to do an album called Friends, so
I call a number of my friends to come in
and perform with me – David Sanborn,
Michael Brecker, Joe Sample, B.B. King,
Al Jarreau, Jeff Porcaro, and Abe Laboriel.
I was on such a musical high from all of
the opportunities and choices that I could
make. The Friends album was a great success
as well, but the industry changed. I
got a call from the head of Warner Bros.
and he said, “Larry this is not about you,
but we’re not going to have a jazz department
starting in 1985, so we’re going to let
you go – you’re free.”
For two years I decided that I didn’t want to
have a record deal. I wanted to loaf and play
guitar. Then, I got a call from an old producer
friend, Jimmy Bowen, and he and Tony
Brown were starting a label in 1986 called
the MCA Master Series, and they asked me
to record a little boutique album for them,
something I had never done before. I had
never done an acoustic guitar album before,
so I went in and made the Alone or Never
Alone album. “Smiles and Smiles to Go”
was on that album and became a career
song for me. I had to follow that up, so the
next year, 1987, I did the Discovery album
and won a Grammy for the performance
of “Minute by Minute.” Michael McDonald
played on that with me, along with Kirk
Whalum. The solo career thing has been
working, working, working.
You were a victim of a random act of
violence in the late ‘80s? Would you
mind telling us about that?
In April of 1988, I was at my recording
studio in the Hollywood Hills. I was in the
office part, and the door to the office, which
was facing the street, was open a little bit. I
noticed looking out into the street that there
were two young boys jogging, and there
was a German Shepherd dog jogging with
them, so I went to the door to shut it so
that the dog would not come in the office.
As I got to the door to shut it, I was just
ready to shut it and one of the boys, who
was just maybe 20 feet from me, pulled
a gun from behind his back and fired one
shot and hit me in the throat.
The bullet severed my carotid artery, blew
away the nerve to my left vocal cord
– so I only have one vocal chord – and it
lodged in my back and traumatized all of
the nerves to my left arm. Luckily, through
major surgery and months and months of
rehabilitation, the nerves in my left arm
down to my fingers have rejuvenated.
During that whole 6-8 month process, I
had lost the use of my left arm. I could
not squeeze toothpaste; I carried my left
arm with my right arm and it had completely
atrophied. The physical therapy
stimulated the nerves in my left arm to
rejuvenate and finally feeling started coming
back.
After about seven months of not being
able to play the guitar, some of the feeling
started coming back. I had a little acoustic
guitar sitting at the house and one evening
I picked up the guitar and could actually
finger a baby chord again. God had
blessed my left arm with some nerves
and it was now time to build muscles. I
did all the physical therapy and built the
muscles in my hand so that I could play
again. I believe it was December of 1988
that a number of my friends got together
and we enjoyed a comeback concert to
celebrate the return of my abilities.
How did the shooting effect your playing?
Going through and then coming out of that
tragic event when I was shot did leave me
a different man – I was a different person
once I had healed. I didn’t know it at the
time, it wasn’t a revelation, like, “Oh I’m a
new guy! I just made it through a shooting.”
It really came out through conversation.
One conversation that I remember specifically
was with my son Travis, who was
just turning five at the time. Once I was
well enough, well into the process of healing,
he and I had a conversation. He said,
“Dad, why did they have to shoot you?”
And the truth, I think, comes at those
moments when you are relating to your
children, and what came through my spirit
and out through my mouth was, “Trav,
why not me? I’m just another daddy in
this world.” And what I realized after I
spoke those words and time went by, is
that although I’m very talented at playing
the guitar, let’s set the guitar down and
really understand who we are as people
in this world. I truly believe I am just a
guy in this world going through the process
with everyone else, who just happens
to play the guitar.
After the shooting and after going through
the recovery, people observed a difference
in the way I played the guitar. They heard
things that I didn’t even know I was doing
– not technical things, but passionate, emotional
things. After I would play a solo or
after the show, a number of people would
come up and say, “I’ve never heard you play
the guitar like that.” Those emotional events
somehow brought out a deeper side of
Larry Carlton the musician. And once I was
aware, I felt the difference as a player. So
yes, I was a different man and a different
guitar player after being shot and recovering,
and it showed up in my performance.
How did Fourplay come about?
In the early ‘90s, as I continued my solo
career, I did an album called Kid Gloves and
another called Renegade Gentleman. Both
were moderately successful, but in 1996, I
got a call from Bob James, the great pianist
arranger, and he asked me if I would like to
join the group Fourplay with Nathan East
and Harvey Mason. It took me about three
seconds to say, “Sure Bob! When do we
start?” Once again there was another breath
of fresh air in my career. I got to go play with
three world class musicians who took every
other year off from the group to continue our
respective solo careers. We’ve had enormous
success and Grammy nominations with
Fourplay while still being able to continue our
own solo careers.
Obviously you’re known for the Gibson
ES-335. How else do you achieve your
signature tone?
So my tone is a conglomeration of a lot
of things, obviously. My touch, the way I
choose my dynamics during a phrase, the
amp I choose to play through, the way I set
up my guitar, and also the attitude that I
have the day of the session or the solo that
I’m playing. You hear all of those elements
come together for a tone at the time that I
am playing the guitar.
“Now I’m getting to fulfill all of my musical dreams. My first project was to record a
blues album with a horn section, which I called Sapphire Blue. We recorded the whole
album in two days. It was so passionate and fun that we got it all done because of the
spirit of it.”
Your solo on Steely Dan’s “Kid
Charlemagne” is pretty legendary. Are
there any secrets to that tone?
I played the same 335 on 90% of my
solo sessions, including the solo for
“Kid Charlemagne.” I just used a little
Tweed Deluxe amplifier. There’s video
of that rig on my website. The combination
that I used sound-wise for the “Kid
Charlemagne” solo was the 335, Tweed
Deluxe amplifier, back pickup and with the
tone control turned down to about three.
What is your live setup like?
For years I did like everybody else – we
had the effects coming out of the preamp
– and it dawned on me that we should
just simplify it. In the studio, the guitar
comes up through the microphone into the
console, out of the speakers and then on
through a send, where they would add the
reverb and the effects, so the sound hitting
the effects is from the speaker through the
microphone, not from a preamp through
the back, and not direct from my guitar.
So now live, I have the microphone on my
guitar, send the sound of the microphone
into a module, bring it up as a send, and
have that hit the reverb. And for my ears,
it made all of the effects sound better
because I was used to hearing it in the
studio.
My dry guitar is in the center and the
only thing surrounding me, like in the
studio, is just the effects. And right now
I’m just using a little reverb. There’s a
chorus set up in case I do a ballad, but
other than that it’s really simple – no
stompboxes or anything for me; I’ve
gone back to guitar and amp.
You recently left a major record label to
do your own thing, right? How has that
been?
For the first time in 17 years, I left a
major record company by choice so that
I could do anything I wanted to do creatively.
Now I’m getting to fulfill all of my
musical dreams. My first project was to
record a blues album with a horn section,
which I called Sapphire Blue. We
recorded the whole album in two days.
It was so passionate and fun that we got
it all done because of the spirit of it.
There’s a new breath of energy in my
career, this time because I¹m free. I just
released a new CD and live performance
DVD with my good friend Robben Ford
and now have several other exciting recording
projects underway. We also just overhauled
my website (larrycarlton.com) and
launched Mr. 335 TV (mr335.tv) so that I
can do a better job sharing information,
lessons, performances and a few tricks
of the trade with my audience wherever
they happen to be in the world.
Any particular insight that you'd care to
share with Premier Guitar readers?
Practice what you must. Play what you love.
| The Next Step: 335 Records |
After finding freedom
from major record
labels in 2003,
Larry Carlton has
embarked on
his own exciting
journey in
recording – 335
Records. For
Larry, the appeal
of starting his own
record company
was simple: “I get to
choose any piece of
music and any artist
I want to present
to my audience.”
Talking
with
Larry
reveals
a bit
deeper
motive
however
– one in
keeping
with his undying devotion to his fans. “With
335 Records, I can focus totally on interacting
musically with my audience. We’re pretty
tuned in to each other and now I have the
means to produce the music and artists
that I know they’ll appreciate.”
With decades of recording experience, a
multitude of talented friends in the industry,
and technology on his side with Mr. 335
TV, Larry seems to have found the perfect
combination. Larry says his goal is to watch
what his audience responds to and pay
strict attention to what they want to hear.
The first release from Larry’s 335 Records
does exactly that. Fans of Larry and
Robben Ford had been asking for years
when they were going to get together.
Since their meeting in 1974 when they
were both working with Joni Mitchell, anticipation
had been building for collaboration.
“I’ve been a fan of his all of these years,”
Larry recalls, and now more than 30 years
later, the two friends came together for a
live CD and DVD recorded in Tokyo, Japan.
Both guitarists wrote new songs for the
album, which was recorded live at the
famous Blue Note Tokyo club.
Larry Carlton with Special Guest Robben
Ford, Live in Tokyo was released in early 2007
and features eight tasty tracks that will downright
delight the many fans of both artists.
|
| Mr. 335 TV - Larry’s Silver Screen |
Interested in learning more about Larry’s
career and background? How about picking
up some priceless insight gleaned across
3000 recording sessions? Or maybe you’d
like to beef up your chops with dozens of
video lessons from the master himself? It’s
all just a few clicks away on Mr. 335 TV.
In a rather unprecedented move, Larry
Carlton launched a self-hosted Internet TV
station, Mr. 335 TV, to the delight of fans
around the world. More than 100 different
videos bring Larry’s world to your desktop,
including reflections on his past, technical
tips for vibrato, bending and more, and
detailed descriptions of his current and past
rigs – check out the Steely Dan rig! – and
that’s just scratching the surface.
Mr. 335 TV plans to add to the already
expansive list of videos with regular
updates as a way for Larry to communicate
personally with his fans. In this way, it is
unlike anything any artist has ever done
before. Carlton is the first major artist to
provide such a wealth of video content
for their audience. We can only hope that
more of our favorite artists take a look at
this station and immediately follow suit.
Thanks Mr 335!
|
Larry’s Gearbox
Guitars
Original 169 Gibson ES335
‘68 Gibson ES335
‘84 Valley Arts 00-Acoustic
|
Amps
Two Dumble Overdrive Special
amps (118 and 142)
Closed Back Dumble 122 Dual
Ported Cabinet
|
Effects
TC M2000 for Reverb
TC 1210 Spatial Expander for Chorus
Roland SDE 3000 for Delay
Show-Bud volume
Dunlop wah
|
Accessories
Mackie 1604-VLZ PRO mixer
Shure SM57 microphone
D1Addario strings
Korg DTR 2000 chromatic tuner
B-Band A2.2 Pickup System
Avalon U5 for Acoustic
|
|
Larry Carlton
larrycarlton.com
mr335.tv
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