Larry Carlton - Larry Carlton (CD)

Exciting Solo And Sesson Musician At His Height!

By Andre  Apr 21, 2006

Pros: Bouncy,Well Produced And Fantastic Compositions

Cons: None

'Larry Carlton' is a perfect example,along with The Crusaders 'Free As The Wind' and Steely Dan's 'Aja' of the same vintage (both of which Carlton played on) of the late 70's studio/audiophile variety of poppy funk/jazz.Thankfully Larry adds a lot of variety to his wonderful songwriting and melodic,rockish guitar style.Each song has it's own special unique charm so I'll discuss them one by one-
1)Room 353-Very 'Aja' like dance track with a ferocious tempo and a great melody for an instrumental.
2)Where Did You Come From-Pop-R&B Samba with a sweet lead vocal from Al Smitty Smith.A very catchy,radio friendly tune
3)Nite Crawler-A slightly slower burning copy of his classic with The Crusaders arranged so his guitar is in the forefront
4)Point It Out-Ferocious,bass heavy rockish instrumental piece-one of Carlton's finest moments as a soloist
5)Rio Samba-A more uptempo samba instrumental with some heavy percussion.Great steady beat
6)I Apolojize-A nice,mellow funky jazz groove sung again by smitty.The strongest vocal on the album
7)Don't Give It Up-A very fast dance instrumental-again with some of Carlton' finest soloing
8)(It Was) Only Yesterday-The most obviously fusion piece with some great soloing again to end of this record
The whol point?For those who think funky instrumentals are an excuse for musicians to indulge themselves 'Larry Carlton' is a great exception to that rule.It's far heavier funk then Bob James but just as melodic.A prime example of why Larry Carlton virtually created that 70's jazz-funk-pop guitar sound!