Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States.[1] He never knew his biological father, a musician. He was raised by his stepfather Gene, a chemical engineer, and his mother Cora, who encouraged him to learn piano when he was four years old.[3]
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. He then moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington.[2]
What happened, in my opinion, was that guitar playing just got too fast, [...] and it also got highly competitive. For years I thought, "All I want to do is become the number one-rated guitarist in DownBeat by the time I'm 30." It was that whole adolescent attitude, placing more importance on the arriving than on the striving. Everything just got so intense.[8]
When fusion started losing steam he turned to the acoustic guitar, recording duet albums with Steve Khan and Philip Catherine. The latter was responsible for Coryell's career turn, showing him in 1976 the Django Reinhardt song "Nuages".[8] He also strengthened, in parallel, his role as a music educator. He gave private lessons and started writing a monthly column for Guitar Player magazine.[11]
In 1979, he formed The Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia.[1] The group toured Europe briefly, releasing a video recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London entitled Meeting of the Spirits. [12]
1980s
In early 1980, Coryell's drug addiction led to his being replaced by Al Di Meola.[12] Of his struggles in that period, he said:
By the late 70s. I had gotten succesful [sic] [...]. I did some big tours, did some television... People magazine stories, and all that horseshit. I got arrogant. The grandiosity set in. I forgot how I had gotten there. I had forgottem about the hard work, that struggle. I got lazy. But I would later come to realize that what I had to do was go back and do all that work again - practice constantly, listen to other people's music, study other people's phrasing, work on learning new tunes and old standards, work on horn lines and piano lines, pratice scales. My slogan became G.O.Y.A. (Get Off Your Ass). I had to work like a madman, especially when I didn't want to work. And it took a lot of humility. It was the beggining of the end of arrogance.[8]
When he overcame his self-exile and his bout with alcoholism, he took on his most challenging project yet: solo versions of three Igor Stravinksyballets, namely Scheherazade (1982), L'Oiseau de Feu, Petrouchka (1983) and Le Sacre Du Printemps (1983).[8]
Coryell prepared for three months for recording Le Sacre Du Printemps. He got so "obsessed" by it that he got hand sores and blisters hands from over-rehearsing his parts. Three weeks before the recording sessions Coryell got cold feet, calling producer Teo Macero to say he was quitting the project. Macero convinced him otherwise, and he finally recorded the whole piece on March 21th, 1983, on the vernal equinox. In the end he was proud of it, a "milestone" in his life. "It's like, if you can tackle Stravinsky, you can tackle anything," he said on an interview to DownBeat magazine.[13]
In 1985, he recorded Together with fellow guitarist Emily Remler, who died in 1990. Starting in 2010, Coryell toured with a trio that included pianist John Colianni. Since 2008, Coryell toured in a duo with fusion guitarist Roman Miroshnichenko.[14]
Personal life
Coryell was first married to writer-actress Julie Nathanson (1947–2009), daughter of actress Carol Bruce.[15] She appeared on the covers of several of his albums (including Lady Coryell, Larry Coryell at the Village Gate and The Lion and the Ram) and later wrote the book Jazz-Rock Fusion, which was based on interviews with many of Coryell's peers, including Chick Corea and John McLaughlin.[16] She also sang intermittently with Coryell, including one track on the 1984 album Comin' Home. The couple had two sons (Murali Coryell (b. 1969) and Julian Coryell (b. 1973), both professional guitarists, before divorcing in 1985.[17] Thereafter, he had a brief romance with fellow jazz guitarist and artistic collaborator Emily Remler.[18]
In 1988, he remarried to Connecticut native Mary Schuler; they divorced in 2005. Two years later, he married his last wife, Tracey Lynn Piergross, in Orlando, Florida, where he resided until his death in 2017.
We cannot let all the work we've done as jazz musicians to help relationships between people … we can't let all that go to hell. And that's what this election is going to do. It'll take us back to the Dark Ages and people will think that it’s OK to be prejudiced again. Well, I don't accept it. We have to stand up. … [Trump is] an impostor, a huckster, and he's got to go. And because I'm a Buddhist I'm going to chant about it and try to turn poison into medicine, and just get deeper and deeper into my music.[20]
Shortly after these comments were published, Coryell wrote to Downbeat to apologize and retract:
I am no longer angry about the election; I accept it. I have musician friends who did not vote my way. I have no place implying, as I did in the article, that their votes were insincere or illegitimate... Also—and this is very important—I believe that I have a responsibility to transcend politics, focusing instead on finding ways to touch people’s hearts through music. I never want to forget all the great players who mentored me in the art of demonstrating restraint regarding hot-button issues; these men and women advised me to exercise discretion, and to behave with exemplary humanity. ...My comments did nothing to further the cause of our music. I apologize.[21]
Death
Coryell died of heart failure on Sunday, February 19, 2017, in a New York City hotel room at the age of 73. He had performed at the Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan on the preceding two days.[2][22]
Coryell's last opera, based on Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina, was presented at the 2017 World of Guitar opening, featuring the Moscow Symphony along with Roman Miroshnichenko, Serbian classical guitarist Nenad Stephanovich, and Slovenian opera soloists. The world premiere was dedicated to Coryell, the "godfather of fusion," who died in New York in February of that year. The opera was completed by Miroshnichenko and Stephanovich after the death of Coryell.[23]