Friday Night Jazz with Reuben Jackson; 2017-03-31, Hour 2

Welcome to the second hour Friday night jazz here on Vermont Public Radio. I'm your host Rubin Jackson and as always thank you for tuning in. As promised we're going to delve more into the musical legacy of the guitarist, composer, band leader Larry Coriel, who died on February 19th at the age of 73. Now you've heard the expression that all politics are local but it's also true that someone with such an international scope in terms of influence as Larry Coriel would naturally have some resonance here in the Green Mountain State. So with that in mind we're very fortunate to have guitarist, composer, Daniel O'Hallicy here to talk a bit more about Larry Coriel. We're going to talk a bit and of course play some music after that but we're going to start the hour by talking again a bit more about this really this guy with his Duke Ellington would say huge ears in terms of his curiosity and output. So Daniel, welcome and thank you for taking the time to talk with us for a few minutes. Hi Rubin and thanks for having me. Oh you're welcome you're welcome.

The first thing I wanted to ask you was you know talk about your introduction to Larry Coriel's music. Now was it as a listener? Was it as a player who had the great opportunity to work with him? How did that start? It was as a reluctant listener as a matter of fact. I had the unusual situation in Pittsburgh and I'm going to say 1977. There were two incredible concerts happening on the same night. Stanley Clark was playing on one end of town and Al Demyola was playing on the other end of town. Being a guitarist I really wanted to see Al and debated it but I was young enough that I was relying on a friend of mine to drive me who was a few years older and he said no no no you're seeing Stanley Clark because Larry Coriel is opening up for him and I really didn't know Larry's music at that point. I had heard the name and I certainly had heard of the eleventh house. I mean they were they were cresting and maybe just a bit beyond their peak right then. But you know I showed up not knowing what to expect. We had listened to eleventh

house in the car all the way there and I expected some kind of rock loud like you know big band kind of thing and as it turned out Larry walked out on stage with an acoustic guitar and proceeded to play solo music that just absolutely transformed my image of what can be done with the instrument. I still haven't gotten over it. Last year they re-released some of those tracks on the album Aurora Cori Alice and I wear that virtual those virtual tracks out listening to them because it's just extraordinary playing. Sure I know you knew when I talked before the interview proper and we were addressing among other things like his the scope of the music and how you know here's someone who was adept and who really loved and was well versed in what people would call the tradition guitarist like Wes Montgomery because for example you know he played like West Coast blues and pieces from the standard repertoire but people like you know Larry Coriel and bassist Steve Swallow were also in

love with and deeply influenced by it's like the Beatles and Cream and Hendrix and all that and so it wasn't a case of either or which sometimes happens when we you know we're dealing with critics and or listeners who say well if it's jazz it has to be this and I your story really I think um it kind of brings that out you know here's someone with the band 11th house so we're what we're talking like the seven days around that so many seven days or so right yeah and uh because I remember you know my friends we knew the group four play which was never officially named four play but the material on say like offering in those particular recordings and we thought okay we're going we're going to go here this guy and this was in my hometown at DC and we went bombast and you know funny uh key signatures and all that stuff and he would also come out and play these gentle gorgeous ballots with these beautiful chord voicing and the audience would be kind of kind of a jazz version of smoke on the water like what did this got what is he doing

I guess that kind of thing can be confusing to people on one hand but on the other hand you've got again it's evidence of this I call it this kind of chronic curiosity in terms of delving into it but yeah yeah so let's oh yeah go ahead yeah yeah I just wanted to share a couple of stories because I've I've had the great fortune of studying with Larry for the last three years or so um and uh that just is that absolutely transformed my approach to my instrument and my approach to music in general uh more unlocking things that I think were caught up inside of me uh than anything else but um a couple of stories about his his origins because he went mentioned uh West Montgomery and um Larry had his great story that he told about how he really wanted to be like an old fashion cut and dried jazz guy when he was growing up and uh he was I think 17 and he had he had learned the solos off of one of West's albums and he um uh stowed away on a little boat there was

like this party boat that was going to be sailing uh and he knew that West Montgomery was playing on it so he stowed away there and um and then he came up out of the hold with his guitar and he sat there and essentially played uh West's uh solos for him that was like and he felt like that was the pinnacle at that point he later told me and I do want to emphasize here that I'm not making light of the idea of drug use and I do know that that's uh been sent a lot of damage to a lot of musicians and uh Larry was very celebrated for his commitment to a sobriety since um since the early eighties when he uh when he cleaned up but he did recently make the comment to me he said you know I moved to New York to become a jazz uh what did he say jazz? A jazz mahogany yeah yeah and he said but then I started to drop an asset with Jimmy Hendrix and it was all over so so you know he you know literally there's there unfortunately there are no recordings of him uh working with Jimmy but there were plenty of photos and they spent a lot of time together

and I think that was sort of the that was the crucible there all these these great dynamic forces kind of got melted down and became an all-new kind of alloy and old that was neither rock nor jazz and uh we called it jazz rock and then we called it fusion and then we stopped calling it because it just was this music that was that its own extraordinary thing sure I mean I think you to take your your idea a little further you know it's true not to to trivialize the the downsides of uh you know substance abuse but metaphorically if you think about the music of that time whether we're talking about Larry Coriel jamming with Hendrix or any number of recordings that came out uh Larry Coriel's work with the group The Free Spirits it it really was and is a a trip in the artistic sense in it it's you know there's that courage and use of colors in the palette that people don't necessarily associate with you know jazz for example and and I think as you were saying it you can think about labeling it or you can just kind of delve in and say oh gosh isn't that

beautiful or isn't that beautiful you know um and I that's I would say that's such a big part of of his musical legacy yeah yeah yeah for sure um it it also you know I had that extraordinary experience of taking lessons with him and I I can't even describe what that feels like I mean it's um he was he was able to build and deconstruct at the same time so I would come in with some fairly simple theme that I had written or a new song that I was working on or whatever and I would play it for him and he would then spend the next hour improvising on it and just that was the lesson was me watching it get reharmonized watching it become the counterpoint and something that's not a little more like older classical watching modern modes be uh filtered through that melody and then watching it come back home too you know in in many cases I would write something

simple and diatonic and and uh very traditional something that would have been right in home in the 19th century and Larry could go there too and it's just it just it just would alter my perception of of the boundaries of what I had done not to mention the fact that I you know I have a good friend the the friend who uh dragged me to that chorale cause uh Wayne Somerville he uh Wayne said uh when I told him I was taking lessons he said he said I wouldn't be able to talk to Larry chorale and I said yeah you know for the first four or five lessons I didn't do much talk because it really was it was and and continue to be in such uh of this brilliant talent who also could be so down to earth and was never arrogant and was always reaching out and helping people out I mean he he didn't know me anything he was you know like he could have kept it a very cold informal relationship but uh the last time I spoke to him my my mom passed away in January and he called me

and we talked on the phone for you know a good half hour and just talked about life and talked about music and just just um I mean he was he was there he was all that you know he was he was really something if you are just tuning in we are talking with Vermont based guitarist composer Daniel O'Hallicy about another very fine guitarist he recently departed and already sorely missed Larry Coriel who died February 19th at the age of 73 another example of some of the great musicians who came out of Texas you know whether we're talking Larry Coriel or Janice Joplin or saxophone is Dewey Redmond whomever here in the second hour Friday night jazz on vpr before I let you go I wanted you'd mentioned uh in an email again thinking about Larry Coriel's range or or mad skills as the rappers would say that he'd done some operas and was in the process of working on another one could you tell our listeners a bit more about that please sure yeah he he um his first opera

came out just a few years ago I think maybe around the time I started studying with him it was based on war and peace and uh eventually got the title scenes from war and peace I think they thought being that that's such a massive story that it would take a little more than a two-hour opera to cover all of it but that was premiered I believe in Moscow um a couple years ago and uh I never got to hear it he had a recording that he was going to play for me at some point but we just never managed to connect on that but he continued on these huge themes I was sitting at my desk one day and uh the phone rang and and it was him and he said you know I'm working on an opera uh on a Karenina and um I need a woman's perspective I need to talk to women about this like women were not treated well in the world and you know and so he he we had to talk about that and I know he talked to lots of other people lots of other women about that um and that and his opera you you Lissys uh were both scheduled to they are in fact still going to debut uh this

spring uh one Ulysses in Dublin and um uh on a Karenina in Moscow now his his sense of tonality in the classical world uh is largely embodied in Stravinsky's work he was a great uh devil tay of Stravinsky but he also loves Cherenberg and um uh you know the the real core of 20th century of modern composing like so many jazz musicians yeah oh yeah yeah uh he wrote a lot of articles for guitar player magazine oh I know yeah instructional stuff and he would take and deconstruct a section of something by Stravinsky like the right of spring he would take a section and look at it from a harmonic standpoint and and then feed those scales back into jazz solos and show where some of these unusual modes could be could be placed over a chord progression in a in a jazz

standard and how they could be used to move through that in an atypical way very worth the time to take the listen as far as recordings of his operas I'm not sure that anything has been released yet it's all pretty new he's released some of his other large symphonic works over the years but I think it's something that we'll be looking forward to and I think that the popularity of the music will grow because I have heard some of it and it's I'm telling you Ruben it's just beautiful absolutely I can't wait and I know our listeners feel the same way but anything else you want to say just to uh to wrap things up about the you know the term legacy is so overused these days but what would you uh briefly say his his legacy is and will be here was a man who somehow kept his feet on the on the earth while his head was in the clouds and um his legacy he touched so many people in so many ways and um each of us had a very personal experience of him and we each came away with a with a wider perspective on how to address this this vast and yet so intimate topic

of how to make music I hope that his legacy will be lived through us his not just his students but all his listeners and I certainly hope that I believe that we'll continue to see his legacy lived out in the in the broad history of jazz his son spoke at the memorial service his both of his sons had but Julian is a noted jazz guitarist himself he said you know when I was at Berkeley College of Music my jazz history class my dad was a question on my final exam so oh my gosh so you know that's that's kind of yet because here's this guy who grew up with his dad you know how much more intimate could it be than your dad and and yet at the same time he was he was and will continue to be a part of a part of music history oh my gosh I'm reminded of a poem by gentlemen a Michael S. Harper entitled history is your own heartbeat and just hearing that hearing

you talk about the music and you're the son of someone and and their their he is on an exam that that says it all I think yeah it releases it all well Daniel O'Hallicy thank you very much for taking some time to talk to us about Larry Coriola it's always wonderful of course to hear the music but to get a glimpse of you know like the soul addressing the fretboard in this case is I think infinitely beneficial to us as listeners and and lovers of this music so thank you again and we're going to spend the rest of this hour just delving into this a bit of the incredible variety of music left to us by Larry Coriola so once again thank you so much thank you Ruben okay thanks once again I'd like to thank guitarist composer band leader Vermont based artist Daniel O'Hallicy for talking with me a few minutes about the legacy the contributions of guitarist Larry Coriola whom we lost on February 19th Larry Coriola of course the native of Galveston

Texas and the real honor to talk to Daniel about the music we're going to spend the rest of the hour listening to more music by Larry Coriola starting with a collection entitled prime picks now we talked about Larry Coriola's range and his interest in many composers many music if you are genre specific we're going to start this set with Larry Coriola on solo guitar and his reading of a piece by one of my favorite composers mr. George Harrison the composition something you

mr. Larry Coriola guitar here in the second hour of Friday night jazz on vpr with Ruben Jackson we're going to spend the rest of this hour listening to more of the musical contributions of mr. Larry Coriola and again what we heard just now was a piece written by mr. George Harrison entitled something if you heard the interview I conducted with musician Daniel O'Hallicy the beginning of this hour we talked about Larry Coriola's interest in what's called the tradition and he was really well versed in that it wasn't just lip service when he talked about it and published articles and transcriptions in guitar world magazine guitar player magazine touting the genius of people like West Wing Gumbry he knew that music and could play the heck out of it here is an

example of that and it's a what a standard by mr. West Wing Gumbry from the same collection prime picks now here's Larry Coriola with man Paul Vertical on drums and Larry Gray on bass West one Gumbry's bump in on sunset a bit more guitar based genius by Larry Coriola whom we lost on February 19th here in the second

hour Friday night jazz on vpr with Ruben Jackson we heard his reading of West Wing Gumbry's bumping on sunset for great jazz 24 hours a day wherever you are you might even hear some Larry Coriola check out vpr jazz 24 you can listen at vpr.net and on your smartphone up next a bit of Larry Coriola's love for and soulful execution of material associated with the European classical tradition this is taken from a recording entitled ballerro and this is improvisation on a piece of course we all know written by Maurice Revelle this is improvisation on ballerro two recordings by the late guitarist Larry Coriola here in the second hour Friday night jazz

on a vpr I'm your host Ruben Jackson both recordings taken from a collection called ballerro what we ended with is a prelude from Tombola Cooper and we started with Larry Coriola's improvisation on Maurice Revelle's immortal ballerro again if you heard the interview we did at the top of the hour with guitarist Danielle O'Hallesia asked about her introduction to the work of Larry Coriola and for me it came at 11th grade western high school Washington DC for what that's worth a friend loan me this next collection which is called offering this band was uh uh called for play they never recorded asked for play but this is part of Larry Coriola's work during his stint with uh man a really fine kind of undervalued label vanguard recordings they had a lot of folk musicians too and we have recordings like spaces lady Coriola in in addition to

offering what we'll hear again thinking about the range and uh the successful execution of music going in many directions here's another example of that with Larry Coriola we've got Larry Coriola in guitar with Harry Wilkinson on drums mervin bronzum and bass Steve Marcus from the count rock band and um he spent some time with buddy rich too on soprano sex Mike Mandel on keyboards this piece written by Larry Coriola entitled Scotland One a bit more music by Larry Coriola here in the second hour friday night jazz on vpr let's call

it an extended celebration tribute to Larry Coriola who died February 19th the age of 73 native of galveston texas um touted in many obits as the uh kind of a forerunner what was called fusion music but uh i think this is just someone who had it's dukelling to save very big ears and i think the the ability and the soul to pull off and and explore many many lanes on the musical highway once again what we listen to from a collection titled offering and celeric coriola's composition Scotland One couple of more recordings by Larry Coriola here in the second hour of this edition of friday night jazz on vpr once again i'm rubin jackson and once again thank you for hanging out with me uh hope you're enjoying the program and of course your evening both of these recordings are taken

from a collection entitled barefoot boy recorded well this maybe this is just for me is a Hendrix nerd recorded at electric lady studios in new york city 52 west eight street new york one oh oh one one but who's keeping score again now this is uh some of larry coriola's work when he was with the flying dutchman label but you'll hear uh now here's larry coriola with Roy Haynes on drums now drummer you would associate with what's called straight ahead jazz the return of mr steve marcus on reed now um if you heard again the interview with daniel ohalisi larry coriola told an interviewer that he came to new york city to become a jazz snob and then he uh you know kind of delved into some chemical consciousness and jammed with jimmy Hendrix and the kind of exploded things and as i said before not to romanticize you know substance use but that was a time of exploration in many respects the late 1960s i don't need to tell you that listen to the first

piece we're about to hear it and you'll hear this kind of kind of that grit and blues based feeling that one would associate with people like jimmy Hendrix and uh musicians of that york mic blue and feel people like that uh so we'll hear this is the first of two pieces from barefoot boy this piece is entitled the great escape mmm

once again another nugget from the late guitarist larry coriola here in the second hour friday night jazz on Vermont public radio this is taken from barefoot boy which came out in 1972 man i had a hairline and everything like that once again larry coriola and guitar roe hands on drums was to steve marcus on reeds and others and larry coriola playing that kind of raucous exploration of music uh the piece is entitled the great escape in our three of the program we'll hear from the likes of soprano saxophone steve lacey archie chef uh man uh tubeless Howard Johnson and his group gravity their new collection testimony and a whole lot of other gifts oral gifts for you here on listener supported Vermont public radio wvpr winzer at 89.5 wvps burlington at 107.9 wrvt rutland at 88.7 wubt hand bendington at 94.3 wvpa st johnsbury at 88.5 wvba bretelboro at 88.9 in montpelier at 94.1 and at vpr.net

we'll conclude this hour the same way we began this hour musically speaking music by and from larry coriola once again from 1972 the great escape we'll hear a little bit of the composition called to the higher �