Larry Coryell ‘The Lift’ is currently #2 College Music Journal (CMJ) and has been top 10 for seven weeks.

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S. Victor Aren of Something Else! reviews Larry Coryell’s “The Lift”:

“Though he’s since built up equally impressive credentials as a post-bop guitarist, Coryell’s been in a fusion state of mind lately. He’s going to turn 70 next month but shows not even a trace of slowing down. If anything, he’s been revitalized on his Wide Hive records and his third one for the label is as raw and energetic as anything he’s done in a studio for decades.”

Read on at Something Else! or check out Larry Coryell – The Lift.

“One of the top saxophonists to come out of Chicago s AACM movement of the mid-60s, Roscoe Mitchell is a particularly strong and consistently adventurous improviser long associated with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” –All About Jazz

Legendary Jazz Composer Roscoe Mitchell debuts on Wide Hive Records with one of his his most intriguing albums to date; ‘Duets with Tyshawn Sorey and Special Guest Hugh Ragin.’ Featuring fellow Chicago Arts Collective member Hugh Ragin and multi-instrumentalist modern composer Tyshawn Sorey, on eleven original compositions Roscoe plays Percussion, Saxaphone, and an inspiring selection of other horns, woodwinds and flutes. Frequently called an innovative genius, Roscoe has a remarkable ability to catch the improvisational spark with a practiced and methodical accuracy.

track listing

1. The Horn
2. The Way Home
3. Bells in the Air
4. Out There
5. Scrunch
6. Cactus and a Rose
7. Chant
8. Meadows
9. A Game of Catch
10. Waves
11. Windows with a View

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“Larry Coryell’s name isn’t bandied around much now, but in the 1970s he was almost as big a guitar star as John McLaughlin, and an equivalent influence on the development of early electric jazz-rock fusion … Coryell’s crackling uptempo bursts and engagingly rough-hewn energy give this familiar music a vividness and infectious enthusiasm. You don’t even have to be a fan of his or a guitar aficionado to dig this disc; anyone who likes that old school funky rock-jazz with a few delectable diversions will find a lot to like about it. The old Larry Coryell, the Father of Fusion Guitar, is back.” — Something Else!

Larry Coryell’s third album on Wide Hive Records is outstanding. On this throwback rock trio record Larry delivers quintessential performances throughout. With rock, blues, and soul infused jazz, Larry is on his game with skills so serious it will make you question how they could be the one-take performances they are.

track listing

1. Going Up
2. Arena Blues
3. The Lift
4. Lafayette
5. Clear Skies
6. Rough Cut
7. Alternative Recollection
8. Broken Blues
9. Counterweight
10. Stadium Wave
11. Wild Rye
12. The First Day Of Autumn

Buy now:
| amazon |

Daniel Erickson of Muzikreviews.com reviews Throttle Elevator Music and likes what he hears:

“Throttle Elevator Music is one thing you should take notice of. They’ve managed to combine rock, punk, and jazz together to make a unique but tasty concoction… And, it feels good to say this; this band isn’t really anything I’ve heard before. I’m sold on them…. This album feels like the perfect stepping stone for this band to build on; I don’t think they can go anywhere from here but up.”

Read on at Musik Reviews or check out Throttle Elevator Music.

“A collective of talented in-house players from San Francisco-based label Wide Hive. Producer and label owner Gregory Howe, who clearly has a great ear, has penned a striking selection of soul-fused jazz tracks for his house band.” –BBC Music magazine

Read another glowing review at Musik Reviews.

Cross Coltrane with The Clash and it would resemble the departure point Throttle Elevator Music leaps from. Tenor Saxophonist Kamasi Washington takes the lead and raises the bar of instrumental intensity on 16 original compositions ranging from shorter punk minded 45 second flurries to thematic uptempo romps, and rounding out with a few expansionary journeys. Kamasi’s melodic tonality melds nicely into the electric undercurrent laid down by punk drummer/guitarist Lumpy, Wide Hive Player’s bassist/keyboardist/composer Matt Montgomery, and Wide Hive Players composer/engineer/producer Gregory Howe.

track listing

1. Thrill SeekerThrill Seeker
2. Breather
3. GTFO
4. Violet Revolutionary
5. Bass In The SublimeBass in the Sublime
6. Ratchet
7. Throttle Rocket
8. Free Just
9. Chilton Alley
10. Dancing Dust Moat
11.Capital Rumble
12. Rampart
13. Inner Spatial Dub
14. Elevator Shaft
15. Standards Reproach
16. Sacred Rights

CD & MP3
April 10, 2012

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Coryell has made several returns to his fusion beginnings over the years, but it took this little house band from Berkeley to bring him back with the full-on fire, fury and spirit or those pioneering times. You don’t even have to be a fan of his or a guitar afficionado to dig this disc; anyone who likes that old school funky rock-jazz with a few delectable diversions will find a lot to like about it.

- continue reading at Something Else!

The last thing you hear on Larry Coryell’s latest is a voice, presumably Coryell’s, saying, “It sounded so great, man, I got spaced out and forgot to look at the music.” This provides a summation of the record that bursts with positive energy.  With the Wide Hive Players, which recalls Coryell’s frist Eleventh house record, flirts soul, jazz, r&b and Chicago blues, but its loose approach gives it a jam-band feel.

-Downbeat, March 2012

After 45 years of making records, Larry Coryell may have just cut his best one ever. Larry Coryell with the Wide Hive Players is a collaboration with this Bay Area-based rhythm and horn section, and the results are astonishing. Throughout the 13 tracks, Coryell raises his freak-flag high and ably resurrects the sound of pre-Mahavishnu fusion with style and precision. The correct elements are here – slightly grungy guitar tones, funky brass arrangements, sexy Fender Rhodes piano licks, and grooves to die for. Atop it all, Coryell jams with joyous abandon, mixing blues, rock, soul, and complex jazz phrases as only an old ’60s master can. No wonder he’s regularly touted as “the godfather of fusion” (if you’re in doubt, listen to landmark jazz-rock LPs like Chico Hamilton’s The Dealer from 1966,
or the Free Spirits’ Out of Sight and Sound from ’67).

Now, back to the present. Cue up “Terco” for a good example of Coryell’s acid-fusion nirvana. A deep, urban vamp provides the perfect backdrop for him to get funky with badass bends, post-bop phrases, and a not-quite-clean tone that evokes a gritty city scene. “The Last Drop” does what is unthinkable to today’s musicians, but which is to mix horns, Hammond organ, and acoustic guitar in a jazz tune. Larry smokes his solo nevertheless, playing without any trace of post-modern irony; he just delivers a great acoustic improv over an interesting harmonic situation. On “The Return of Shirtless,” the accent is on classic R&B á la Blood, Sweat & Tears or the Electric Flag, with Coryell employing a phase shifter to brilliant effect on a series of nasty solos. And in “Moose Knuckles,” you may think you’ve stumbled over a vintage jam from Terry-Kath-era Chicago or the original Steely Dan lineup – it’s a veritable time machine back to days of taste and tone.

After listening to Larry Coryell with the Wide Hive Players a few times, you may smack yourself on the forehead as you realize how hip fusion guitar was before speedsters like John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola cranked it through a Marshall stack. Cut by cut, Coryell reminds us that the genre’s true roots lie in hard bop, blues, ’60s soul, and funk music, not hard rock and prog (the retro typeface and artwork on the cover are no accidents either, allowing us to visually reconnect with old-school fusion in all its trippy, hash-fueled glory). The coup de grâce is that at age 68, Coryell is making some of the most exhilarating, ballsiest music of his career. Hats off, too, to the amazing Wide Hive Players for giving him plenty of room to prove he’s still got it.

– Pete Prown
Vintage Guitar, August 2011