Improvising: My Life In Music

by Larry Coryell

(Book). Jazz guitar legend Larry Coryell takes an unflinching look at his life and career, recounting his musical journey from his scuffling early days in New York City and his pioneering role in the jazz fusion movement to his current status as a world ambassador of jazz. Coryell reveals his own involvement in and eventual victory over the drug scene, and he gives his take on the musical giants he has known and performed with. Along the way, he details the development of his own style and provides inspirational words for fellow musicians. A special section presents a selection of Coryell's beloved Guitar Player magazine columns. Includes CD with audio lessons and original compositions recorded specifically for this book.

Genres: Music

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Christopher Heaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breezy autobio. It wasn't a perfect read by any stretch, but I found it very readable & learned quite a bit about Coryell & his early career fusion playing. Prior to reading this, I knew him through his straight-ahead jazz playing on the Muse & High Note labels.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Larry explains well the art of “comping” or sympathetic accompaniment – here your job is to make the other person you are backing up to sound as good as possible. Comping 80% and soloing 20% on each tune will get you great improvising practice. Also, if you play with just a bass you really get into the contrapuntal aspect of two lines. In the end Larry’s thrill is the thrill of most of us: to go out and play standards with a few originals thrown in with a good rhythm section. Larry tells how he knew he’d never be the best at standards and seemed to play better when he’d play his own thing, even at friends’ houses, and so he continued to play his own thing for decades until recently when he went back more to standards; he often will woodshed often for eight hours per day. When woodshedding, don’t forget to learn your arpeggios backwards too! Three stars because, although somewhat enjoyable to read, this was not a deep book when placed along side other jazz bios. Larry is not publicly a deep thinker on issues outside of music (the role of music in addressing racism, inequality, imperialism are issues most black jazz artists passionately discuss during their careers while most white jazz musicians strangely don't) and Larry didn’t reveal much analysis of the development of his own style in this book except in the excepted columns at the end which still weren't that good. I learned a lot more about Larry's arduous transcriptions of classical pieces from other sources than from this book for example. I also learned far more from doing harmonic analysis of Larry’s best music and solos for an hour, than in reading this entire book - but at least it’s clearly better than Joe Satriani’s book.

[James Murrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Improvising: My Life In Music" was fun for me to read. I've been a fan of jazz/fusion guitar legend Larry Coryell for a very long time, and now I know a lot more about his life & career.
The one thing thing I like the most about this book is that it's an autobiography that is actually written by the artist, without a ghost writer going behind him, & cleaning up the details. The fact that Larry Coryell studied journalism in college is probably what enabled him to write the book without a ghost writer. This gives the book a more personal feeling, more like a journal, than some autobiographies I have read before.
Throughout the book Larry gives his personal insight about living though the 1960s, and about being a musician during those times. He talks about his use of drugs & his recovery from being a substance abuser in a frank manner that I thought was very brave & inspiring. The insights that Larry shares about being a musician I found to be very true & inspiring also (I'm a jazz guitarist also).
I highly recommend "Improvising: My Life In Music" by Larry Coryell to anyone interested in music, guitarists, & people like Larry who are a part of the evolution of American art form that we call Jazz. Larry is one of the greatest guitarist that has ever lived, & I'm glad he chose to share his life & insights through this book!
Peace,
James Murrell
http://www.jamesmurrellgtr.com

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent autobiography, obviously not ghost written, which IMHO is good. He's done a lot for fusion Jazz and the lessons at the end are
great since i don't have any GP mags anymore from that era (so it's nice to have them back) Now listening to his stuff with a better understanding
of what he was doing.