We all know Larry Carlton as one of the great masters of the Gibson ES-335, the session ace, the jazz guitar maestro, the studio player who graced albums by Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan, Joan Baez and the Four Tops, too.
But once upon a time Carlton was a young buck without much of a reputation to trade on. So when the call comes in from Quincy Jones that he was to come in for a session, that was officially a big deal.
And, as Carlton admits to Vertex Effects supremo, Mason Marangella, in a video interview on the guitar effects pedal brand’s YouTube channel, it was a lesson that a session guitar player had to be ready for anything.
Article continues below“He was doing the music for the Bill Cosby Fat Albert show. And I was just a new guy, probably number nine on the list, this young guy,” recalls Carlton. “I got a call to do a session, a picture call for Quincy Jones. So I go, and I was there for the second session – obviously, [jazz great] Dennis Budimir, or whoever it was, couldn’t make it, and they got the kid!”
The stage was all set for Carlton to do his thing. His job was clear. Quincy Jones was at the centre of it all, directing traffic. The sheet music was in front of them.
“I walk into the sound stage, and set my stuff up, and pull out the music, and it’s probably trumpets, saxophones, flutes,” says Carlton. “We do the first cue. They were all cues, dark, with the picture, Quincy cueing where the things happen, and it was written. So I played it.”
All good. But great producers have great ideas. Jones flipped the script on his hired guns.
“Then, the lesson comes for the young guy,” says Carlton. “Now, Quincy’s going to reorchestrate that same cue. ‘Okay, so give the guitar part to the flute players. Flute, you give your part to…’ All of a sudden, I’m getting somebody else’s part written differently than mine.”
“It was intimidating. I did it. But I was nervous
If you’ve spent any time playing flute or horn parts on guitar, you will understand Carlton’s panic – it is a question of where to put the fingers, how to phrase the parts as best you can as a cold bead of sweat gathers.
“It was intimidating,” he says. “I did it. But I was nervous.”
Many years later Carlton would work with Jones again. This time was different. He was well-established in the session scene, a first-call player. Tom Bähler had presented a ballad titled She’s Out Of My Life, and although Jones was originally of a mind to keep it back for Frank Sinatra, here it was being used for Michael Jackson’s 1979 album, Off The Wall. It needed some electric guitar.
“He was working very tightly with Quincy and they cut Greg Phillinganes’ piano and Michael’s vocal, and that’s when I got a call from Tom,” says Carlton. “So I show up for the session, and they play it for me, had a chord chart, and so I just played along [plays part] I started playing some voicings over... over the [melody].”
Carlton’s chords, the way they framed the melody, it was perfect.
“I did a pass like that, and Quincy looked at Bruce Swedien, the engineer, and he said, ‘Will it print?’ Bruce said, ‘It’s too low,’” says Carlton. There was Rhodes piano all over that track, occupying similar frequencies. But there was still some space there for Carlton to make his part count.
“I want to hear my beautiful chords against that beautiful thing,” he continues. “But that was a normal process; you give them something, and then they can say ‘Y’know, maybe try a higher register.’ So, I said, okay, I would kind of try some other things, and that’s when I came up with doing the harmonics. And that’s what really worked.”
The opening chords might have been swallowed by the Rhodes – and he never got to meet the King of Pop – but Carlton says was proud of his contribution to what would have been the fourth single off the album, and another platinum hit. And if you have seen Carlton playing live with his quartet, the chances are you might have seen him perform She’s Out Of My Mind as an instrumental.
“As little as I’m heard on that tune, all the little spots I’m really proud of.”
You can check out the full interview and more at the Vertex Effects YouTube channel, where Marangella speaks to the likes of Dann Huff, Daryl Stuermer, Dean Parks and more.
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