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38 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017
I had brain damage. My family—especially my wife—freaked out. It
caused unbelievable emotional stress for them. And for one month I was
just unresponsive. My wife brought me home and did all these antibiotic
drips on me. We had to do this day and night, and it wore her out. I don’t
remember everything, but at one point Tracey told me, ‘You almost died
twice.’ When you have something like that happen to you and then you
come back from it, you have a tremendous appreciation for your life.”
So how did Coryell make it through this dark period?
“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, baby,” he said with chuckle, reciting the
Buddhist mantra. “All the members in Orlando chanted for me when I
couldn’t chant for myself. It took me three months, but I came back. Now
I’m back 100 percent and I think I’m playing better.”
Coryell’s attempt to regain the muscle memory in his hands was an
arduous process that involved endless hours of practicing on his instrument
at home. “I couldn’t play,” he recalled. “I was so incapacitated, I had
no coordination. It was scary. In the beginning, I would take a nylonstring
guitar and go into the bathroom, where there would be more
reverb, and I would just play Bach—this one lute prelude that I learned in
my first guitar lesson way back in New York in the fall of 1965. At first, I
just sounded awful. Nothing was working. I had to work long and hard
to get the muscle memory back.”
Throughout the month of August, Coryell continued his intensive
woodshedding process at his brother Jim’s house in Chicago. “I practiced
and practiced on a black Cort guitar, a Larry Coryell signature model I
had given him. Whenever I go to Chicago, I just borrow my brother’s guitar.
I shedded a ton on that axe.”
In late August, he began going to Chicago restaurants and sitting in
with local bands. “I’d just walk up to them with my black Cort and ask,
‘Can I sit in?’ And they’d let me,” he said. “I did this over and over until I
gradually started getting my strength back. I sat in at the Jazz Showcase
during the Charlie Parker celebration that [venue founder] Joe Segal does
every August. I played with Ira Sullivan. I listened to his band the first
set, then I went up and said, ‘Can I play?’ He let me sit in, and he let me
play as much as I wanted on the second set. Half the stuff I had never
played before in my life … tunes like ‘I Get A Kick Out Of You.’ That was
the best I ever played, and I didn’t even know the tune. It always goes
like that. Tunes that I know too well I sound like shit on. Jazz is all about
spontaneity.”
By October, Coryell had regained enough chops to go out on a minitour
of Europe with a special edition of The Eleventh House that featured
Joey DeFrancesco on trumpet and organ (filling in for Randy Brecker,
who was performing in China) along with original Eleventh House bassist
Danny Trifan (Lee was locked into commitments with the Dizzy
Gillespie Alumni All-Star Band) and drummer Guido Bay (filling in for
an ailing Mouzon, who was fighting a debilitating kidney disease).
The new Eleventh House album isn’t due out until spring, but
Barefoot Man should satisfy Coyell fans until then. His fleet-fingered
solos are apparent from the funky opener “Sanpaku” to the mysterioso
vibe of “If Miles Were Here” to the wailing “Improv On 97.” The collection
closes on a swinging note with “Blue Your Mind,” which has Coryell
dropping in quotes from “Flying Home” and “Seven Come Eleven” in
tribute to Charlie Christian, another one of his guitar heroes.
Since recovering from his health scare this summer, Coryell has
returned to the scene with a vengeance, exuding that same joyful spirit
he brought with him to the Big Apple more than 50 years ago.
“Larry’s got this almost childlike enthusiasm about music,” Lee said.
“It’s exhilarating when you’re about to go on stage with him because
he’s always so excited to do it. It was the same way during my 10 years
with Dizzy. We could be traveling 16 hours to get to a gig, and he might
be exhausted, but once he hit the stage it was always a party. Dizzy was
always excited to put on a good show, keep it positive and make it fun.
And Larry’s the same way. He’s got a great energy and is such a loving,
giving human being. I love this guy to death, man.”
DB