Larry Carlton is on the short list of iconic jazz/fusion guitarists who emerged between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, bringing more attention toward the subgenre that mixes jazz with rock and other popular music forms.
And during his late show at the Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton on July 24, “Mr. 335” (a nickname based upon his frequent use of the hollow-bodied electric Gibson ES-335 guitar model) mixed material from his 50-year solo recording career with all-instrumental arrangements of tracks from the heady pop band he’s most associated with, Steely Dan.
It was the 74-year-old guitarist’s second consecutive night of performing two shows, with the evening’s early set spotlighting his additional work with The Crusaders, the jazz group he helped reach popularity in the first half of the 1970s before his Steely Dan sessions during the second half of that decade. And the capacity show was the exclamation point of the Funky Biscuit’s five-night 11th anniversary celebration, which included prior performances by the bluesy Joanna Connor, pop icons Pure Prairie League, and the rootsy Honey Island Swamp Band.
The Torrance, Calif., native’s lengthy session career also includes recordings with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Scott, and Joan Baez. His band for this occasion included his son, bassist Travis Carlton, tenor saxophonist Mark Douthit, trombonist Barry Green, keyboardist Quinn Johnson, and drummer John Ferraro. And after the senior Carlton walked on to the stage at 9:15 p.m., waving and smiling, it didn’t take long for him to deliver what the crowd seemed clearly there for.
“Black Friday,” the shuffling track from the 1975 Steely Dan album Katy Lied, paid homage to a departed friend, since Carlton didn’t even play on the original recording (the rhythm tracks and solo were performed by Walter Becker, the band’s founding guitarist, who died in 2017). Douthit played the vocal melody on the first verse; Carlton on the second, both proving masters of taste and the use of space between notes.
“Josie,” from the 1977 Steely Dan release Aja, followed. Carlton and Douthit again alternated vocal simulation on the verses, and Johnson’s chords and solo captured the spirit of the track’s original keyboardists, Victor Feldman and Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen.
A four-time Grammy Award winner, Carlton also sang intermittently early in his solo career, but his vocal career ended because of a 1988 act of random violence outside of his Room 335 recording studio in Los Angeles. Shot in the throat, he suffered a shattered vocal cord and nerve damage, resulting in hospitalization and extensive rehab. On this night, his infectious smile, sense of humor, and the joy evident in his playing illustrated that he realizes how close he came to it all ending nearly 35 years ago. At one point, after executing a blistering run with his left hand across the fretboard, he comically shook the circulation back into it as the crowd laughed.
“Have you ever driven to work, thought something was a good idea, and then won a Grammy for it?” he asked to introduce one of the highlights of his middle solo career spotlight.
“I was listening to the Doobie Brothers tune ‘Minute By Minute,’ and thought it would make a good instrumental. So I called up Michael McDonald, Kirk Whalum and Christopher Cross to play on it. All I had to do was play a stinkin’ melody part for it and I won a Grammy.”
From his 1987 album Discovery, the track won the award for “Best Pop Instrumental Performance” that year. After that 6/8-timed ballad, the horn players left the stage for the next two tracks. “Smiles and Smiles To Go,” a favorite from Carlton’s 1986 disc Alone/But Never Alone, showcased his tone and touch as his son and Ferraro brought the volume to a whisper during the midsection. And the ballad “10:00 P.M.,” from his 1982 effort Sleepwalk, featured a creatively deranged neo-classical piano solo by Johnson. Carlton then went back to the Steely Dan well to provide exclamation points.
“These are the two notes I played to introduce this song,” he said, playing the stinging, ringing intro to “Black Cow,” the strutting Aja track. Douthit and Green, the returning horn section, started a late highlight reel of expert accompaniment, which then shifted toward two cuts from Steely Dan’s banner 1976 release, The Royal Scam.
“I’m going to play this solo exactly like the record,” Carlton said to introduce the song he may be best-known for throughout his career, “Kid Charlemagne.” “And if I don’t, I want you to know that I meant to do it that way!”
Carlton’s break was indeed very close to as great as his titanic original, with Johnson — in only his first tour with the guitar great — providing excellent chording. The veteran guitarist arguably makes every note count more than any other living six-stringer, and his opening chord, interaction with the horn section, and signature late solo also highlighted “Don’t Take Me Alive.”
“Sleepwalk,” Carlton’s title 1982 cover arrangement of Santo & Johnny’s 1959 instrumental hit, proved the perfect encore to relax the audience after its Steely Dan feeding frenzy. The only drawback was that it ended the show at only the 80-minute mark.
Retirement is in the near future for Carlton, who now lives in Tennessee and says he’ll only have a full tour schedule this year and next before downshifting his itinerary by more than half thereafter. So any show at any venue could be his last there, and if this was his farewell at the Funky Biscuit, the master of clean tones made one hell of a concise closing statement.