Larry Carlton - Renegade Gentleman: Featuring Terry McMillan

Friday 1st April 1994
Larry Carlton - Renegade Gentleman: Featuring Terry McMillan

STYLE: Blues
RATING 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 20209-
LABEL: GRP 97442
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Martin Emerson

Larry Carlton is best known as a jazz guitarist who has worked with many well known artists like Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and the Crusaders and done session work for many CCM artists. Over the years he has been playing more and more blues songs in his concerts and due to the popularity of these songs he has released this album which is described as "The blues and rock side of the Grammy award winning jazz guitarist." Also featuring on the album is Terry McMillan who is probably best known for the session work he has done for many Christian musicians including Amy Grant. He has also played harmonica with Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis and Neil Young. Most of Larry's albums are all instrumental, though this album contains four vocal tracks. Larry sings on two, the first track "Crazy Mama" and "Never Say Naw" which has a slow atmospheric jazz start and some great blues riffs. Terry McMillan sings on the other two, "Cold Day In Hell" and "I Gotta Right" which has the best blues vocals on the album. Some of the best guitar playing has to be on "Anthem", Larry plays some wonderful fast riffs which must turn most good guitarists green with envy. The track is underlaid by some excellent keyboard playing from Matt Rollings. The harmonica playing of Terry McMillan is some of the best that I have heard, and the swapping of harmonica and guitar solos works very well, especially on tracks like "Farm Jazz". The merging of blues rock and jazz works well. This is a very impressive album, which will probably be enjoyed more by fans of good blues rather than Larry's usual following of jazz fans.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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