Jazz Guitarist Larry Coryell Welcomes a New Challenge

Larry Coryell, working jazz guitarist, relaxed for a moment at his hotel room here, then shifted into high gear. Phooey on historical conversation about himself and his accomplishments. He wanted to talk about his new quartet.

“I just brought Cyrus Chestnut into the group yesterday,” Coryell said.

Buster Williams, Stanley Cowell and Beaver Harris, the venerable jazzmen who have made up Coryell’s quartet through countless gigs and several albums over the past few years, are not playing with him on his current set of dates. Filling their slots are Chestnut, a journeyman jazz pianist; bassist Brian Torff, who has performed with George Shearing and Claude Bolling, and Cindy Blackman, a jazz drummer.

“I really like the new group,” Coryell said. “It’s young and fresh, and the chemistry among the people is wonderful. I’m going to book this group anywhere and everywhere, to keep it working.

“I’ve wanted to play with Chestnut for a long time. I played with him once in Japan, and I’m delighted with him. He has a great attitude.

“Cindy sat in with me . . . a couple of years ago. I took her phone number, and I never forgot her. Her timing is so good. She and Cyrus walk around all day singing Coltrane melodies. They are truly into the jazz life.

“That sort of youth rekindles the enthusiasm, the drive, in me,” said Coryell, 45. “It forces me to focus my energies on what needs to be accomplished. The challenge is to really focus and strive to go beyond what you’ve done before.

“I want to record the new group, obviously. They fit together so well, I could take them into the studio next week. I want to let them know that, even though they don’t have the drawing power of a Buster Williams or a Stanley Cowell, I have faith that soon they will.

“The key is to keep them working.”

Coryell knows about work and drawing power. He has played with Miles Davis, whose music he adores, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines and Betty Carter. His “Together” album with Emily Remler catapulted her into the national limelight a couple of years ago.

He currently has a new live album in the can, recently played a jazz festival in Martinique, tapes a pop radio show weekly in New York for Japanese radio and is scheduled to perform soon at the Kennedy Center in Washington with guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Sharon Isbin.

Coryell is planning on introducing some new compositions to the band--a bit of classical-bent stuff, perhaps, and some fusion, music to satisfy his electric soul and attract young audiences.

“You can’t be great all the time,” he said, “but you have to get your percentage up there as high as you can.”