Jazz Man Is Well-Manored in the Country

Guitarist Larry Carlton calls in from his home just south of Nashville. The former Los Angeles resident and Grammy winner, whose reputation rests on a string of successful contemporary jazz albums and session work with everyone from the Crusaders to Steely Dan, has a few spare moments before heading off to a recording date with Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.

Carlton talks enthusiastically about his new home in Tennessee, where he has lived since October, and how he recently played with Atkins at the Ryman Auditorium (home of the Grand Ole Opry) and sat in with Steve Wariner at the country music festival Fanfare. Could it be that Carlton, purveyor of slick urban beats and jazzy guitar licks, has gone country?

Not exactly.

“I’ve wanted to live in a rural environment for the last 20 years,” said the Torrance-born guitarist who plays the Coach House on Saturday. “But I didn’t move to Nashville looking for work; I didn’t move here for the music. That’s been a bonus.”

Carlton moved to his 200-acre spread near the Nashville suburb of Franklin to be close to his teenage children from a previous marriage.

“We go fishing, we go horseback riding. I’ve got a garden and a studio out back. We just hang out.”

He acknowledges that the change of scenery has had a subtle influence on his forthcoming album, “The Gift,” from the GRP label. It will be his first solo effort since 1993’s “Renegade Gentleman.” (“Larry & Lee,” a collaboration with fellow guitarist Lee Ritenour was released last year.)

“There are a lot of songwriter showcases going on here, and it’s been very interesting to hear these wonderful songs on a consistent basis,” he said. “There’s a place near us called Green’s Grocery in Leipers Fork that has showcases. . . . I try to go in once a week. There’ll be two or three songwriters doing a round robin of songs, and hearing all this wonderful music has definitely had an influence. When I hear a song like this, done with just guitar, sometimes it just gives me the chills.”

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But Carlton said the new album, scheduled for September release, won’t be all that different from his previous recordings.

“It’s similar to my earlier work. [Saxophonist] Kirk Whalum, [bassist] Larry Kimpel and [drummer] Greg Bissonette are on it. I like to think I’ve always been someone who writes very melodic material.”

And that last tune he wrote for the album, the one called “Riding the Treasure,” written in Tennessee? “I use a capo, which is something often done in country music, and the head is written to be played very fast--a flat-out pickin’ thing--but it sounds like me. It’s not a country tune. I probably would have written something like it even if I hadn’t moved.”

Carlton professes not to miss Los Angeles, except for a certain Mexican restaurant he used to visit on a weekly basis, but it was here that he developed into one of the best-known guitarists on the contemporary scene. He began playing at age 6, heard guitarist Joe Pass playing on Gerald Wilson’s “Moment of Truth” album when he was 14 and dedicated himself to playing jazz.

“I remember sitting in the front row of Donte’s when I was 16 watching Joe and thinking, ‘I can do that.’ He made it look so easy. So I went home and sat on the side of my bed with the guitar, and I couldn’t do that.”

But persistence paid off.

“I was a player,” Carlton said. “I played clubs and jam sessions, that was my whole life, from the age of 15 to 21.”

He met pianist Joe Sample at a recording session for Donovan, and three days later Sample called him to record with the Crusaders.

Carlton went on to establish himself as one of the most visible guitarists in the business, both with his own albums and with a range of session work that included the much-lauded guitar solo on Steely Dan’s 1976 single “Kid Charlemagne.”

In 1988, Carlton was the victim of a shooting attack outside his Hollywood Hills home (he was shot in the neck by a passing bicyclist; the case is still unsolved) that temporarily left him without control of his left arm.

“It made me realize that we’re all the same, that good and bad things can happen at any time. It was a very humbling experience. I was fortunate that nine months after the shooting I was back to playing, if not better than ever, and had full use of my arm.”

The experience also gave him pause in the pursuit of his career. Carlton tries to work only six months of the year, with three or four months on the road. The rest of the time, he writes music and spends time with his family.

Carlton and his wife, Michele Pillar, share some similar talents--Pillar is heard singing one number on the guitarist’s new album. But while Pillar is a horse enthusiast who shows her animals around the country, gentleman farmer Carlton claims to be no more than an amateur when it comes to riding. “I’m just a cowboy,” he said, laughing.

Hmmm. Maybe there’ll be a Larry Carlton country album one day after all.

* Larry Carlton plays Saturday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 7 and 9:30 p.m. $21.50. (714) 496-8930.