Larry Coryell & Philip Catherine
Jazz At Berlin Philharmonic XI: The Last Call
ACT, 2021

ACT releases the latest concert given by the guitar duo of Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine.

Philip Catherine and Larry Coryell are two of the greatest guitarists in the world expressed respectively by the European and American jazz scenes. The two musicians played together for a long time in the 70s and in the same period they recorded two studio albums Twin House in 1977 and Splendid in 1978. ACT released Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XI: The Last Call last February. The album is dedicated to Coryell who died about a month after the duo’s last concert together.

The album develops different musical and emotional atmospheres: virtuosity as in “Miss Julie”, melancholy such as in “Homecomings” and “Manha de Carnaval”), you’ll find joy and swing in “Jemin-Eye’n”, “Embraceable You” is a beautiful ballad and “Bag’s Groove” reminds us of the blues. The two guitarists know each other very well: they chase each other, interact continuously and with a lot of complicity as well as with playful musical irony.

The collection closes with a version of “Green Dolphin Street” which features guests Jan Lundgren on piano (he is also present in “Embraceable You”), Lars Danielsson on double bass (who is also featured in “Bag’s Groove”) and Paolo Fresu on trumpet.

Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XI: The Last Call is a beautiful album and a wonderful memory of Larry Coryell. It is also the extreme high point of a collaboration that has lasted almost fifty years. Not to be missed if you love the guitar, but a record that will appeal to all fans.
(EM)