My first job that wasn’t washing pots and pans in a kitchen was an on-air shift at Elkhart, Indiana jazz station WVPE in the 80s. When I started there, I was a kid raised on heavy metal, into punk rock, and just discovering hip hop. I didn’t know much about jazz and wasn’t especially interested in it.

But when you sit behind a mic and play record after record, day after day, you can’t help absorbing it. At first it all sounds the same. Then your own tastes begin to emerge. You learn to hear the soft stuff destined for dentist offices for what it is, but you also start to hear the soul and spirit in so much of the music. A lot of my favorites to this day, Miles Davis, Art Pepper, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Donald Byrd, Frank Morgan, came to me sitting behind that mic, playing vinyl and CDs for the local community and reading liner notes.

One of those discoveries was Tributaries by Larry Coryell, his friend Joe Beck, and a young John Scofield. I loved it then, and I still go back to it regularly.

Coryell, Scofield, and Beck recorded it in four sessions at Soundmixers in New York City in the summer and fall of 1979. Three acoustic guitars. No rhythm section. Coryell was 36 and had just stepped away from electric fusion. Scofield was 27 and barely had a solo record out. Beck was an old friend and peer. It took forever for this thing to show up on streaming, but a few years ago, it finally did.

Whatever you listen to every day, give this one a spin and tell me what you think. Its feel is singular. It swings, it rocks, and at times it’s unexpectedly sweet. I can’t think of another record that sounds like it. If you can, tell me in the comments.

These three guitarists sound free, but they never lose each other. They drift apart playfully, quote a line from “Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” then snap back into place and finish as a trio of acoustic guitars. That conversation, the support, the wandering, the snap back, is the whole argument of the record.

Listen:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEHjfonRmR4&list=OLAK5uy_mI0e-wx797iwwXX9p0H_EQeMXOLkmAi48

AppleMusic: https://music.apple.com/us/album/tributaries-with-john-scofield-joe-beck/1210132482

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2HInyPVpZUlroVCYJT0nSf

Pay attention to when the trio drops into unison and then breaks apart again. The breaks are where the record lives.

The Jazz Journal’s 1991 retrospective called it an update of the Great Guitars tradition — three virtuosos in a room finding out what’s possible without a rhythm section or a net. Coryell’s Wikipedia page is a useful map of where this record sits in his catalog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Coryell

Three acoustic guitars. No peers.

Research Notes

Artist: Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017). Born Galveston, TX. Widely considered the “godfather of fusion” — pioneered melding jazz, country, and rock. Turned to acoustic guitar in the late 1970s when fusion lost steam. Wrote monthly column for Guitar Player magazine 1977–1989.

Album: Tributaries (1979). Larry Coryell with John Scofield and Joe Beck. Recorded at Soundmixers, New York City — four sessions: August 17 & 23 and September 17 & 19, 1979. Label: Arista Novus (AN 3017). 8 tracks on original vinyl. CD reissue: Novus, 1990-02-08 (12 tracks, catalog 3072-2-N).

Collaborators:

  • John Scofield (b. Dec 26, 1951, Dayton OH) — was 27 at time of recording; had just signed to Enja and released first solo album (1977). Replaced Pat Metheny in Gary Burton’s quartet. Joined Miles Davis band in 1982 — this album predates all of that.
  • Joe Beck (July 29, 1945 – July 22, 2008, Philadelphia) — longtime friend of Coryell’s. Session guitarist for Miles Davis, Gil Evans, James Brown. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Most Valuable Player Award winner (5 times). Died of lung cancer.

Context: Tributaries came right at the moment Coryell abandoned electric fusion. Shortly after, he formed The Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. This record — three acoustic guitarists, no rhythm section — was part of that acoustic turn.

Critical reception: Jazz Journal (1991 retrospective) described it as updating the Great Guitars tradition. RateYourMusic: 4.21/5.

Streaming: Available on Spotify. No Bandcamp page found.

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