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Mackie At Home and On-stage With Guitar Legend, Larry Carlton.

When the name Larry Carlton is mentioned many images come to mind:
Countless sessions that include over 100 gold album by the likes of Joni Mitchell, John Lennon, Barbara Streisand, and Michael Jackson. Film soundtracks ("Against All Odds"), and television themes ("Hill Street Blues").  Multiple Grammy nominations, "Kid Charlemagne", a solo career that includes 20 albums, Gibson ES-335, Showbud volume pedal, Dumble amplifiers, and Mackie mixers.  Mackie mixers you say? Well, maybe Mackie mixers are not as ubiquitously associated with
Larry as the ES-335, but Mr. 335 gets quite a bit of work done at home with his 24*8.  From pre-production demos, to flying in sequenced parts to his masters, working at home allows Larry fine tune every detail of his compositions before going into final
production.

When asked how elaborate his demos are he replied, "Pretty elaborate on a lot of the tunes.  Once I'm into a song I hear the arrangement, I'll go ahead and put the string lines on, and the bell part, a little percussion.  So when I bring it into the studio and play the demo for the other players they know exactly what is going to happen."  Larry adds, "I think by doing good charts and elaborate demos, that's what makes it sound like a Larry Carlton production."

FINGERPRINTS, of course, is evidence of Larry's hard work, eloquent taste, and attention to detail.  It is also his twentieth solo album. Recorded at Sound Kitchen in Nashville, FINGERPRINTS proves that Larry is in top form as a songwriter and guitarist.  Listening to FINGERPRINTS confirms at least one thing; Larry is relaxed.  His guitar playing reveals an even deeper level of confidence and soul that comes only from life experience and a absolute certainty of what he wants from his music.  "I honestly don't think anymore when I play," Larry said.  "I just watch the changes go by if I'm reading a chart, and I just play.  I'm glad to hear that it sounds relaxed.
I've just grown to that point after playing the guitar for forty six years now that I just play." 

On the heels of finishing up a solo tour, Larry is headed back out on the road with FOURPLAY (http://www.fourplayjazz.com/) for a fall tour that starts in the U.S. and takes the band through Europe before wrapping up in November.  The tour is in support of their latest album "Yes, Please".  This album is the third Larry has recorded with the group since the departure of Lee Ritenour.  "It was a great call
to get... obviously.  Harvey, Nate, and Bob are all great guys and world class players, so I'm thrilled to be making music with them."

On tour Larry will be using his trusty ES-335 through his custom Dumble amplifier that he has had for over fifteen years.  One interesting aspect of Larry's live rig is the implementation of the Mackie 1604-VLZ PRO.  Larry mics his Dumble with a Shure SM57 and runs that into his Mackie 1604-VLZ PRO that carries his dry guitar sound to his effects processors that are connected to the mixer. "The tone of my reverb is from a microphone on my speaker, rather than preamp out," Larry reveals.  "I'm treating my Mackie as a mixer just like if I was in the studio so that my effects, which there is only a reverb and a chorus, get hit with the sound of a microphone."

What keeps Larry Carlton as passionate about music today as he was thirty years ago?  "When it's time to play the guitar, it's the most passionate thing I can do right then," Larry reflected.  "Why that continues?  It must be because I'm a musician and my motives for making music are about the passion and not about anything else.  So
there is just a consistency in my approach to life because my motive is to feel that rush of making the music."

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