Larry Carlton’s guitar on the Steely Dan track “Kid Charlemagne” is often cited as evidence of his musical mastery. It is, of course, a masterpiece, certified by Rolling Stone, no less, as among the greatest rock guitar solos of all time. Objective listening reveals it as a synthesis of passion and intelligence, beginning over a prickly funk beat and winding through unorthodox chord sequences like a stream unstopped by vexing terrain. The note selections are perfect and perfectly timed, sketching a motif at the top with deliberate, unhurried phrasing, sweetened by a dash of sly vibrato, and then accelerating, the notes still silvery smooth yet coming faster, elaborating on those opening notes, and then suddenly clanging into what sounds at first like a clinker, a mistake, only to stand revealed as a perfect pivot for transition into a B section. And then Carlton ties it together with a bluesy coda—a ribbon on the package.
Unarguably, this is the definitive Steely Dan guitar solo, released in 1976 on their The Royal Scam album. But it only hints at the reach of Carlton’s work over these past forty-plus years, which includes a prolific session career in Los Angeles, encompasses long runs as a member of two iconic instrumental groups, the Crusaders and Fourplay, and embraces a catalog of albums recorded under his own name, beginning in 1968 and growing still.
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