AAJ Review: Larry Coryell's 11th House, Seven Secrets

**jkelman** · 05-26-2017

My review of Seven Secrets, the reunion record from Larry Coryell's 11th House...released, sadly, following his passing early this year.

Time truly is fleeting; just look at the circumstances surrounding the release of Larry Coryell's Seven Secrets, the guitarist's first studio release with his 11th House group in 41 years.

The idea for reuniting this seminal '70s fusion group first came in 2015, when the lineup for a previously booked one-week engagement at New York's The Blue Note club unexpectedly fell through. Rather than cancel, Coryell suggested bringing most of the 11th House's original members back together--trumpeter Randy Brecker, drummer Alphonse Mouzon and bassist John Lee, who replaced founding bassist Danny Trifan for the group's second album, Level One (Arista, 1975)--along with, Coryell's son, guitarist Julian Coryell, replacing Mike Mandel due to the keyboardist's ill health.

That July, 2015 Blue Note gig went so well that plans began to form for a full-fledged reunion, including both an album and a 2016 tour that included a planned stop at the heralded Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Unfortunately, unexpected complications from what was described as a routine procedure put Coryell out of commission, resulting in the tour being cancelled. Still, by the time that tour was to take place the tracks for Seven Secrets were in the can, and there were hopes for rebooking gigs at a later date.

Then the first blow struck: Mouzon--a drummer/keyboardist who, a solo artist in his own right with his own discography, was a member of Weather Report's first, groundbreaking incarnation in addition to subsequent work with artists including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Jeff Beck and Al Di Meola--passed away, age 68, on Christmas Day, 2016--just three months after being diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.

Nevertheless, the first official notice of Seven Secrets' release came a month later, on January 27, 2017, when Savoy Jazz announced a street date for the album of June 2, 2017...and the first of what was expected to be a larger series of tour dates for that summer with an as-yet-unannounced drummer to substitute for Mouzon.

Then an even greater tragedy struck, just 23 days after Savoy Jazz's initial press release: Coryell passed way, of heart failure, on February 19, 2017, age 73.

Continue reading here...