Larry Carlton - "Four Hands & A Heart, Volume One"

Spotify Listen Link: Larry Carlton – Four Hands & A Heart Vol. 1


2013 Grammy Nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album


Hmm, okay, let's see here. An intro. Help me, oh wise wiki. There's no page I can readily find on the album itself. But Larry is a 65-year-old jazz musician with a long record of albums out. Though this one was not a winner, he has won four Grammy awards in the past for work both as a solo artist, as well as a session recorder for many other bands. He also worked not he theme song for "Magnum, P.I."

Also, side note from the end of this, as I look for videos - I'm the idiot who's still learning all she can about music, and didn't realize some of these songs have been around longer than me. Lifelong learner here, promise.

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I didn't expect such a gentle kick-off with "Room 335." There is a light strumming keeping the beat, and a guitar taking somewhat of a melody with no real destination. He comes in as he sees fit, and it works really well. The song's just plain pleasant and sweet.

"Nite Crawler" obviously, probably, has nothing to do with X-Men, but I did get a little excited by the prospect when I saw the title. Anywhos, it's got a little Latin beat happening in the background, with a smooth guitar overtop, telling the story of a hot night (hey, instrumental albums demand stories from the listeners). I appreciate the positioning of a steady beat against a more light-hearted guitar, and look forward to hearing how this all works in the coming tracks as well.

It kind of seems appropriate that each piece of this moves upward, given the title "Point It Up." I may just be making that up, but whatever. This song's got a very precise structure to it, breaking into pieces with continual phrases on and on. We lose some of the loose feeling of freedom on this one though.

"Rio Samba" starts with this electronic sort of sound, and the other instruments come in in a way I can only describe as a bit messy sounding. I don't know about this one. It seems un-clean to me, but every instrument seems to be trying so very hard to keep their own rhythms throughout. Okay, about halfway through they finally seem to find some common ground that sort of works out a little better. Sort of.

Now this one, "Don't Give It Up," is still really simple, but I think the beat, at least, gives you something to snap along to. It's got that smokey, back-room jazz feel that just feels good in your heart to grove to. Not much else is added into the track, but the guitar, bass, and drums do a fine job on their own.

"(It Was) Only Yesterday" has a longing, sad sound to it. Even as the pitch rises, it sounds like tears. I mean, look at the title of the song, and you can just imagine what the meaning is behind it. Lost love or a lost life, I'm not sure which, but no matter, the track is just a really down one in the middle of a lonely night.

I would've thought that "Last Night" was a blues song, given the early sounds, but just the slight addition of a block beat takes it away from being that. It doesn't really take on a full theme or persona of its own, but it does move steadily for close to four minutes while we listen to an electric guitar just play on for its own story.

"Song for Katie" has a somewhat familiar sound to it, I have to say. Can't place it exactly of course, but there's some influential thing over the main guitar. Again, things are kept very, very simple, with that guitar taking on its own tune. While I don't have much more to say on each and every song, I promise that, unlike a lot of the albums in this category that tended to get repetitive, this does maintain its own sound between tracks. That's something to be admired there, at the very least.

Oh yeah, we've totally heard "Sleepwalk" before. It's even got this romantic, dreamy feel to the production, with everything just being beyond reach through a cloud of mist. Ah poetic writing, all because I just need to keep talking. Seriously though, this is lovely, just lovely.

"10 PM"comes at us in a deeper, nighttime tone. It plays out just all sorts of full of these undertones that even I can just barely make out. The guitar on top is hitting a few punctuated top notes, but nothing to major as to command much presence. It's a great background piece though, sitting just beyond understanding for just over five minutes.

A slow pretty one. "For Love Alone" has an interesting echo-ish sound to it. If I didn't know better, I would almost compare this to a sitar. It's still a guitar though, no question really there. Anywhos, as I said - a slow, pretty song plays here, just kind of soft and gently in the background. It's not entirely thought provoking, which is nice and relaxing. Ooh, the shaker was unexpected, and does add just a bit of an extra layer. That's sort of interesting.

"Strikes Twice" strikes me as a funny little song, since there was a Samba song earlier. This has sort of the same little sound to it. You could certainly get a salsa-esq dance going to it, if you knew how to. I don't, but in my head it works out perfectly! Ah, imagination.

Then you get this kind of odd recording that sounds like backwoods playing from back in the south. "Springville" takes it out of blues and salsa and into this, albeit still gentle, picking along the stream. I mean, it's really, really cool. This kind of stuff you just don't hear often enough. It's not quite jam session, but it's not quite a concise composition of any kind.

"Mulberry Street" is the final go-around on this one. It's much more rock-n-roll than I would have expected, given the title. Blame Rascal Flatts for giving me a pre-conceived notion of what anything remotely sounding like "Mayberry" should sound like. Country, country is how it should all sound, duh. This is not. It's not bad, but it's not grasping either. It's just a nice little final get-together of the musicians completing all this lovely work.


Added to My Playlist:

• "Room 335"
• "Springville"

So this one was basically just a nice easy listening experience. I mean, every single track was pretty ridiculously simple, but maintained their individuality. The artist created something just on that nice, even-level field that was cool to hear.