Murali Coryell (born October 27, 1969) is an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitarist and singer. Best known for performing live in small venues in New York State, Coryell has also opened for

George Thorogood George Lawrence Thorogood (born February 24, 1950) is an American musician, singer and songwriter from Wilmington, Delaware. His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the ...

, Gregg Allman, B.B. King and Wilson Pickett. While touring the United States, he uses local

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s for his performances rather than traveling with a regular backing band.

Life and career

Murali Coryell was born to Julie Coryell and famed

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

guitarist

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist. Early life Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...

. Murali's first interest was in playing the drums but, in a move he calls "inevitable", he switched to guitar at a young age. Wanting to avoid competition with his father and his brother,

Julian Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (give ...

, he perfected his own more mainstream style of soul and blues which draws comparisons to

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

and

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...

. Others have likened his style to the

Memphis soul Memphis soul, also known as the Memphis sound, is the most prominent strain of Southern soul. It is a shimmering, sultry style produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring melodic unison horn line ...

produced by labels such as Hi and Stax Records. Coryell graduated from

Staples High School Staples High School is a public high school located in the town of Westport, Connecticut, United States. Staples High School is named after Horace Staples, who founded the school on April 26, 1884. Westport is one of eight school districts in Dis ...

in Westport, Connecticut, in 1987. He received a BA in music theory and composition from the SUNY New Paltz Music Department in 1992. The title of his second album ''2120'' was a reference to 2120 South Michigan Avenue, the address of now-defunct R&B record label

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...

. Coryell's maternal grandmother was the actress Carol Bruce. In 2014, Coryell was nominated for a

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, " ...

in the 'DVD of the Year' category for ''Adventures Live''.

Discography

*''Eyes Wide Open'' (1995) *''2120'' (1999) *''The Coryells'' (2000) – with Larry and Julian Coryell *''Strong as I Need to Be'' (2003) *''The Future of Blues'' – EP (2005) *''Don't Blame it on Me'' (2007) *''The Same Damn Thing'' (2008) *''Sugar Lips'' (2009) *''Live'' (2012) *''Restless Mind'' (2014) *''Mr. Senator'' (2016) *''Made in Texas'' (2019)

References

External links

The Future of Blues – Murali Coryell's official homepageNew England Art Rock Society interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coryell, Murali 1969 births Living people American blues guitarists American male guitarists State University of New York at New Paltz alumni Guitarists from New York (state) 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians Staples High School alumni