Larry Carlton

Larry Carlton is one of those guitarists who shaped the sound of an entire era without most casual listeners even knowing his name — and that's actually kind of impressive. The Torrance, California kid who came up through the studios became the secret weapon behind so many iconic records: Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, countless others. His tone on that Gibson ES-335 is instantly recognizable — warm, fluid, never showy for its own sake. Three Grammy wins, including back-to-back Best Pop Instrumental Performance awards in '81 and '87, tell part of the story, but the real testament is those hundreds of sessions and over 100 gold records. As a solo artist he brought that same taste and groove to his own records. I genuinely think he's one of the most underrated names in American music history.

Name (English)

Larry Carlton

Name (Japanese)

ラリー・カールトン

Reading

らりー・かーるとん

Born

March 2, 1948 (age 78)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Rat

Origin

Torrance, California, United States

Occupation

guitarist / composer / music educator / jazz musician / singer

High school

Narbonne High School

Awards & achievements

• 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
• 1981 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance
• 1987 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://larrycarlton.com/
• Xhttps://x.com/LarryCarlton
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A9%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3

Tags

• California
• guitarist
• composer
• music educator

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.