Larry Eugene Carlton was born March 2, 1948, in Torrance, California. He first came to prominence playing with the Crusaders from 1971 to 1976, whose own story is told in full in their JazzProfiles.com profile, developing the lithe, sweet-toned, blues-inflected sound and distinctive volume-pedal technique that would define his signature style. He simultaneously became one of the most in-demand studio musicians in Los Angeles, recording on as many as 500 albums a year at his peak and appearing on over 100 gold albums, working with Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Sammy Davis Jr., Herb Alpert, Quincy Jones, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt, among dozens of others.

His most famous single credit came on Steely Dan's Royal Scam (1976): the guitar solo on "Kid Charlemagne," which Rolling Stone magazine has ranked among the three best guitar licks in rock music. That recognition helped launch a solo career on Warner Bros. Records starting in 1978, six albums released between 1978 and 1984, and led to his signature nickname, "Mr. 335," a reference to the Gibson ES-335 guitar behind his tone.

With more than 3,000 studio sessions behind him by the early 1980s, Carlton picked up four Grammy nominations and won in 1981 for the theme to Hill Street Blues, a collaboration with Mike Post, and was voted NARAS's "Most Valuable Player" three years running.

Carlton's tone, warm, sustained, and volume-pedal-shaped, became one of the most instantly recognizable guitar sounds of the crossover-jazz and studio-session era, equally credible in the Crusaders' jazz-funk grooves and on some of the biggest pop and rock records of the 1970s and '80s.