Larry Mizell

Larry Mizell (born February 17, 1944) is an American musician, composer, arranger, and record producer who worked with his brother Fonce Mizell as part of "The Corporation", a group of songwriters and record producers assembled in 1969 by Berry Gordy. They created many hit records for The Jackson 5 (Michael Jacksonand brothers.)

Larry Mizell was born Laurence C. Mizell in Englewood, New Jersey, on February 17, 1944. They are cousins to Run-DMC member Jam Master Jay and poet/lyricist Andy Razaf as well as Ronnie Spector, Estelle Bennett and Nedra Talley of the 1960s girl group The Ronettes.

Larry and his older brother, Fonce Mizell (1943—2011), played trumpet in their school band. While in high school, the Mizell brothers formed a doo-wop group called Nikons with their classmate and future business/music partner Freddie Perren. All three of them later attended Howard University in Washington DC. where they formed a jazz-harmony quartet the Vanlords with their college friend John Butler, in 1961. Larry studied electrical engineering, whereas Fonce studied music at Howard.

Before graduating from Howard University in 1965, the Mizell brothers founded their first record label Hog, and released a hit single "Baby I Want You", performed by The Moments, an R&B vocal trio of Al Goodman, William "Billy" Brown, and Harry Ray.

One of their teachers at Howard was Donald Byrd with whom they worked on three albums in the early 1970s.

After Howard, Larry earned a master's degree from the New York University.

After graduating from New York University, Larry accepted a position at the Grumman Aerospace Corporation. As an electrical engineer, he performed testing and reliability work on the Lunar Module for the NASA Apollo program. He was one of the first to do research on liquid crystals, which today are used in displays (LCD).

In 1969, Fonce, Freddie Perren, and Deke Richards joined the record producer Berry Gordy's new group The Corporation as songwriters. In the following two years, the group released many hits for The Jackson 5, including "I Want You Back" (1969), "ABC" (1970), "The Love You Save" (1970), "Mama's Pearl" (1971) and "Maybe Tomorrow" (1971). For a few tracks, they were joined by Perren's songwriter wife Christine Yarian.

After The Corporation disbanded in 1972, Larry left his corporate job and joined Fonce to form a music production company, Sky High Productions. In 1973, they produced the album Black Byrd for jazz and R&B trumpeter Donald Byrd. Mizell brothers provided the lyrics, as well as vocals for a few tracks. The album was executive produced by George Butler with following musicians: Wilton Felder, and Chuck Rainey (bass); Dean Parks, and David T. Walker (guitar); Stephanie Spruilland Bobbye Hall (percussion); Joe Sample (piano); and Freddie Perren (synthesizer and vocals). The album was Blue Note Records' best-selling album of the 1970s. It also received a Grammy nomination and established the Mizell brothers' signature approach to jazz.

Mizell brothers worked on two more Byrd albums—Street Lady (1973) and Stepping into Tomorrow (1975).

In late 1973, their sound was heard on jazz flutist Bobbi Humphrey's third studio album Blacks And Blues (Blue Note Records). Larry composed all six tracks, whereas Fonce played clavinet and trumpet. In 1977, the Mizell brothers produced Gary Bartz's album Music Is My Sanctuary (Capital Records). The following year, they produced A Taste of Honey's self-titled debut LP. Released as their debut single, the song became a very popular "crossover" disco song, topping the American pop, soul, and disco charts. It was also the first certified platinum single in the history of Capitol Records for selling over two million copies.

In addition, Larry and Fonce also worked with R&B, soul and blues stars such as Edwin Starr, Aaron Sledge, Johnny "Hammond" Smith, Margie Evans, and The Miracles (album Renaissance with Billy Griffin instead of Smokey Robinson).

Mizell brothers retired from music production work in the early 1980s. Their last published production was Mary Wells' 1981 album In and Out of Love with Fred Jackson, Jr. (saxophone); Greg Perry (keyboards, synthesizer); Greg Moore (guitar); Phyllis St. James and Edna Wright (backing vocals).

In 2005, Blue Note Records released a compilation album of their music titled, Mizell Brothers at Blue Note Records: 1973 to 1977 and Beyond.

Their work has been sampled by many celebrated musicians such as DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith ("Practice"), A Tribe Called Quest ("Footprints"), DJ Krush ("Big City Lover"), Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam ("Let the Beat Hit 'Em"), J Dilla, Armand Van Helden ("Flowerz"), Art of Noise ("Beat Box") and the Orb ("Moonbuilding 2073 AD").

Larry has a son, Larry Mizell, Jr.