scott lafaro interview

© 2021 No Treble, LLC and respective copyright holders. Kuhn remembers hearing that it was a St. Christopher medal that LaFaro always wore that helped to identify his badly burned body. One day, however, a friend talked me into using it full time. Therefore, I’m beginning to wonder if Scott played a lot of the fast scalar passages across the neck. The two albums released by Riverside Records from that fabled performance, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, have long stood as his epitaph. Friedman relates in Jade Visions, “He used to play my piano, and was very interested in minor 7th chords with the flat 5th. It sounded to me, based on the sound of the bass on the recording, that Scott’s strings were probably set at a medium height. Bill had first heard Scotty with Chet Baker three years earlier…Not long after we were back off the Goodman tour, there was a call waiting for Scotty…that Bill wanted him to work with him.”, The first meeting of what became known as “the trio” took place at a Tony Scott recording date on October 28 and 29, 1959. In Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World, Gene Lees wrote, "The shock of LaFaro's death stayed with Bill for years, and he felt vaguely guilty about it...He felt that because of his heroin habit he had made insufficient use of [their] time together...After LaFaro's death, Bill was like a mane with a lost love, always looking to find its replacement. Sam restored the bass for Scott and made it the instrument that you can hear so clearly in 1960 and 61. “All that listening to the trio had another effect on me. All of the notes sound even in tone and volume on LaFaro’s bass. He remembered that “Scotty was dressed up” for the Newport appearance. With the help of the lower action, he was able to really set his style apart from other bassists of the time. We were like brothers.”, Six months before the session with Kuhn, LaFaro recorded with trumpeter Booker Little on April 13 and 15. One time at the Village Vanguard, their PA was down on a Monday night when I was playing with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. It is pretty loud and has a pleasingly acoustic tone, so I could still use my microphone instead of a pickup. It was punchier, and the upper register sang better. Both Nat Hentoff and Ralph J. Gleason took note. After playing his bass, I’m not so sure about that. Ten years ago, I acquired a 100 old Czech/German-ish 3/4 size bass to have on hand as a backup bass. He quoted Evans, who said, “I’m hoping the trio will grow in the direction of simultaneous improvisation…If the bass player, for example, hears an idea that he wants to answer, why should he just keep playing a background?”, Scotty, of course, heard and answered plenty of ideas. “He insisted that Stan fire LaRoca and hire Roy Haynes, and Stan was so impressed with how strong and unique he was that he acceded to his wishes.”. Actually, Don played the piano chair with the Bill Evans trio one time when Bill got sick at the last minute. The song is a simple Blues from “This is Pat Moran” (by Pat Moran trio, track B6, 1958 AF), the lines are fluid and […] I was granted the opportunity to take LaFaro’s bass – THE bass that he used for the last three years of his life – out of Barrie Kolstein’s bass shop for a week to use for a tribute to LaFaro that I was recording. We needed people that were interested in each other, so that we could spend a year or two just growing, without ambitions, just allowing the music to grow. Scotty also befriended the pianist-composer Victor Feldman, and recorded with him and drummer Stan Levey in January 1958. Helene makes no secret of LaFaro’s exacting standards and competitive personality, and she quotes many who testify to the same. John Tynan wrote in Downbeat that “the rhythm duo [LaFaro and Billy Higgins] were the ‘baddest’ cats on the date. It is a powerful bass, but it’s hard to play in the upper register. Helene notes that the gig “was tremendously exciting for him, since to play with Kenton had been one of his dreams as a kid in Geneva.” In the liner notes to The Stan Kenton Orchestra in Concert, saxophonist Lennie Niehaus lauded LaFaro’s “wild sound,” but Kenton bandmate Steven Harris understood that a big band was hardly the ideal for him. Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and others were also featured, and LaFaro drew notice from Dan Morgenstern in Metronome for a solo “remarkable for its technical skill and musical weight.” The piece was Schuller’s “Variants on a Theme by John Lewis (Django),” which he would also appear on in December when Schuller’s work was recorded for the Atlantic Records release, Jazz Abstractions. He says they formed an “immediate friendship,” and that “musically, I’d never felt such an instant connection. As he put it, being out with a leader who was a junkie put him at risk of being stranded…The tensions ebbed and flowed [that] afternoon, but strangely enough we were accomplishing what we had set out to do…The lesson to be learned here is probably something about the value of professionalism.”, While LaFaro was cautious about touring with Evans and eschewed drug use (Kuhn says he was “healthy as a pig…didn’t smoke, drink, use drugs, but he liked to drive fast”), he was intrigued by Bill’s interest in Zen meditation, which he practiced and discussed with Helene when he stayed with her during a Getz engagement in L.A. it doesn’t exactly sing up there in the northwest corner. LaFaro is heard soloing while George Duvivier plays the bass riff that Percy Heath had introduced on the first recordings of "Django" by the Modern Jazz Quartet. I’m beginning to think that this bass had a lot to do with it. LaFaro is a potent cup of tea…a brilliant future is in store for this youthful bassist from Geneva, N.Y.”, (Film footage of LaFaro is extremely rare. LaFaro began working regularly with Ornette after Evans became ill with hepatitis in July 1960 and went to Florida to recuperate at his parent’s home amid rumors that he’d died. My day consists of such a singular preoccupation—the physicology of music. Scott found a bass that speaks pretty loud with low action, which was perfect for the Bill Evans trio. This book is a biography of Scott LaFaro but with much more to offer because it is also written for musicians alike. Interview mit LaFaro: Songwriting mit Harfe und lustlose Rockstars. Sound is one thing, but I didn’t expect the playability to have that much of an impact on me. Interview with Bill Evans By George Klabin 1966 Songtext von Scott LaFaro mit Lyrics, deutscher Übersetzung, Musik-Videos und Liedtexten kostenlos auf Songtexte.com I made sure to include a few solo bass pieces so that the world could hear the bass by itself. I assumed that if Scott’s strings were too low, the bass wouldn’t have sounded that full on the Vanguard recordings. In the latter case, Getz fired LaRoca and hired Roy Haynes, but Kenton wasn't about to be second-guessed. I talked with Barrie Kolstein about it, and he assured me that Scott had the bass set up with low action, and he had the bass waiting for me with that action. “He played a lot of top, cymbals, and Scotty wanted more drums,” says Kuhn. There is something that happened to Scott’s playing around 1960 or so. Phil Palombi is the author of Scott LaFaro - 15 Solo Transcriptions in which he transcribed all of Scott LaFaro’s bass solos from the Bill Evans recordings Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. We played about 100 to 150 concerts a year, and rarely did I have the same bass twice! Like his father, he is also a master luthier who really knows how to set a bass up. They’re beautiful basses for sure, but I now know that there is a whole untapped musical world waiting for me out there if I can get my fingers around it. You can hear his strings clicking slightly on the fb on occasion, which I do not find offensive. In an interview fellow bassist Charlie Haden recalled their relation: When I was in L.A., Scotty LaFaro and I roomed together. Well, when I discovered this, two things changed. Jazz Geller said Goodman was unhappy with his current bassist, and offered to recommend Scotty but cautioned, “Benny’s very conservative, don’t do any of those fast things you can do. Rocco Scott LaFaro: Born April 3, 1936 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Died: July 6, 1961 (aged 25) Flint, New York, New York: Genres : Jazz, ... — Charlie Haden, in Ethan Iverson, "Interview with Charlie Haden", Do The Math (Blog) Discography. Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian were of one voice. [My] early years at the university were thoroughly engaging intellectually but were also a time of deep introspection. https://www.nepm.org/post/scott-lafaro-short-life-master-bassist When I pulled the string on the Prescott, it sounded huge in spite of the low action. Those years of self-discovery can be challenging at times and those moments found their perfect expression in …the Village Vanguard Sessions…I listened to that music for so many hours that it became my constant ‘silent’ companion and a beacon of hope.”. One hypothesis that I had was that Scott didn’t have low action. He could play what works for the music, and what works for his musical vision. I have great basses, but I can definitely hear the difference between the F on the D string (at what would be the third fret on an electric bass), and the F on the A string (at the 8th fret). In seinen Klaviertrios machte er Bass … Great stuff. An interview segment with Evans from 1966 has him reflecting on LaFaro's tremendous contribution to the trio as well as his personality. Well, the show must go on, so I played the gig acoustically and everyone in the club could hear me. Now, when I go back and listen to Waltz for Debby, I have an idea why Scott was so inspired to play the way he did. Paul Motian was on drums, Nobby Totah on bass. In 2007, 46 years later, Roy introduced Helene to the great bassist Christian McBride. Bewertung, Pieces of Jade by Resonance Records (2009-09-08). Don’t get fancy, no double beats…Play what’s written.” LaFaro flew east, passed the audition, and signed on for a six-week tour of one-nighters with Goodman. It was an amazing experience to be trusted with one of the jazz bass world’s few relics. Hope your BarrieBass works out. Phil, Excellent article and it does settle the high/low action issue. I love your book of LaFaro transcriptions. The great bassist is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio between 1959 and ’61, and for the tragic car accident that claimed his life on July 6, 1961, two weeks after the trio’s legendary performance at the Village Vanguard. In Jeff Campbell’s essay, “Scott LaFaro: The Complete Musician” (an addendum to Jade Visions), he singles out the trio’s performance of “So What,” saying that “LaFaro and Kuhn engage in a brief musical dialogue just prior to the return of the theme…[improvising] melodic ideas that are intertwined in a conversational manner.” Campbell notes that LaFaro’s accompaniment on “What’s New” is “much more active…than the traditional conventions of ballad playing.”, “It is an interesting fact,” Campbell asserts, “That the earliest example of LaFaro’s active, conversational ballad accompaniment was with Steve Kuhn and not Bill Evans.” When I ran this claim by Kuhn, he said, “I don’t agree with that necessarily. Sam bought the bass from Scott’s mom after the tragic accident, and it sat in his shop until the late 1980s when Sam’s son, Barrie, asked his father’s permission to restore it. Another thing, which I mentioned earlier, was my notion that Scott would run up the G string for the most part, rather than play across the neck. The program finishes with Friedman's moving solo piece, "Memories for Scotty," recorded in 1985. In May 1960, the Bill Evans Trio joined in a program at Circle in the Square that was devoted to Gunther Schuller’s jazz compositions. When I finished “geeking out” with my newly found chops, I got down to the serious business of making music and exploring new ways of expressing myself. In his liner notes, producer Orrin Keepnews focused on the phenomenon of Bill Evans the pianist, but the lone paragraph devoted to the “other members” of the trio noted that they weren’t “limited to…conventional rhythmic backing,“ and cited “Autumn Leaves,” as a harbinger of things to come. He proved to be a natural for the instrument, which obsessed him, and early in his sophomore year he went on the road with Buddy Morrow’s orchestra. Granted, the Vanguard is a great bass stage, and when the band was roaring I would get lost in the mix. I remained close friends with Scotty in New York, and would go over there to see and admire them, and Scotty and Paul would come over to the Five Spot, too. Trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. We were the kind that played a fraction, a millimeter behind. With Ornette Coleman. Now that I have the finished CD in my hands, I can safely say that I was about 60% correct. Mangione remembers LaFaro calling Baker “an American tragedy,” and says, “Over the years, [Scott’s] using the term ‘an American tragedy’ still strikes me as incredibly ironic and portentous [given what happened] that night.”, At about 1:45 on the morning of July 6, LaFaro apparently fell asleep at the wheel and veered off Route 5-20, hitting a tree and killing himself and Ottley instantly. He and Scott were good friends, and even roommates for a time. Phil has also recorded a solo CD featuring Joe Labarbera and Harold Danko, and co-leads a trio named “Tri-Fi”. Today would be the 78th birthday of the great Scott LaFaro, who died in a car accident in 1961. Ron Carter darf man wohl mit über 2500 (!!) Don recored his first recording as a leader in 1961 for Riverside Records. Scott LaFaro was an American jazz musician whose technique on the double bass left an indelible impression on future artists even though he died in a car accident in 1961 when he was just 25 years old. Luckily, Barrie is almost finished making a clone of Scott’s bass for me, which I should have around the end of April. Christian said, ‘Scotty’s playing was the bible for bass players…Jimmy Blanton the old testament, Scotty the new’.”, LaFaro spent the evening of July 5 with old friends in Geneva then drove 80 miles west with Frank Ottley to visit another friend in Warsaw who was house-sitting at a place with a good stereo. Amazon.de/musik: Scott Lafaro – Resonance Rare Track Series 1 jetzt kaufen. Due to popular demand, we’ve extended our 20% off sale, on everything in our shop. Since 1994, I’ve been playing a nearly full size New England bass made by J.B. Allen back in 1842. It wasn’t until he left for Ithaca College, where music majors were required to play a stringed instrument, that he first played bass. In Jade Visions he says, “Scott wasn’t what one would consider a big band bass player. LaFaro continued to divide his time between Getz, Ornette, and Evans in 1961. Since then, I’ve felt a lot more relaxed about playing other basses. He used a Zen epigram in the closing of his letter to Gloria: “I’m trying to remember a bit of Zen I like so well: ‘If you seek the fruits of…good action…so shall they escape you.’ I try to smile everyday with that.”, When I asked Kuhn if Scotty had similar anxieties about touring with Getz, he said no, but he recalled a bandstand incident between the bassist and the tenor player whom Kuhn called “extraordinarily paranoid.”  One night at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, he said, “they clashed. 1937 in Ferndale geboren, spielte er zunächst Cello und wechselte dann zum Kontrabass. I can hear the change of strings, and the notes are a little bit more dead sounding. He had his bass stolen out of his car in 1959 in California, and Red Mitchell found the Prescott for him at Stein on Vein in Los Angeles. Scott LaFaro's bass playing 'alchemy' (to borrow from an Ornette Coleman recording on which LaFaro performed) propelled Bill Evans to meet the artistic challenge of balance in a jazz trio. He had an incredible ear. What they say is true – it really is in your fingers. You can play notes on the E string in thumb position, and it will sound like you’re playing those notes on the D string. Most importantly, it was a heck of a lot lighter! Visit him online at philpalombi.com. One of the most substantial biographies I’ve read in recent years is the 2009 publication that Helene LaFaro-Fernandez devoted to her brother Scott. 7. Life will be good again! A friend once likened it to a pool table without pockets. A fine luthier. When he got back to east coast, he brought it to Sam Kolstein’s bass shop in Baldwin, Long Island.

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