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.. In his liner notes, producer Orrin Keepnews focused on the phenomenon of Bill Evans thepianist, but the lone paragraph devoted to the other members of the trio noted that they werent limited toconventional rhythmic backing, and cited Autumn Leaves, as a harbinger of things to come. The all-timer live session that produced the aforementioned discs is rounded out by two studio LPs, Portrait in Jazz (1960) and Explorations (1961), which I sense are not listened to as much as they ought to be, but the Vanguard date is sufficiently lambent that it pulls us to it, which is good on one handthis is one sweet, invigorating flameand less than ideal on the other, because Scott LaFaro (who, along with Jimmy Blanton, Id posit as jazzs most important bassist) was a lot more, and did a lot more, than the prevailing narrative would have us believe. LaFaro is best known as the bassist in Bill Evans' groundbreaking trio, and also worked with Chet Baker, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins and the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Free Jazz did that kind of splicing and segmenting for you, as part of, neatly enough, its original integrated sonic package. When Scotty was in sixth grade we took our first piano lessons. Both Nat Hentoff and Ralph J. Gleason took note. Other times, its distilled into a moment that seems to transcend itself, and thus it went for Paul Gonsalves, hero of a Newport afternoon. LaFaro is one of those players who register to the ears like more than one man, generating a huge amount of sound with ostensibly little effort, and that sound resonating as direct, controlled, economical; this is part of the reason why. Evans and Dolphy dont feature on a couple tunes, while LaFaro is the constant. You may additional context in comments. Read more about this topic: Scott LaFaro, Time is here and youll go his way.Your lung is waiting in the death market.Your face beside me will grow indifferent.Darling, you will yield up your belly and becored like an apple.Anne Sexton (19281974), Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose, it wasthe death of him.William Shakespeare (15641616), Ai! For the 1964 album with Monica Zetterlund, see, The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, "Bill Evans Trio: Sunday At The Village Vanguard & Waltz For Debby", Plays the Theme from The V.I.P.s and Other Great Songs, Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings, Consecration: The Final Recordings Part 2, On Broadway Vol. Perhaps one thinks of the contrast, as I do: the balmy New England coast, sailboats alongside the bandstand, and then the hard, unforgiving asphalt of the interstate. ai! He also played in Stan Getz's band between jobs with the Bill Evans trio. Shortly after, their collaboration began. Today would be the 78th birthday of the great Scott LaFaro, who died in a car accident in 1961. The group attended the funeral in Geneva, which Kuhn adds was closed casket., LaFaro's death was devastating to Bill Evans. Search Music. Mom needed the money. Its there for a reason, and thats not solely to complement the proof of the magic that occurred at a New York City club in late June 1961. He practiced from sheet music for the higher-pitched clarinet to improve his facility the upper register for bass. Tom was honored by the Jazz Journalists Association with the Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Career Excellence in Broadcasting in 2019. Such is the legacy of bassist Scott LaFaro, though I would suggest that what was was more than we often think. We would explore all around our neighborhood on West Street our house was where the elementary school is. He says that word of the accident reached Getz over the wire through his manager Jack Whittemore, and that all were incredulous at the news. They needed a bass clarinetist, and he promised Scotty that he would be allowed to play clarinet and eventually the tenor sax if he took that position. One may even ask the question whether it is possible to love jazz and not love Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, and I dont think youre being a curmudgeon if you stamp a foot and issue an emphatic No, by Jove!. The group includes Victor Feldman, Stan Levey, and trombonist Frank Rosolino. One of the most substantial biographies Ive read in recent years is the 2009 publication that Helene LaFaro-Fernandez devoted to her brother Scott. Performers: Chet Baker, tp; Phil Urso, ts; Francy Boland, p; Larance Marable, d; Scott LaFaro, b. A record like this could easily have become just a mood disc: sound as fuzzy, woolly painting, in which the experiment becomes an end unto itself, the gesture, the gambit, being everything. Q: When did your brother start getting interested in music? Jim Hall. The music of Jazz Abstractions proceeds as a series of shadings, which tend to be called variants on the finished LP. We were like brothers., Six months before the session with Kuhn, LaFaro recorded with trumpeter Booker Little on April 13 and 15. It was there his career exploded. Orrin Keepnews told Helene that when the trio recorded its second session,Explorations,on February 2, 1961, Scott was being very explicit about his problem; he was very reluctant to go back on the road unless it was for a lot more money. Former Major League Baseball pitcher Scott Erickson has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run crash in Westlake Village that killed two . In Jade Visionshe says, Scott wasnt what one would consider a big band bass player. In spring 1960, he featured on a half-dozen tracks that trumpeter Booker Little cut for his second session as leader. LaFaro was taken from this world 60 years ago, on July 6, 1961, in Flint, New York, where he was involved in an auto accident a few days after playing with Stan Getz at Newport. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSD3g1ndHE, LaFaro began working regularly with Ornette after Evans became ill with hepatitis in July 1960 and went to Florida to recuperate at his parents home amid rumors that hed died. Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 July 6, 1961)[1] was an American jazz double bassist known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro was honored in 2012 in Geneva, where a street was renamed Scott LaFaro Drive and an annual Scott LaFaroDay was inaugurated. He was with Buddy Morrows band (1955-56), toured with Chet Baker (1956-57) and worked during the next few years with Ira Sullivan, Barney Kessel, Cal Tjader and Benny Goodman among others. HOMETOWN Newark, NJ, United States of America BORN April 3, 1936 Similar Artists Paul Motian. Bud Powell. But LaFaro makes the music pulsehe provides its heartbeat and flow. The loss of LaFaro hit Evans hard, and he went into a brief seclusion. He wanted the conversation back and forth between each of the players, and he wanted to play melody. Bill had first heard Scotty with Chet Baker three years earlierNot long after we were back off the Goodman tour, there was a call waiting for Scottythat 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. According to Paul Motian, the death of LaFaro left Bill Evans "numb with grief", "in a state of shock", and "like a ghost". He would have played twenty-four hours a day if he couldHe was learning a mile a minute., Morrows outfit had a big hit with Night Train. The bandleader told Helene, We were a band which was dedicated at the time to mainly rhythm and blues. Celebrating the life of Genevas legendary jazz bass hero Scott LaFaro has become an annual event at the Smith Opera House, ever since the City of Geneva declared April 3, his birthday, as Scott LaFaro Day in 2014. Born in Irvington, New Jersey, the son of a big band musician, Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 - July 6, 1961) was five when his family moved to Geneva, New York. Upon returning to L.A., LaFaro phoned his friend Herb Geller, who was then playing alto with Benny Goodman in New York. He told Helene that Scott lived for the bassHe was looking all the time to play. Before that grim July night, LaFaro had been a busy bassist. At that years Monterey Jazz Festival, LaFaro performed with both the Coleman Quartet and Gunther Schuller. Other birthdays Monday: Jimmy McGriff, 64; Harold Vick, 19361987; and Eric Kloss, 51. The bass was badly damaged in the automobile accident that killed him, but was eventually restored and is sporadically used in performance to honor LaFaro. In his playing you can hear how happy Evans is to have this helmsman at the back of the boatI think it helped him see better at the front. The rest is told in his gripping visuals, The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist. 4 or The Paradox of Continuity, The Montreal Tapes: with Geri Allen and Paul Motian, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waltz_for_Debby_(1962_album)&oldid=1139601889, Short description is different from Wikidata, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Note on the alternate takes: "For this CD release, alternate versions of three of the six selections have been inserted just after the ones originally chosen for issuance.[] It was then he fell in love with the tenor saxophone. He was playing mandolin and violin publicly by age 7. we do worse! Composer: Hawes Thats his brand of intimacy: the sensation of the stolen moment. We had to have a strong rhythm section and he was definitely of that caliberHe was a dedicated personintolerant of anyone who wasnt giving his best., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngs04EXtDwk. Pianist Prez was then a professor at the New England Conservatory; his student, Read More Explaining the Taubman Approach, Everyone knows that Joe Williams sang the hell out of the blues, but do you know what else he sang the hell out of? His sense of time was freer, less tied to the ground beat, than any jazz bassist had previously acheivedIt is not going too far to see this short-lived trio as redefining the nature of the jazz rhythm section. [My] early years at the university were thoroughly engaging intellectually but were also a time of deep introspection. LaFaro-Fernandez: When Scotty was in sixth grade we took our first piano lessons. Died . 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