A public thank you is in order to those who have given freely of their time to help me compile what I hope are useful tools for anyone who wants to know more about Scott LaFaro and his contribution to jazz.
First, I must thank:
Helene LaFaro Fernandez, Scott's older sister, for sharing her memories of her brother as well as photographs, recordings, and letters.
Win Hinkle, musician, webmaster and editor, for allowing me some cyberspace on his Bill Evans Jazz Resource
Barrie Kolstein, for showing me the Prescott (LaFaro) bass he and his father, Samuel Kolstein, lovingly restored.
And give special thanks as well to:
Gail Brown-Kirk for her recollections of Scott when they were students at Geneva High School.
Suzanne Stewart-Knight for memories of the times they performed together in Ithaca and also as members of the Buddy Morrow Orchestra.
Tony Mele for telling me about his conversations with Scott in Ithaca and New York.
Thanks also to some of Scott's most enthusiastic fans for their invaluable suggestions, corrections, anecdotes, musings, and overall appreciation of this web site:
Bob Bennett
Harvey Bloomfield (his Chet Baker web site)
David Berzinski
Darrell Brekke
Carlos Burns
Mark Carlsen
Verne Christiansen
Mike Davis
Maggie Denver
Royston Edwards (see his drawing of Scott)
Manny Fernandez (see his poster-painting of Scott)
Dave Green (for several Down Beat articles and reviews that mention Scott)
Steven D. Harris (his Stan Kenton web site)
Carl Hillman
Guy Kopel
Jonathan Kutler
Dewey Mace
Frank Malfitano
Peter Mansell
Kohji 'Shaolin' Matsubayshi (for comments on Complete Live at the Village Vanguard 1961)
Eric Min-tung
Bill Pace
Don Payne
Gene Perla
Jim Ralston
Mike Ralston
Dieter Speck
Matthew Tucker
Judy WeislowIf your name is not listed above, it is due to my oversight. Please accept my apology for having forgotten to mention you in the wake of wanting to list everyone who has helped me with this page.
And my sincere appreciation goes out to the following individuals for their technical and materiel contributions to this site:
'Blasko Camberwell' of the UK, who sent me an audio cassette copy of 2 Trumpet Geniuses of the '50s: Brownie and Chet, with Phil Urso, tenor; Lawrence Marable, drums; Belgian pianist, Francy Boland; and bassist Scott LaFaro "from upper New York" as Chet introduced him, on the Steve Allen 'Tonight' show in late fall 1956.
Chris DeVito for his myriad photocopies of Downbeat, Variety, and newspaper articles and advertisements in support of the LaFaro Chronology pages.
Carol Goss for telling me about the Paul Bley recording session that included LaFaro.
Peter Losin for telling me in the first place about Rare / Live, and for pointing me to James Harrod, Director, University of California at Irvine Bookstore; to Mr. Harrod, who, in turn, referred me to Mr. Leon Leavitt, who provided me with the earliest recordings on which Scott performed. Networking at its best.
Peter M. Morris, who sent me his father's copy of the 1963 LP Stan Getz which has helped to clarify the relation between this reissue and the 1958 LP Cal Tjader -- Stan Getz Sextet.
John Sanna for tracking down the LP Kamuca Feldman Tjader for me, and for his invaluable information about the musical relationship between Jaco Pastorius "The World's Greatest Bass Player" and Scott.
Phil West for creating the audio sound loop of Evans and LaFaro's rehearsal of My Foolish Heart which is the background to this page, and for the video excerpts from The Stars of Jazz TV show.
Masako Sho Winkler for her Japanese-to-English translation of the Rare / Live liner notes.
Bill Zavatsky for pointing to me in a November 2003 e-mail that his poem 'To The Pianist Bill Evans' with allusions to Scott LaFaro, appeared first in his Theories of Rain and Other Poems. Bill read his poem at the memorial service for Bill Evans at St. Peter's in New York's Citicorp Building, September 1980.
My heart-felt appreciation also for those musicians who knew Scott and who played with him, and who have shared with me their anecdotes:
Dick Berk
Buddy DeFranco
Eddie Duran of 'Mad and Eddie Duran'
Bill Evans
Don Friedman
Charlie Haden
Roy Haynes
Pat Moran (Patti Moran McCoy)
Buddy Morrow
Sonny Rollins
Tony Scott
Ira Sullivan
Larry VuckovichAnd, of course I thank my wife, Michele, for all she does to harmonize hearth and home. For me Michele is the personification of Scott's 'Jade Visions'.
Most of all, I thank my father, Charles Francis Ralston (02 September 1916 -- 11 September 1982), for sharing his love of jazz, baseball, drums, and for introducing me to Scotty's music in the first place.