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Scott LaFaro: Beacon for Jazz Bassists -- Miscellany

Table of Contents

 My Foolish Heart rehearsal -- audio  Evans and LaFaro ?New York, ?1959-1960
 Stars of Jazz -- video  Richie Kamuca Quintet with LaFaro, ABC TV show, 1958
 Eichenhofer   Article about an article on LaFaro, Finger Lakes Times, 1997
 Hinkle  Liner notes to The Best of Bill Evans on Verve, 1995
 Kofsky   Liner notes to Elvin Jones, Heavy Sounds, 1968
 Schenker  Bill Evans  [NPR jazz profile]

Below is my transcription of the conversation between Evans and LaFaro from the 'My Foolish Heart' Evans-LaFaro rehearsal audio recording that has been circulating for several years among fans. 

The portion of the transcript that one hears on my one-minute audio clip is highlighted in green.

Also, included is information about the video recording of the 1958 KABC Stars of Jazz television show featuring the 'Richie Kamuca Quintet'.  

'My Foolish Heart' [Audio recording]  New York?:  1960?  Home recording of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro rehearsing and discussing approaches to the tune 'My Foolish Heart'  (MFH) audio cassette. About 12 minutes in length. Original source of this recording is unknown to me. Recording was made (most likely) during the fall (football season) of 1960.

Note:  Thanks to Win Hinkle who provided me a copy of his copy of this recording on audio cassette.  The original recording presumably was made by LaFaro on his own equipment. 
 

Duration of the recording is 21 minutes, 15 of which are devoted to �My Foolish Heart�.  The remaining six minutes are from another session, during which Evans along with an unidentified drummer doodle into Thelonious Monk�s �Well You Needn�t�.  The original source of the recording is unknown to me.

The recording most likely was made on either a wire recorder or an inexpensive reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorder sometime during the fall of 1960 in or around metropolitan New York. 

My source is Win Hinkle, author of the Bill Evans Jazz Resource < http://www.billevansjazz.com > who made it from his own copy in May 1996. 

�My Foolish Heart� was composed by Victor Young (1900-1956) with lyrics by Ned Washington (1901-1976) for the 1949 film My Foolish Heart which starred Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward, which film was based on the J.D. Salinger short story, �Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut� (included in Salinger�s Nine Stories).  Some of his other well-known songs include "Sweet Sue" (1928), "Beautiful Love" (1931), "Love Me Tonight" (1932), "A Ghost of a Chance" (1933), "Stella by Starlight," "Love Letters" (1946), "Golden Earrings" (1947), "When I Fall in Love" (1952), and "Around the World" (1956).

The night is like a lovely tune
Beware, my foolish heart
How white the ever-constant moon
Take care, my foolish heart

There's a line between love and fascination
So hard to see on an evening such as this
For they both give the very same sensation
When you're lost in the magic of a kiss

His lips are much to close to mine
Take care, my foolish heart
But should our eager lips combine
Then let the fires start

For this time it isn't fascination
Or a dream that will fade and fall apart
This time it's love
This time it's love, my foolish heart

For this time it isn't fascination
Nor a dream that will fade and fall apart
This time it's love
This time it's love, my foolish heart

 

My 'My Foolish Heart'  rehearsal transcript follows:

00:00               [sustained piano sound with �wow and flutter�]
00:09               [radio or television broadcast of a football game]
                       Announcer:  �. . . for a gain of something less than five yards . . . four yards on the play.
                       Tony Danfield [defensive football player] brought him down . . . pushed him out of
                       bounds.   It�s third and six.  [broadcast muted or turned off]
00:18               EVANS: [talking with unidentified woman] . . driving and picking up . . . Long Island
00:23               Female voice:  You mean tomorrow?
                       EVANS:  ? . . .
                       Female voice:  When?
                       EVANS:  Anytime you can make it.
00:31               EVANS:  [starts to play] Good.
                       LAFARO:  [bows tuning his bass]
00:46               EVANS:  [begins playing �My Foolish Heart� solo]
02:26               LAFARO:  Unbelievable, powerful, beautiful, [ then begins to accompany Evans]
03:32               EVANS:  We�re now talking about
03:42               LAFARO:  E-flat minor
04:00               EVANS:  Yeah, . . . I think I was playing ?  full type piano . . .
                       I wish I could go a little lower on this one . . .  �A� might be nice.
04:12               LAFARO:  I don�t know, I feel like I was playing . . .
                       [EVANS/LAFARO play a bit]
                       LAFARO:  E-flat
                       EVANS:  A-flat
05:15               EVANS:  Yeah, that�s right. [both musicians begin to improvise]
05:45               EVANS:  Huh [as if figuring something out]
06:43               [Recording / tape glitch]
                       [LAFARO solos ; EVANS comps]
07:54               EVANS/LAFARO:  [exchange �yeahs�]
08:07               LAFARO:  ? A-seventh?
08:08               EVANS:  Where�s that? . . .
                       LAFARO:  Yeah, that�s where I . . .  [sings]
                       EVANS:  Yeah, yeah, that�s right.  Yeah, well what�s amazing is . . . ?
08:21               EVANS:  It�s sort of a dominant sound.
08:25               LAFARO:  But, now what are you going through?  You�re just going to D major
                       EVANS:  I�m going to A-flat, now I�m going to A-flat minor, A-flat.
                       LAFARO:  E-major
                       EVANS:  Yeah, that�s good . . . that�s good.
08:52               LAFARO:  Now here�s -- this is a bad spot . . . You got an E-flat . . .
                       EVANS:  Try it.  It�d have to be . . . then it would be ah, what, E, and then
                       a B-flat, and then what, ah, . . .  Wait . . . 
09:31               LAFARO: [sings/plays]
                       EVANS:  Come on, let�s get the better of this one.
                       LAFARO:  All right.
                       EVANS:  No.
 09:53               LAFARO:  A simplified [sings phrase]
09:59               EVANS:  Oh yeah.  That�s right.  Yeah, that�s it.  Was I playing that B funk?
10:10               LAFARO:  You don�t have . . . ?
10:25               EVANS:  Oh! I was thinking that.
                       LAFARO:  No, ?
                       EVANS:  When?
                       LAFARO: Oh, yeah.
10:34               EVANS:  No, I mean originally.  The last thing I thought of doing . . .
                       because you didn�t like that
                       LAFARO:  Oh, no, no!  I didn�t hear that.  I thought that was . . .
                       EVANS:  Oh, I see.
                       EVANS:  That�s all.
                       LAFARO:  By the time you get to [sings phrase]
11:19               EVANS:  Ah, what�d you do?
                        LAFARO:  I went to G-Major.
11:52               EVANS:  Basically, I�m going to be thinking dominant, you know what I mean?
                       LAFARO:  Yeah.
                       EVANS:  Now shall we do that, or what?
12:37               LAFARO:  Now, now we�re getting . . .
                       EVANS:  . . . the dominant sound there . . .
                       LAFARO:  [sings a phrase] How about a groove (?)
                       EVANS:  Yeah, you can do that, because it�s all in the ?theme
13:10               LAFARO:  Is that what we�re doing?
                       EVANS: . . but it�s all in the thing.  You�ll be doing that.  That�s in the line.
                       See, I�ll be doin� [EVANS plays a phrase] . . . OK, start with the second half.
                       EVANS:  That�s right. What you did.
14:00               LAFARO:  Now let me hear what you are doing.  That�s why . . .
                       EVANS:  Oh, oh, I see.
                       LAFARO:  I�m not sure what you do . . .   symmetrically the idea
14:10               LAFARO:  Oh, oh, I see.  Yeah, I see.
14:28               EVANS:  Keep that line going . . . You can do that because it�s in the chord.
                       LAFARO:  Yeah, right -- Actually, uh . . . time value
14:47               EVANS:  I don�t now . . ..If this gets too fast . . . sound like a show tune
                       �cause it�s a very slow melody. It does sound good.
                       LAFARO:  Doesn�t it sound like the way I . . . the beat determines what . . .
                       EVANS:  See, I wonder if . . . [plays at slower tempo]
15:13               [�My Foolish Heart� rehearsal ends abruptly]
15:14               [Evans playing with unknown drummer a medium bounce melody [name that tune?]
16:54               Voice:  No, no, just play a little!  [Evans doodles into Monk�s �Well You Needn�t�]
20:56               [Recording ends abruptly]

TOC

Richie Kamuca Quintet with Ruth Price [Video recording]  Los Angeles: KABC studios, 7 April 1958.
1 videocassette of 1 (VHS format) 1/2 inch ; 30 min. run time ; sound ; black and white.   This video cassette is a copy of an unknown source, possibly another video cassette.  (Stars of Jazz (1956-1958) [series] Program # 14).

Running credits:

Performers:

  • Richie Kamuca, tenor saxophone and leader
  • Frank Rosolino, trombone
  • Scott LaFaro, bass
  • Victor Feldman, piano
  • Stan Levey, drums
  • Ruth Price, vocals

Program:

  • Cherry
  • Deep in a Dream
  • You Are My Lucky Star -- vocal
  • Until the Real Thing Comes Along -- vocal
  • Chart of My Heart
  • [blues exit music with running credits]

Note: LaFaro solos briefly on 'Chart of My Heart'.

Some program selections ('Cherry', 'Deep in a Dream', and 'Chart of my Heart') sound identical to those released on the 1991 Vantage Records LP Kamuca Feldman Tjader

This video is included in the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Film and Television Archive <www.cinema.ucla.edu > under 'collections' and then under 'television'. To get to the archival records describing shows in the Stars of Jazz series, look under 'access' and then under 'databases'. Then go to the UCLA web catalog called ORION2 and search its Film and Television Archive using in quotes the phrase "stars of jazz".  63 records will list in your results.  <http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/access/databases.html>

Detailed UCLA Film and Television Archive holdings:

Postal and telephone:

UCLA Film and Television Archive
Archive and Research Study Center
46 Powell Library
Los Angeles, CA  90095 USA

tel (310) 206-5388
fax (310) 206-5392
ema <[email protected]>

This particular program (#14) of the Stars of Jazz series is not available commercially.

TOC

Eichenhofer, Jim. “Geneva musician remembered ...� Finger Lakes Times, Geneva, NY,
 17 March 1997, p. 3.

Article discusses the Robert Wooley article “Remembering Scott LaFaro” Bass World: The Journal of the International Society of Bassists, vol. XXI, no. 2 (Fall 1996), pp. 21-23. Includes three high-school era photographs of LaFaro. A remembrance by high school friend and fellow musician.

TOC

Hinkle, Win. "The Conversational Jazz Trio" [from the program booklet insert] The Best of Bill Evans on Verve  New York: PolyGram Records, Inc., 1995.  "Manufactured and marketed by Verve Records . . . a division of PolyGram Records" Compact disc audio; 12 tracks; total time 65:42; with a double bi-fold [8-pp] program booklet; Verve 314-527-906-2.

"Jazz enthusiasts often recall Bill Evans as a sensitive, introspective pianist hunched of the piano, playing his complex compositions of beautiful ballad standards. Jazz writers for the most part, have ignored the extraordinary contribution Evans made to the development of the piano trio as an artistic unit and the particular direction in which he took it. The bassist and drummer were encouraged by Evans to break out of the accompaniment mold, to dispense with the rhythm-section chores historically delegated to their instruments. The style that Evans trios established is loosely referred to as the conversational style. In formulating this, Evans had specific musical concepts in mind, especially regarding the interplay between piano and bass."

"The contribution of the bassist to the trio is easier to identify and understand than that of the drummer, since the bas evolved rapidly in jazz and was played melodically as early as 1939 (Jimmy Blanton with Duke Ellington). Of the four bassists that Evans hired to work with his trio (footnote 1: "Evans performed with many bassists but only personally hired these four. In some situations he was required to perform with specific musicians: Monty Budwig and Shelly Manne (Empathy) and Richard Davis and Elvin Jones (Stan Getz and Bill Evans) were sidemen chosen by the producer.") -- Scott LaFaro (1958), Chuck Israels (1961), Eddie Gomez (1966), and Marc Johnson (1978) -- the first and last, LaFaro and Johnson, helped to create a conservational trio style that is still being emulated by several piano trios. The middle two bassists, Israels and Gomez, were less successful in realizing Evans's trio goals."

"The Young Experimental Scott LaFaro -- The conversational-style trio began to solidify when LaFaro joined Evans. There is an ear-opening private tape of the two of them rehearsing 'My Foolish Heart'. LaFaro made this rehearsal tape on his recorder, some time after the summer of 1958, just when he and Evans were starting to work together. The bassist plays a few tentative chords on the piano to set the recording level. His acoustic bass (without amplification of course) is near the piano so the recorder picks up both instruments adequately. Evans and LaFaro play through the tune, stopping and discussing the harmonic implications and signposts at almost every juncture, each strongly making a personal case for a particular series of chords or bass motion for the tune to follow at that point. After fifteen minutes or so, the tape runs out, right in the middle of pivotal section of the tune. LaFaro was so wound up in the musical discussions at hand that he forgot about the time limits of the machine"

"Evans always approached his music in this cooperative spirit. Then, once a particular harmonic pattern was established, he and the bassist stuck to the design, making only variations in counterpoint, melody, and tempo. Even though Evans always controlled the density and complexity of the, bassists had the options of:

Of course, even this list is an oversimplification. LaFaro did all of the above and more."

"Chuck Israels, Interim Bassist -- Israels had the hardest job. Attempting to fill the void left by LaFaro was difficult if not impossible. Sometimes I wonder if Evans's despondency over LaFaro's untimely death lasted for more years that the record companies would like us to believe. Israels's tenure was hailed as 'The Second Trio', as if Evans was finally coming out of his depression over LaFaro's death, playing like the old Evans. This simply was not the case. This period was Evans's worst in terms of substance abuse, and the trio initiative that had started with LaFaro did not develop.  . . .

"Eddie Gomez, the Flamboyant Catalyst -- . . .  When Gomez played with Evans, many concertgoers came to hear the bassist just as much as they did the pianist. His voice was not part of a trio where the individuals submit to a greater whole; he was more independent. The Evans-Gomez collaboration was like a piano-bass duo, even with drum accompaniment (there are also at least two duet recordings of Evans and Gomez).  . . .

"Marc Johnson, The Most Prepared Disciple -- . . . When Gomez left the trio, Evans auditioned a variety of seasoned bassists, including Michael Moore, George Mraz, and Rufus Reid. The last was Johnson; In him, Evans found the logical successor to LaFaro, Israels, and Gomez. Johnson recreated the churning, searching style initiated by LaFaro and had virtuosic abilities similar to Gomez's, but the young bassist focused that energy toward the goal of the trio, aware of the requisite collaboration with the drummer (Joe LaBarbera).  . . .

TOC

Kofsky, Frank. [Liner notes] for Elvin Jones audio recording Heavy Sounds (New York: Impulse Records, 1968) Impulse A / S-9160.  Re-released on CD, 1989.  Performers: Elvin Jones, drums and acoustic guitar; Richard Davis, bass; Billy Greene, piano; Frank Foster, tenor saxophone.

Frank Kofsky mentions LaFaro in his remarks about (then) new music of the 1960s:

" . . . the magnificent work of Richard Davis has been blowing minds ever since his initial appearance on the New York scene a few years back; I remember with special relish one of the first times I had occasion to hear him, on Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch album for Blue Note (another essential for your collection). When one speaks of bassists in the new music, one inevitably comes 'round to the same handful of names:  in the beginning, Scott LaFaro and Charlie Haden; later, Art Davis (like Elvin [Jones], a [John] Coltrane alumnus, incidentally), Ron Carter, Henry Grimes, Jimmy Garrison, David Izenzon, and of course Richard Davis.  These men, with perhaps a couple of others whose names may have escaped, really define how the bass is to be approached in the post-Coltrane music of the present day. . . .

TOC

Schenker, Beth. Bill Evans [NPR Jazz Profile] (in the National Public Radio series: Jazz Profiles). Producer.  Accessible via URL: < http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/evans_b.html >.

LaFaro enthusiast, Matthew Tucker, from Australia, made me aware of this resource. It comprises six audio clips each about one minute in duration, that include commentary by critic and song writer Gene Lees, producer Orrin Keepnews, pianists Andy LaVerne, Warren Bernhardt, and George Shearing; bassists Eddie Gomez and Marc Johnson; and Bill Evans. 

TOC

 

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 Bibliography -- Books A-F    Discography -- All    Acknowledgements
 Bibliography -- Books G-K  Chronology -- 1936-1949  Discography -- 1956--1957    Items Lacking
 Bibliography -- Books L-R  Chronology -- 1950-1955  Discography -- 1958  Memorial Award
 Bibliography -- Books S-Z  Chronology -- 1956-1957  Discography -- 1959  Musician Associates
 Bibliography -- Mags A-F  Chronology -- 1958  Discography -- 1960  Photography
 Bibliography -- Mags G-K  Chronology -- 1959  Discography -- 1961  Renderings
 Bibliography -- Mags L-R  Chronology -- 1960  Discography -- 1961--1979  
 Bibliography -- Mags S-Z  Chronology -- 1961  Discography -- 1980--1989  Sunday Vanguard Matrix
 Bibliography -- Miscellany  Discography -- 1990--1999
 Bibliography -- Web Sources    Discography -- 2000--  2001 ISB LaFaro Tribute

 

Copyright 1998-2003, Charles A. Ralston. All rights reserved.
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Last revised:  2005-10-04
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