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Scott LaFaro Discography: 1961--1979


This of first of four (1 of 4) sections devoted to re-issued recordings.


Table of Contents

 1961  Riverside: The Soul of Jazz – 1961  LP compilation of Riverside recordings artists
 1963  Stan Getz  LP alt title Stan Getz with Cal Tjader
 1970  The Art of The Improvisers  Ornette Coleman
 1970  The Best of Ornette Coleman  Ornette Coleman
 1971  Twins  Ornette Coleman
 1973  The Village Vanguard Sessions  Bill Evans
 1976  Spring Leaves  Bill Evans
 1978  The Legendary Scott LaFaro  [Japan]

 

Riverside: The Soul of Jazz – 1961  A Special Sampler Featuring Some of Today's Top Jazz Stars:  Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans, Bobby Timmons, Nat Adderley, Blue Mitchell, Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Heath, Jazz Brothers [i.e., Chuck and Gap Mangione]  New York: Riverside Records [n.d.]   Riverside 9S-5 [monophonic version numbered 'S-5'].  One sound disc : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereophonic; 12 in.  Compilation of representative Riverside recording artists, produced by Orrin Keepnews.  Notes by Chris Albertson.  Cover design by Ken Deardoff.  Mastered by Jack Matthews.

Side 1:

Side 2:

Side 2 Track 2 liner notes:

Bill Evans Trio:  'Peri's Scope' (3:11)  One of the most impressive young pianists to appear on the jazz horizon in many a year, Evans's probing, rich-toned style has earned acclaim and deep respect from critics, fans, and hard-to-please musicians (definitely including Miles Davis with whom he played in '58). This is one of Bill's own compositions, recorded with the members of his current trio:   bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian.  Recorded 28 Dec 59.  From Portrait in Jazz (RLP 12-315; Stereo 1162). 

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Stan Getz.   [With] Cal Tjader, Billy Higgins, Scott LoFaro [sic, in rect� LaFaro], Vince Guaraldi, Eddie Duran.  [Berkeley, CA:]  Fantasy Records, 1963.  "Fantasy 3348 High Fidelity" [album jacket] 1 sound disc : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, "original stereo recording" ; 12 in.  Cover photography by Burt Goldblatt.  Program notes by Grover Sales, Jr., February 1963.  Note: on the vinyl 'hole' label "F-8348 Stereo".

Performers:

Program:

Side A (F-8348-A, or possibly F-2215)

  1. Ginza Samba (Guaraldi)
  2. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face (Lerner--Lowe)
  3. For All We Know (Coots--Lewis)

Side B (F-8348-B, or possibly F-2216)

  1. Crow's Nest (Tjader)
  2. Liz Anne (Tjader)
  3. Big Bear (Tjader)
  4. My Buddy (Kahn--Donaldson)

Verso of record jacket has the title:  Stan Getz with Cal Tjader [with] Vince Guaraldi, Scott LaFaro, Eddie Duran, Billy Higgins.  

Re-release of the Cal Tjader -- Stan Getz Sextet LP recorded 1958.

Excerpts from the program notes by Grover Sales, Jr.:

... In Jazz, we seek what Whitney Balliett has so rightly called 'the sound of surprise' -- the sound of Ben Webster the night he joined Ellington in Boston, or Coleman Hawkins returning to 52nd Street after years of self-exile in Europe to literally blow Big Sidney Catlett off his chair.  Such moments are rare and we tend to batten and feed off their memory.

'The Sound of Surprise' was heard in San Francisco's Black Hawk [jazz club] early [?] when Stan Getz opened with a new bassist named Scott LaFaro who was still in his teens, and looked it.  From the opening number, LaFaro had the place in a sate of awed stupefaction, and many of us, not really believing what we heard, returned again and again to learn if this incredible youth could [?maintain] his opening night pace.  In the words of Nelson Algren, the boy was "a world-shaker and bed-cord strong."  There was literally nothing LaFaro could not execute on his instrument; his left hand scuttled crab-like up and down the bass with uncanny agility.  He did everything -- arco, double stops, harmonics, strumming guitar-fashion, and all at impossible tempos.  His tone was huge and firm, his pitch unerring and he swung all the way.  At the set's conclusion, Stan Getz, as dazed as the rest of us, (and looking not much older than Ricky Nelson,) introduced his new bassist as "Scotty LaFaro, which only goes to prove that Jazz is a Young Man's Game."

Largely self-taught, LaFaro had been playing bass for three years before he joined Getz.  The first jazz he recalls were recordings of Dave Brubeck (!) and he heard [Charlie] Parker discs for the first time during the previous year.

When he became a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, LaFaro entered an exploratory phase guided by the determinedly different concepts  of the leader.  His solos assumed a frantic, almost agonized quality, seemingly in the direction of 12-tone techniques.  Shortly afterwards, still in his very early twenties, Scott LaFaro's life ended in a gruesome, senseless auto accident, the kind of holocaust that has taken the lives of so many gifted jazz artists.

.  .  .

It is difficult to single out any tracks, although one might mention LaFaro behind Tjader in the opening of 'My Buddy', [Guaraldi's] dirty solo in 'Crow's Nest' and the Getz-LaFaro-Duran combine in 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face'. The entire project is an unalloyed delight.

Note:  A special 'Thank you' to Mr. Peter Morris.  Peter graciously gave me his father's copy of this album to help me complete the gathering of the discography. Peter's father, Manuel Morris, who was familiar with the arduous task of discography making, having compiled a discography on the French baritone G�rard Souzay (1918- ), which was published by the Greenwood Press in 1990 under the title, The Recorded Performances of G�rard Souzay:  A Discography.  See also < http://www.library.unt.edu/music/Souzay/default.htm > for more on this artist. 

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The Art of the Improvisers. Ornette Coleman. New York: Atlantic Recording Corp., 1970. Atlantic SD 1572. 1 sound disc : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo ; 12 in. Program notes by Martin Williams. Produced by Nesuhi Ertegun; compiler and re-mix editor, Ilhan Mimaroglu; re-mix engineer, Geoffrey Haslam; cover painting, Ornette Coleman; cover design, Haig Adishan.

Program:

Performers:

Note: No OCLC record for this LP issue.

Alt #20 072 886 DLC 19910624 (1988 jazz lore, v43, 90978-1)

#18 090 394 HQB 19880614 (1970 M 51572N cas)

#19 524 356 CXP 19890410 (1988 90978-2 / SD 1572 CD)

#19 730 776 IEV 19890518 (1988 90978-4 cas)

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NO PHOTO

The Best of Ornette Coleman   1970 Compilation.

DO NOT HAVE

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Twins. Ornette Coleman. New York: Atlantic Recording Corp., 1971. Atlantic SD 1588. 1 sound disc : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, mono? ; 12 in. Program notes by Martin Williams. Produced by Nesuhi Ertegun; re-mix editing, Ilhan Mimaroglu; re-mix engineer, Geoffrey Haslam; mastering, George Piros.

Note: LaFaro plays on two selections: `First Take' and `Check Up', both composed by Ornette Coleman.

Program:

Performers:

Note: . . . “In the section shared by the bassists, the striking virtuosity of Scott LaFaro predominates over the simpler, more tradition-oriented melodies of Charlie Haden, and LaFaro continues to build after the brief, trumpet-led ensemble passage that subdivides the section.” (Williams)

Program:

Performers:

Note: “Notice how the bridge of the main melody is taken as a bass solo by LaFaro, but at a different tempo. And notice too how, in the final statement of the main strain that closes the performance, Ornette leads the group into a tempo retard. [Ornette's] solo on `Check up' is fittingly nostalgic, poignant, and a stretch-out. LaFaro's counterpoint behind him (as Blackwell quickly takes over the tempo-keeping chores) is a wonder. It is also an answer to those who think Scotty could not be effective when he played relatively simply, or think that his counter-point melodies tended to crowd the soloist. The whole passage is a gem.” (Williams) . . .

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The Village Vanguard Sessions. Bill Evans. Berkeley, CA: Milestone Records, Distributed by Fantasy Records, 1973. Milestone M-47002. 2 sound discs : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo? ; 12 in. Produced by Orrin Keepnews. Original engineer, Dave Jones; remastering by Mike Reese. Program notes by Michael James, London, January 1973.

Performers:

Program:

Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4

All selections were recorded in performance at the Village Vanguard, New York NY, Sunday, June 25, 1961 -- the first four (side 1 plus side 2's selection 1) at a matinee, the others during the evening.

Side 2, the first two selections on Side 3, and 'Jade Visions' (Side 4, track 4) were originally issued as Riverside 376, Sunday at the Village Vanguard.

Side 1 and the first three selections of Side 4 were originally released as Riverside 399, Waltz for Debby.

All selections appear here in the order in which they were originally recorded.

OCLC #3 350 176 EYD 19771018 (MSP 47002 LP)

#13 557 672 VSI 19860512 (MSP-47002 LP)

#15 026 978 KKC 19861231 (SM 47002 Cas)

Program excerpts:

“The musicians whom Evans settled upon as his colleagues in the realization of this ambitious project were the young bassist, Scott LaFaro, who despite his youth, had already worked with Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, and Harold Land; and drummer Paul Motian, who not only had backed Evans in 1956 at his debut as a leader in the recording studio, but had worked with him even earlier in the Jerry Wald and Tony Scott bands. This blend of youthful enterprise and solid experience proved to be an exception-ally happy one, and the easy confidence with which the three players worked together was immediately evident to [listeners of] the first album which they made as a unit, done at a studio date at the back end of 1959 [Portrait in Jazz].”

“However , as LaFaro himself pointed out shortly after the album's release, their avowed goal of simultaneous improvisation was only intermittently achieved at this first recorded meeting. `We are really just beginning to find our way', he stressed. `You won't hear much of that on our first record together, except a little on “Blue in Green” where no one was playing time as such. Bill was improvising lines, I was playing musical phrases behind him, and Paul Motian played in free rhythmic drum phrases.'”

“Even a year later, if further recorded evidence may be taken as a reliable guide, the type of total mobility which LaFaro describes was still not a regular feature of the trio's work, though one should remember that it would probably be wrong to imagine that it was the pianist's sole musical target. However that may be, of the items set down by [these musicians] at their second studio date only “Nardis” and “Sweet and Lovely” can really lay claim to being acknowledged as three-part improvisations for any substantial portion of their length. The latter in particular has especially full themal [sic, thematic?] textures, and the musical variety thus established is maintained at a very high level throughout the gripping performance, with Motian staying tacit in some sequences to allow Evans and LaFaro to weave some spontaneous counterpoint. At first hearing, in fact, the drummer sounds the least entertaining of these three, but successive auditions, both of this and of other selections in the set, show that this impression is at base a mistaken one, and derives, ironically, from the extreme subtlety and refinement of his rhythmic variations.” . . .

“Although I have taken care to emphasize the important part played by Paul Motian in these recordings -- his unusually resourceful solo in “All of You” should on no account be overlooked -- there can be no doubt that, after Evans, it is the bassist Scott LaFaro who most boldly seizes one's attention, not only because of his vital role in the improvised group textures but also, and more obviously, by way of his impressive solo work.”

“In him Evans seems to have hit upon a true alter ego, a musician whose exquisite sensibility and remarkable technique combined to make him an ideal associate for the pianist. Moreover, to judge from `Gloria's Step' and `Jade Visions', two of his compositions included in this collections, he appears to have been branching out as a writer [composer?]. Yet for the international audience he was just beginning to reach, there were, alas, to be no further installments of his artistry, for only a few days after the end of this club appearance he met his death in a road accident.” . . .

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Spring Leaves. Bill Evans. Berkeley, CA: Milestone Records, Distributed by Fantasy Records, 1976. Milestone M-47034. 2 sound discs : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo : 12 in. Produced by Orrin Keepnews. Re-mastered 1976 by David Turner. Program notes by Conrad Silvert. Includes photograph with caption “Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans, Paul Motian”.

Performers:

Program:

Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4

Notes:

Sides 1 and 2 were recorded December 28, 1959 and were originally issued as Portrait in Jazz.

Sides 3 and 4 recorded February 2, 1961 and issued as Explorations.

The two takes of `Autumn Leaves' first appeared respectively on the Riverside 315 [also as 351] (mono) and Riverside 1162 (stereo) versions of Portrait in Jazz -- the early stereo equipment having malfunctioned during recording of the first-preference performance.”

`The Boy Next Door' was not released initially because [Evans] was not satisfied with it. The producer [of this re-release] has chosen to include now “to demonstrate how well even a self-considered lesser Evans effort stands the test of time.”

Original recording engineers: Sides 1 and 2, Jack Higgins, Reeves Sound Studios, NYC; Sides 3 and 4, Bill Stoddard, Bell Sound Studios, NYC.

Note: OCLC #3 054 713 DLC 19770620

Excerpts from Conrad Silvert's program notes follow:

“The two albums reissued here represent a turning point in the career of Bill Evans, his first forays into the kind of trio improvisations that since have given Evans a reputation a the most brilliantly accomplished and influential practitioner of that jazz form.”

Portrait in Jazz and Explorations also were Bill's only two studio dates with Scott LaFaro, the young bassist whose innovations have achieved legendary proportions among musicians and listeners over the past 15 years. In these recordings, and even more in the utterly telepathic sessions taped June 1961 at the Village Vanguard (Milestone 47002), Evans invited LaFaro to exploit his creative gifts by becoming a voice virtually equal to the piano. And, using one or another variation, Evans has explored this concept with all his subsequent groups, for several years with bassist Chuck Israels and after 1966 with one of the most brilliant bassists since LaFaro, Eddie Gomez.”

“When Evans made these sides, he felt they would be the prelude to a long and fruitful collaboration with LaFaro, rather than the rare and valuable documents they have turned out to be. For, only six months after the Explorations date, and less than two weeks after the Vanguard sessions, while driving late at night on an unlit rural route on the way to his parents' house in Geneva, New York, the 25-year-old LaFaro left the road and was killed instantly.” . . .

[Silvert quoting Evans on this trio's formation]

`When I left Miles Davis to form a trio in the fall of `58, Miles tried to help me get off the ground. He called some agents, and I asked Jimmy Garrison and [drummer] Kenny Dennis. They said they'd like to try, so we had a few rehearsals and I got a booking at basin Street east, which was a pretty heavy club.

`We were opposite Benny Goodman, who was returning to the scene after a long absence. It was a triumphant return -- the place was jammed the whole time and they were paying him a tremendous price, chauffeured limousine, the whole thing. But they treated us as the intermission group, really rotten -- a big dressing room and steak dinners for Benny's band, but we couldn't even get a Coke without paying a buck and a quarter.

`Kenny and Jimmie couldn't put up with this scene. It really got bad. In a two-week engagement I think I went through six bass players and four drummers. Philly Joe Jones was on the job a few nights and began to et pretty heavy applause. So the boss said, “Don't let your drummer take solos any more,” and turned the mikes off on us.

`Well, I was quite friendly with Paul Motian. We had been making sessions together. And Scott LaFaro was working around the corner with a singer -- I forget who -- and he dropped into Basin Street a couple of times. Anyhow, it ended up where Scott and Paul were the final guys.

`All I had to offer was some kind of reputation and prestige that enabled me to have a record contract, which didn't pay much, but we could make records -- not enough to live on, but enough to get a trio experienced and moving. I found these two musicians were not only compatible, but would be willing to dedicate themselves to a musical goal, a trio goal. We made an agreement to put down other work for anything that might come up for the trio.'

[Silvert quoting Orrin Keepnews, producer of these albums]

`What Bill was trying for with Scott almost from the start was an equal projection of the two of them rather than lead voice and supporting instrument. The particular thing he did with Scott was unique to Scott. He didn't attempt exactly the same thing with Chuck Israels; and the duet albums with Eddie Gomez [Intuition (F-9475); Montreux II (F-9510)] are not substitutes for albums he never did with LaFaro -- the approach is very different.

`Scott was a very strong player and Bill allowed that strength, as he does with Eddie. When Bill is proud of a guy, he wants to show him off.'

[Silvert quoting Evans on LaFaro]

`At that time [when Explorations was being made] I was quite strict with myself about perfection. And Scott and I had a personal difference during the date. It was in the air and I felt it was getting to the music. But when I heard it played back, I realized the music was happening, and in fact it's one of my favorite albums.' . . .

`Scott's playing had evolved tremendously. My first impression of him, when we met during an audition for Chet Baker in `56 or `57, was that he was a marvelous bass player and talent, but it was bubbling out almost like a gusher. Ideas were rolling on top of each other; he could barely handle it. It was like a bucking horse.'

`I think what happened during our time together was that the format, the very pure, strict, logical kind of discipline that the trio worked with, though there was all the freedom within the structure to do whatever he wanted -- it gave him firmer control over that creative gusher.'

`The most marvelous thing is that he and Paul and I somehow agreed without speaking about the type of freedom and responsibility we wanted to bring to bear upon the music, to get the development we wanted without putting repressive restrictions upon ourselves.'

`I don't know -- Scott was just an incredible guy about knowing where your next thought was going to be. I wondered, “How did he know I was going there?” And he was probably feeling the same way.'

`But the mechanical problems are something else -- the physical, theoretical, and analytical problems involved in playing together intuitively within a set structure. We understood music on pretty much the same basis. But at that time nobody else was opening trio music quite that way, letting the music move from an internalized beat, instead of laying it down all the time explicitly.'

[Silvert quoting Paul Motian on LaFaro]

`Bill and I had worked together, for Tony Scott and for Don Elliott. But with Scotty we became a three-person voice -- one voice , and that was the groundbreaking point. I loved Scotty, man. One thing that knocked me out was that his rate of improvement was so fast. He was practicing and playing all the time. Also, Bill and I are both sort of inward types, and Scotty just clonked you over the head.'

`I remember the last time we played the Vanguard. I was packing up the drums and as we were leaving, we all said, “Let's really try to work more often.” Because we were really enthusiastic about the music. It seemed we had hit a really good peak and we wanted to continue on from there. Then Scotty died.'

[Silvert quoting Evans on LaFaro's appearance and values]

`Scott was quite a good-looking guy -- young, vital. His hair was slightly curly, blondish -- Italian but blond. Fair skin. He was intense in experiencing anything but bullshit, not wanting to waste time. And yet selecting values that others might not think worth their attention. He was discriminating about where quality might lie. He didn't overlook traditional playing, realizing it could contribute a great deal to his ultimate product.'

`Scott was in life right up to the hilt, but he wasn't going to mess with indulging in experiments with drugs. Once in a while he might smoke a little pot or something but it didn't mean anything. He was a physically clean pure kind of cat.'

[Silvert quoting Evans on LaFaro's instrument and technique]

`It [LaFaro's bass] had a marvelous sustaining and resonating quality. He'd be playing in the hotel room and hit a quadruple stop that was a harmonious sound, and then set the bass down on its side, and it seemed the sound just rang and rang for so long.'

`Other guys would hit a couple of high notes and then come down. But Scott made it part of the total plan. As young as we was, and only having played four or five years, he brought a great, mature organization to what he was doing.'

`I was very happy when after the Vanguard date we were listening through stereo earphones, and he [Scott] said, “You know, we didn't think too much of it while we were doing it, but these two weeks were exceptional.” He said something to the effect that “I've finally made a record that I'm happy with.”'

“Ten days after that last Sunday at the Vanguard, on the night of July 5, 1961, Scott and a friend decided to pay a late-night visit to a woman friend who lived in Warsaw, New York, 90 miles west of Scott's Geneva home. She already had a visitor -- Gap Mangione, the pianist/composer from Rochester, and brother of trumpeter Chuck Mangione. . . .”  Note: An erroneous variant of this statement places the location of the woman nearer to Canandaigua, New York, about 20 miles west of Geneva. The accident occurred near Flint, New York, 1:45 A.M., July 6, 1961.

[Silvert quoting Gap Mangione about the accident]

`They were pretty blasted, so I said: “Stay awhile.” But Frank [Ottley, LaFaro's companion] and the lady went off, and Scott and I stayed in the living room and drank coffee, listened to records, and talked. We played an album by Chet Baker and I remember one ironic thing Scott said: “There's one of America's greatest tragedies. Chet could have been as successful as Miles Davis. But instead he gets himself into drugs and into jail and there goes that.”'

`After two or three hours, Scott was a lot straighter, but he was very tired. But when the others returned, he insisted on driving back our efforts to have them stay and rest. So Scott and Frank got in the car -- it was a huge Chrysler, Scott's bass was in the trunk -- and drove out to the highway, a side road, Route 20. Later on I heard that they hit a tree and the car burned. They both died.'

[Silvert quoting Evans on LaFaro's playing on Explorations]

`His bass was being repaired, and the bass he had for the date had a marvelous lower register, but not such a great high register. It's kind of interesting the way he moved through “Nardis” soloing through the strings in the lower register and just around the thumb positions.'

TOC

NO PHOTO

The Legendary Scott LaFaro.  [Tokyo?: ]

Re-issue circa 1978 of This is Pat Moran (Audio Fidelity UXP-106) LP.

DO NOT HAVE

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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:  2005-09-30
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