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Scott LaFaro: Bibliography, Books S -- Z


This section includes excerpts from published books, arranged by author's last name, which include commentary on Scott LaFaro. In general these constitute reference works, jazz discographies, or biographies of other jazz musicians with whom LaFaro performed.


Table of Contents

 Shadwick  Bill Evans: Everything Happens To Me; A Musical Biography  (2002)
 Spellman   Four Lives in the Bebop Business  (1966)
 Szwed  So What: The Life of Miles Davis  (2002)
 Tudor   Jazz (1979)
 Walton  Music: Black, White, and Blue  (1972)
 Williams   Jazz Changes  (rpt 1993; 1992)
 Williams, ed.   Jazz Panorama: From the Pages of `The Jazz Review'  (1964)
 Zavatsky  Theories of Rain and Other Stories (1975)

 

Shadwick, Keith.  Bill Evans:  Everything Happens To Me; A Musical Biography.  San Francisco, CA:  Backbeat Books, 2002.  First Edition. (Paperbound)  Publisher URL: <www.backbeatbooks.com>. Produced for Backbeat Books by Outline Press, Ltd, London, England.  illus. 208 pp.

"Keith Shadwick [resident of London], trained as a saxophonist and has been writing and broadcasting about music for over 25 years. . . . His jazz books include The Illustrated Story of Jazz and Jazz: Masters of Style." (rear fold end-paper)

Index entry: "LaFaro, Scott" at pp. 26, 75, 79, 81, 82-83, 85, 86, 87, 89, 90-91, 94, 175, 183, 189, 193-194.

p. 26:  photo of Scott LaFaro [in performance at the Village Vanguard, June 1961] by Steve Schapiro ("Picture Credits" p. 208).

p. 75: [first encounters: Evans LaFaro Motian]

"By early spring 1959 Evans was scouting for musicians for his own group.  His heavy workload suggests that he was not simply accepting work that came in, but actively seeking it too. At the start of the year he had held down a regular supporting role for a few weeks at the Basin Street East club in New York City, running [i.e., leading] a trio that, thanks to the club's poor treatment of non-star musicians, had constantly changing personnel.  . . .  It was during this squalid time that Evans first brought together Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro. He knew the drummer Motian from early days in New York; bassist LaFaro, fresh in from the West Coast and eager to play, dropped in at Basin Street regularly.  But lack of opportunity to perform as a trio ensured that the group remained a dream for all three musicians."

p. 79: Following discussion of Bill Evans' participation as an instructor in John Lewis' August 1959 School of Jazz at Berkshire Music Inn, Lenox, MA, along with Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Giuffre, Gunther Schuller, Kenny Dorham, Max Roach, Connie Kay, Jim Hall and others, Shadwick adds the following interesting comment about the direction of Bill Evans' career:

"But the most significant event at that summer' School was the debut of saxophonist Ornette Coleman and multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry as part of the student body (and on a scholarship from Atlantic Records, according to eyewitness Martin Williams). They were among the group overseen and sponsored by Roach and Lewis which also included pianist Steve Kuhn and bassist Larry Ridley. Coleman's playing at the group's concert -- which played three of his [Coleman's] early compositions -- caused a sensation among the musicians and observers present. Even within the confines of the big-band overseen by Herb Pomeroy, Coleman made an impression both with his ability to learn an ensemble style and with the sheer force and beauty of his music. He affected all who heard his playing, and was described in Down Beat's unsigned report as having 'a driving, exciting, highly individual style.' Had Evans but known it, he was witnessing the first moments of the eclipse of the progressive jazz movement with which he had been so closely involved for the past four years. As well as many of the teachers and professionals at that year's School, the movement included players such as Lee Konitz, Lennie Tristano, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Dave Brubeck. Some of these musicians would have to reinvent themselves or adjust their style to accommodate the ideas and freedoms that Coleman and his followers would introduce into jazz during the next handful of years. Evans had just months before been a force behind one of jazz's greatest records [Kind of Blue], yet he would never regain the musical initiative or be a member of the front-line innovators of jazz, even though one of the members of his first trio, Scott LaFaro, would play and record with Coleman. From this time on -- even before his first great trio had recorded its debut LP [Portrait in Jazz} together -- Evans would be treading his own path and working increasingly further away from an new trends in jazz.. . ."

p. 81: Steve Schapiro's photograph of LaFaro, Evans, Motian at the Village Vanguard, NYC, 1961 ("Picture Credits" p. 208)

pp. 82-83: [ LaFaro background, Summer-Fall 1959, Portrait in Jazz ]

"As for the bassist, there had been a sense of inevitability about the arrival of Scott LaFaro in the band. 'I was astounded by his creativity, [he was] a virtuoso,' said Evans. 'There was so much music in him, he had a problem controlling it . . . He certainly stimulated me to other areas, and perhaps I helped him contain some of his enthusiasm. It was a wonderful thing and worth all the effort that we made later to suppress the ego and work for a common result' . (footnote 2 refers to Jazz Journal International March 1985)

"Bassist Scott LaFaro was young, energetic, confidently outgoing and very ambitious. He was also extremely talented, as Charlie Haden -- among many others -- has consistently stressed. 'I think one of the greatest losses to music -- not just to jazz -- was the loss of Scott LaFaro,' Haden said in 1966, five years after LaFaro was killed in a car accident at the age of just 25. 'He was one of my closest friends, and I'm not recovered from his death. He would have gone on to become one of the greatest musicians, greatest human beings, in the world . . . It was my pleasure to record an album with Scotty, which I'll never forget -- the double quartet album [Free Jazz] with Ornette [Coleman].' (footnote 3 refers to Down Beat 2 June 1966)

"Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1936, LaFaro studied a range of instruments as a child, moving on to bass after high school. By the mid 1950s he'd travelled to Los Angeles where he became active in the jazz scene, and was tutored by Red Mitchell. By 1959 LaFaro had come back to the East Coast and settled in New York City, quickly becoming a regular player in a range of groups from Benny Goodman to Stan Getz and, of course, Bill Evans. LaFaro had roomed for a while with Charlie Haden in L.A. 'We met and became very close,' said Haden. 'We shared an apartment for a while, and he went to New York about the time Ornette's group did.' (footnote 4 refers to Down Beat 9 March 1967 ) During his time with the Evans trio, LaFaro would revolutionize modern-jazz bass playing, largely through what he played with Evans but also through a number of other appearances live and on records with various leaders, and most especially the two albums he made in the winter of 1960/61 with Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz and Ornette!. A regular freelancer with all manner of bands, LaFaro also ran his own occasional trio throughout his time with Evans."

"The Evans trio worked where it could during the summer and autumn of 1959, often as support for better-known artists, and sometimes with other players depping [?sitting in] where one member had previous commitments. By December, Evans felt ready to take his now settled group into the studio for the first time. 'I found these two musicians were not only compatible, but would be willing to dedicate themselves to a musical goal, a trio goal,' he said. 'We made an agreement to put [aside] other work [in favour of] anything which might come up for the trio . . . We could make records -- not enough to live on, but enough to get a trio experienced and moving.' (footnote 5 refers to liner notes to Spring Leaves (1975))"

"The resulting album recorded three days after Christmas 1959, delivers the blueprint for every subsequent working trio Evans would run. Portrait in Jazz finds the pianist often using the more percussive keyboard attack associated with most of his previous playing, his ideas crowding in, his urgency all too apparent. His theme statement on the opening track, 'Come Rain Or Come Shine', is anything buy reflective of the message carried by the son's lyrics. The pianistic asides and arabesques, the harmonic reworkings, all give his performance considerable edge and brittleness, with his rhythm choppy and uncharacteristically over-busy. LaFaro and Motian, in contrast, stroll through the song, the bassist in particular almost laconic in is easy lines, casual double-stops and occasional rhythmic pauses."

"A more characteristic sound and approach is discernible after the hectic, George Russell-like intro to 'Autumn Leaves', the performance showing signs of being well rehearsed in every detail. Here Evans is busy and silent by turns; Motian constantly breaks up his timekeeping role, engaging in intelligent dialogue with his partners; and from the first verse LaFaro is creating the types of note cycles and little rhythmic motifs with which he would soon become closely identified and which would prove so influential throughout jazz. It is worth noting that it is LaFaro who takes the opening solo here. Only halfway through the performance do all three break out into a swinging medium tempo, all the more refreshing for its long-delayed entry."

"Other standards have less stimulating arrangements. 'Witchcraft', for example, is pure George Shearing in its initial statement, but its musical focus comes unequivocally from the trio, with LaFaro's melodic gift and astonishing facility of phrasing constantly stealing the listener's ear from the lines or chords that Evans is delivering. This feature of LaFaro's playing would survive alongside such a strong improvisatory force as Ornette Coleman, and indeed it is possible to listen rewardingly to both Coleman's records featuring LaFaro by focusing entirely on the bass player(s). LaFaro is especially effective within the confines of the Evans trio, whose leader constantly stressed that the sharing of the music's spotlight was fundamental to what his band should be doing, so long as the musicians concerned were happy to share musical goals. As for Evans himself: 'As a leader, it's my role to give direction to the group, and Paul and Scott have indicated that they are more comfortable in the trio than anywhere else. Does a group get stale? It all depends on whether there is continuing stimulation, whether all the musicians concerned want to share each other's progress.' (footnote 6 refers to Down Beat 8 December 1960)

"Just two Evans originals appeared on Portrait in Jazz, one being a new version of 'Blue in Green', the piece Evans had recorded earlier in 1959 with Davis. It now appeared on his Riverside LP co-credited to Davis and Evans. The second original was a sprightly mid-tempo tune, 'Peri's Scope', name after Evans's girlfriend of the time, Peri Cousins. It's delivered in the locked-hands approach which he was gradually inflecting with enough of his own musical personality to make it a signature sound. The performance on this track finds Evans at his most playful, toying with phrases and emphasizing the major tonality of the piece in a way that gives no room for doubt about his feelings for the song's subject. Even the feeble pun of the title has a naïve charm of its own."

"By  contrast, some of Evans's most explorative, chance-taking playing of the date occurs on an old favourite, 'What Is This Thing Called Love?', where crisp up-tempo stop-time passages allow him plenty of opportunity to display his talent for rhythmic displacement. LaFaro's solo on the same track is one of his most technically impressive of the session. 'Blue In Green', taken at a pace very similar to the version on Kind Of Blue, allows Evans to adopt the combined roles of that session's trumpeter and pianist. It also points the way to the more rarefied trio performances of the future. These would use gradations of touch and a 'cushioning' of accents by all three players to create the trio's own special ballad language, communicating surprising levels of emotional depth though a music notable for its restraint and economy. These qualities are also evident on the version of the Disney song, 'Someday My Prince Will Come', brought to jazz by Dave Brubeck some three years earlier and, after Evans's version here, adopted by Miles Davis using a very similar arrangement. This language was now being recognised by other musicians as originating from Evans. In a Blindfold Test in Down Beat in January 1960 Ornette Coleman was played 'All Blues' from Kind Of Blue. 'I believe Bill Evans was the most dominant figure on that side, ' said Coleman, 'but Cannonball and Coltrane sound very wonderful . . . But Miles Davis seems to have had the closest execution to blend with the way Bill Evans was playing his chords for the instruments to play on. (footnote 7 refers to Down Beat 7 January 1960). Evans was thrilled and stimulated by the music his trio was making and looked forward to the promise of even better things to come as 1960 commenced. He cut down on the amount of freelancing he was doing, concentrating instead on rehearsing the group and finding regular work, aiming to make the trio financially self-sustaining. They managed a brief cross-country tour in January and February which took them as far as San Francisco's Jazz Workshop before returning to New York. Back home they appeared on the bill at a Town Hall concert that was headlined by the Modern Jazz Quartet and including groups led by Ornette Coleman, Art Blakely, Philly Joe Jones and Carmen McRae."

"In late March Down Beat's In Person column listed the trio as appearing 'indefinitely' at New York's Hickory House restaurant and club, taking over from an extended 'indefinite' stay by the Mitchell-Ruff duo. By mid-March they were debuting at Birdland on Broadway. . . ." (this paragraph is on p. 84)  

p. 85: [Spring-Summer 1960, Circle In The Square, Birdland gig, Portrait in Jazz released]

"Namechecks [i.e., who's playing where and when] in jazz magazines were increasing during the spring and summer of 1960 and the Evans trio, regularly appearing at Birdland, were [sic] announced as appearing at that summer's Newport Jazz Festival. Evans himself was publicly confirmed to repeat his consultancy at August's Music Inn Summer School in Lenox, Massachusetts, while his group gained an effusive entry in Down Beat's nine-page Jazz Combo Directory of June 1960, organised 'to help club operators and other buyers select groups to hire'. It noted that 'Evans has a fine sense of melodic and harmonic invention. LaFaro is one of the newer talents on bass and is receiving more and more attention from jazz listeners.'" (footnote 12 refers to Down Beat 23 June 1960)

"The trio did not in fact appear at Newport because the festival closed prematurely after street riots by drunken teenagers.  Evans did manage an appearance in May with Gunther Schuller's band in a concert in the Jazz Profiles series at New York's Circle In The Square. [Critic] Dan Morgenstern described what he saw, 'Schuller employed as the basic units of his ensemble a classical string quartet and a jazz trio (. . . Bill Evans, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass; and 'Sticks' Evans or Paul Cohen, drums). The two group performed in all the seven compositions heard. Additional musicians joined them from time to time: Ornette Coleman, alto saxophone; Eric Dolphy; alto, clarinet, bass clarinet and flute; ... Eddie Costa, vibes; Barry Galbraith, guitar; and Buell Neidlinger on bass.'" (footnote 13 refers to Jazz Journal July 1960)

"Morgenstern, not entirely enamoured with Schuller's efforts to meld jazz and classical, did not mention Evans again in the course of his two-page review. Instead he singled out just two musicians for praise: Ornette Coleman and Scott LaFaro. 'The main event of "Variations (On Django)" was a bass solo by Scott LaFaro,' wrote Morgenstern, 'a young bassist who here demonstrated that his ample and beautiful instrumental technique is matched by a musical imagination of the first order. But he could have, and has, played as well in a purely jazz environment.'  (footnote 14 refers to Jazz Journal July 1960) Morgenstern concluded his review by commenting, 'At the Circle In The Square, jazz, representing Dionysius, met a somewhat anaemic Apollo in the guise of Gunther Schuller. It wasn't even a close contest.'  (footnote 15 refers to Jazz Journal July 1960)  Whatever else, the concert did at least provide an important musical meeting between Coleman and LaFaro."

"Portrait in Jazz was released by Riverside at this time and there were rave reviews from all directions. By the end of the summer Evans, already involved with a booking agency, signed a management deal with Monte Kay, Proprietor of Birdland . . . . but then Evans suffered his latest bout of hepatitis . . . [which] forced him to spend much of August and September recuperating and the trio's progress came to a complete, if temporary, halt.  Bassist LaFaro took the opportunity the opportunity afforded by this unwanted break to join Ornette Coleman's Quartet as a replacement for his friend Charlie Haden . . . . LaFaro toured with the Quartet until the beginning of November, which took him to San Francisco and back via the Monterey Jazz Festival where they [Coleman, Blackwell, and LaFaro] appeared as a trio." 

p. 86: [ Jazz Abstractions the 1960 Down Beat Readers' poll Explorations ]

"LaFaro [along with Evans] was also present on this album [Jazz Abstractions], as were Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman, and all three [LaFaro, Dolphy, Coleman] would participate the very next day in recording Coleman's masterpiece, Free Jazz, for the same label [Atlantic].  Dolphy too made a classic album on the 21st [February] cutting Far Cry for Prestige with Booker Little."

"Ironically given the confused state of their own ambitions, Evans and his trio had featured prominently in the December 8th 1960 edition of Down Beat. Evans appeared on the cover and was interviewed in depth by Don Nelsen, while in the December 22nd issue Evans was listed fifth on piano in the Readers' Poll, one place up from the previous year, and LaFaro came in 12th on bass."

"The conditions under which the trio's Explorations LP was recorded on February 2nd 1961 were not ideal. Tension from the separations of the previous months still simmered, particularly between Evans and the abrasive LaFaro, who made no secret of his disgust at Evans's addiction. LaFaro played on a borrowed instrument, while the pianist was quickly complaining of a headache, probably brought on by the strain in the studio. There are moments on the album where the connections between the three men, and especially between pianist and bassist, seem momentarily to go dead. LaFaro, who has a darker, less focused tone that usual, is quite often to be heard playing lone whole notes as a tune's arrangement is dispensed with, or moving harmonically with Evans in minims on the tonic and dominant (for example on the Gordon-Warren ballad 'I Wish I Knew'). Meanwhile Paul Motian holds down the time with the minimum of brushstrokes to cymbal and drum-head."

"On other, more fully integrated pieces LaFaro is in top gear and playing all over the range of his instrument, as his solo on 'Nardis' demonstrates. His is the first, taking priority over Evans's -- in itself a considerable departure from the jazz conventions of 1961.  The piece exhibits a similar harmonic construction to the uncredited 'Quiet Temple' from the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Soul of Jazz Percussion session of spring 1960, suggesting that Evans, a 'Nardis' fan, had dressed it up in new clothes for that quintet date. During 'Sweet and Lovely the wonderful co-ordination of mind and effort between all three is perfectly judged, an indication perhaps that this tune, at least, had been thoroughly rehearsed in the recent past. Evans commented in retrospect about this set: '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.'"  (footnote 16 refers to liner notes Spring Leaves (1975))

"For an album that was to be so influential and remain the only studio recording of this trio at its mature peak, Explorations is singularly bare of Evans originals, relying for its effect on his perfected approach to familiar material and the unique interplay between the three musicians. This interplay can be most readily appreciated by comparing this music with that recorded the same month by Evans and Cannonball Adderley for Know What I Mean?. On the latter, each member of the rhythm section sticks strictly to the conventions of his instrument's role. By contrast, the effort to listen to everything being played and to simultaneously react to it is almost palpable on the Explorations sides. Yet it is fair to say that this record represents the trio at a relatively early phase of its evolution, even given LaFaro's vastly increased role. The piano leads from the front and is much more the dominant voice in the dialogue than it would be by the time the trio made is midsummer recordings at the Village Vanguard. . . ." [Shadwick goes on to discuss Bill Evans's role in the Oliver Nelson recording Blues And The Abstract Truth recorded three weeks later on 23 February 1961]

 p. 87: [Intermittent gigs and the new Stan Getz Quartet]

"Meanwhile during the spring [of 1961], work for the trio continued as a hit-and-miss affair. there was a week during February 1961 at the Cork *& Bib in Westbury, New York State [sic, in recté Connecticut]; a March residency that extended to three weeks at the Sutherland Lounge in Chicago (sandwiched between a week of John Coltrane and a fortnight of Shirley Scott); and a week in April at The Showboat [Lounge] in Philadelphia -- but still very little in the way of steady work in New York City. There were a number of interruptions, including Evans's participation in the Nelson record; the most significant was the regular absence of the in-demand Scott LaFaro."

"The bassist's ex-boss, tenorist Stan Getz, had recently returned from an extended stay in Stockholm, and LaFaro was announced in Down Beat as part of Getz's 'promising new group [which includes] Pete LaRoca, drums; Steve Kuhn, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass.' (footnote 18 refers to Down Beat 30 March 1961) This group had preceded the John Coltrane Quartet into Chicago's Sutherland Lounge in February. the same report went on to give details of Getz's recording activity. . . . Getz also made an album's worth of material in Chicago on February 21st with his new quartet, including LaFaro on bass. Just one track, 'Airegin', has been released to date, on a latter-day Getz CD compilation. By the time Getz hit the showboat in April 1961 he had an ad-hoc rhythm team of Steve Kuhn on piano; Jimmy Garrison on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. LaFaro was back with Evans and Motian."

p. 88: [Vanguard Sunday live recording sessions and SLF's technique]

"The Evans group was was more than ready for the challenge of recording in front of an audience [at the Village Vanguard Sunday 25 June 1961], having rehearsed regularly over the months to build a large repertoire of carefully arranged tunes. As Evans observed later, 'Scott, Paul and I would play the same tune over and over again. rarely did everything fall into place, but when it did, we thought it was sensational.'"(footnote 20 refers to Jazz Journal International March 1985) They also welcomed the test of an audience's reaction to refine their interplay and approach. 'The music developed as we performed and what you heard came through actual performance,' Evans continued. 'The objective was to achieve the result in a responsible way.' (footnote 21 refers to Jazz Journal International March 1985) The new live recordings were to do that in full measure."

"The trio was taped by Riverside during the last full day of their [two] week engagement at the Vanguard, on Sunday June 25th 1961. The extra time allowed by the Sunday matinee at the club was used to record multiple versions of the same repertoire, offering more chances to capture flawless, complete versions of each piece under consideration.  Years later, producer Orrin Keepnews recalled a chance factor that added to the success of the recording. 'Our staff engineer, Roy Fowler, was not on hand, perhaps on vacation. His replacement was Dave Jones, one of the best at 'live' location recordings in that two-track era. The sound of these selections remains as crisp and undated as the music...' . . ." (footnote 22 refers to booklet notes, Complete Riverside Recordings (1984))

"Clearly the group itself had no reason to think that this recording session would be any more special that the others they had done together. The usual planning took place and the tunes were considered and selected. The playbacks heard later were a pleasant surprise. Evans: 'I was very happy when after the Vanguard date we were listening through stereo headphones, and [LaFaro] said, "You know, we didn't think too much of it while we were doing it, but these two weeks were exceptional." He [LaFaro] said something to the effect that, "I've finally made a record that I'm happy with."' (footnote 23 refers to liner notes Spring Leaves (1975)) That contentment is understandable, given the peak of creativity the trio had attained unawares.  Many years later, Keepnews wrote about the initial selections that he made with Evans for the two original LPs released from the material, Sunday At The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby. He claimed that 'the necessary choices were quite arbitrary; it is clear that nothing played this day was without considerable merit' (footnote 24 refers to booklet notes, Complete Riverside Recordings (1984)) . . .

p. 89: [LaFaro's technique, continued]

"In the eyes of many contemporary observers, the major musical reason for this extraordinary level of group intercommunication and creativity was the ability of LaFaro to match, and certainly in rhythmic areas, outpace Evans in terms of the ideas fed in for counterpoint. Critic Harvey Pekar observed that 'even when accompanying, LaFaro didn't limit himself to one particular pattern: he might play two quarter-notes in one bar and superimpose a rhythmic figure containing 16th, dotted-8th, and quarter notes over the beat in the next one.' (footnote 26 refers to Down Beat 11 October 1962). LaFaro also contributed significantly to the emotional content of the trio's music. Evans, a contemplative and often inward-looking player, found a counterfoil in LaFaro as perfect as that between himself and the other soloists in Miles Davis's group. As Pekar observed, '[LaFaro's] improvising is reminiscent of John Coltrane's because he was seemingly more concerned with harmonic and rhythmic exploration than with overall construction . . . At times his playing suggests the human voice, and the passion with which he played is almost overpowering.'" (footnote 27 refers to Down Beat 11 October 1962)

"Not everyone shared this laudatory view of LaFaro's contribution to jazz bass. Pianist and composer Cecil Taylor, in a swingeing [sic, in recté ?swinging or ?singeing] attack in 1965 on Evans's music, talent, and musical philosophy, commented: 'The weaker musicians have always benefited from the technical things engineers do. On the other hand, if you're powerful, the engineer usually feels he has to cut you down  . . . Recording gives Evans's piano a scope of highs and lows that his original touch cannot achieve. This is particularly clear with bass players. Take . . . Scott LaFaro. He was thought to have a fantastic technique, but my definition of technique is not only the ability to play fast but the ability to be heard. To have a fat sound. LaFaro, however, had a minute sound. By contrast, Charlie Haden really had something going. But engineers made LaFaro sound big.'" (footnote 28 refers to Down Beat 25 February 1965)

"It is true that LaFaro had lowered the bridge on his bass to give him a lower 'action' between strings and fingerboard, and that his had altered the sound he was getting compared to that of conventional bass players -- certainly different from Haden, Wilbur Ware and Paul Chambers of his contemporaries. But nobody else ever complained openly about LaFaro's tone and volume, not even other bass players.  Taylor seems to be airing some of his own problems concerning the outside world in the guise of an attack on Evans, stretching the point about what may or may not be an acceptable sound of volume from any instrument in an ensemble. When Evans commented on LaFaro's tone, he said his instrument 'had a marvelous sustaining and resonating quality' (footnote 29 refers to liner notes Spring Leaves (1975), while other musicians who played with LaFaro, including Ornette Coleman, Stan Getz, and Charlie Haden, all paid tribute to his unique qualities. Coleman even named an outtake from the January 1961 Ornette! date on Atlantic as 'The Alchemy of Scott LaFaro' when it appeared for the first time during the 1970s."

The September 1961 release of Sunday At The Village Vanguard, the first selection of material from those June sessions, emphasised LaFaro's playing and composing: it even leads off with a medium-tempo LaFaro line called 'Gloria's Step'. The tune swings contentedly through a major-minor verse and bridge pattern and finds the bassist in mind-bogglingly creative mood during Evans's opening solo, constantly dragging the ear away from the piano which for the most part improvises chordally rather than with a single line. 'My Man's Gone Now', played as a slow waltz but by no means a dirge, is one of the trio's greatest spontaneous masterpieces, from Motian's swirling brush-stroked cymbal beats, through Evans's passionate improvised melodies, to LaFaro's separate but intimately connected musical commentary on both. the intensity, all the more potent for the restraint exercised by Evans and his trio, is overpowering by the end of the tune's recapitulation. 'Solar', by contrast, receives an adequate interpretation but only the bassist really shines, with some rhythmic problems occurring during the course of a long (nearly nine-minute) performance at a bright medium tempo."

pp. 90-91: ['Jade Visions'] [BET with Miles Davis?]

"'Alice in Wonderland' invokes the utter delight a child finds in fantasy, Evans's arrangement of the Disney song revealing a happy touch of innocent humour as the simple and appealing melody is allowed to dance across a light waltz beat -- always a favourite Evans device. His first solo here is his best on the record and one of his best ever. It has a sense of form and dynamics and a seemingly artless (but highly subtle) development, effortlessly invoking a range of emotions associated with the song. A perfect cadential resolution into fresh whole-note chord voicings ushers in LaFaro's bass solo: a perfect exit. The pianist's second solo, after LaFaro, is less consequential and less well organised than the first, but the team still ends perfectly together on a pleasant modulation."

Cole Porter's 'All Of You' inspires a similar level of cohesion, but its common time seems to inspire Evans less. The original LP ended with another LaFaro composition, the contemplative 'Jade Visions', recorded according to Keepnews, 'almost as an afterthought' (footnote 30 refers to booklet notes, Complete Riverside Recordings 1984)) but in two versions, both marred by a noisy crowd. Its deceptive simplicity hides considerable musical sophistication, and the piece harks back harmonically and rhythmically to the Debussy of the second book of Images, its pensive Oriental atmosphere having few precedents in jazz. This short piece has a minimum of improvisation, the bridge completely chorded with no leading voice, and is given interest by falling into 9/8 time throughout and by LaFaro's triple stops over a low bass pedal note. On the original LP it ends with no applause, but rings in the mind for a long time afterward, and helps give the trio's music a suggested dimension shared by no other piano trio in jazz at that time. 'Jade Visions', like 'Blue in Green' and 'Peace Piece', was to prove powerfully influential on pianists such as Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and Chick Corea.'"

"The second LP release from the live sessions, Waltz For Debby, followed in the spring of 1962. the new version of the title track ['Waltz For Debby'] is full of joy, lightness of rhythm and vitality of line, and alone would mark out this trio as a very special group. On this performance, as on 'Detour Ahead', on a heartbreakingly beautiful reading of 'My Foolish Heart', indeed on the whole collection, there are simply no stretches of playing where the musicians are vamping in wait for something to happen, never a feeling that one member of the trio is off on a musical quest of his own. Everything is integrated and has meaning as part of a greater whole. LaFaro's bass anchors Evans's chords beautifully in theme statements, Motian provides impetus and rhythmic colour, and Evans makes his instrument sing more often than not, avoiding his own improvisatory clichés much of the time due to the inspired level at which he is working."

Other standout renderings on this second disc include a sensitive and idiomatic investigation of Bernstein's 'Some Other Time' that avoids the sentimental through a combination of a relatively bright ballad tempo and an unembellished interpretation. 'Milestones' is less of a success: its alternative viewpoint on a Miles Davis exercise in scalar improvisation has little forward momentum and is no match for the trumpeter's approach, with Evans incapable of the staccato thrust given the theme by Davis, Coltrane and Adderley on their 1958 recording. Only LaFaro comes out of this well, his brilliantly conceived and executed rhythm patterns and variations -- in and out of tempo -- consistently captivating in their daring."

The only significant selection from all the 'additional' material later made available from this session by Riverside is a warmly observed and perfectly controlled version of another Gershwin piece, 'I Loves You Porgy'. This initially appeared on a mid-1970s LP compilation of Vanguard material otherwise entirely mad up of previously issued selections: possibly, then, Evans approved its appearance at the time. Presumably the intrusive level of audience chatter and glass clattering led to its initial rejection in 1962. The music itself, however, is as seamlessly integrated and perfectly realised as the other ballads from this date."

After the gig was finished and the playback tapes had been listened to, the three men went their separate ways, having no immediate work together. Evans was never to see LaFaro alive again. Just ten days later, after appearing at that year's jazz festival at Newport with Stan Getz, LaFaro and two companions [sic, in recté one companion] were killed when the car the bassist was driving in upstate New York left the road and hit a tree.  The news of this tragic event during the early hours of July 5th [sic, in recté 6th] 1961 made a deep impact on the jazz world.  . . .

. . .

"As Paul Motian later confessed [after learning of LaFaro's death], 'We didn't know what to do. We didn't know if we'd still have a trio. We'd reached such a peak with Scott, such freedom. It seemed that everything was becoming possible.' (footnote 34 refers to Down Beat 22 November 1962) Part of the possible may have been a date with Miles Davis. Motian recalled in 1996: 'We were supposed to make a record date with Miles: the trio, Bill myself and Scott . . . We were talking to Miles about it, it was all set up, and then Scott got killed and the whole thing got forgotten.' (footnote 35 refers to booklet notes, Complete Verve Bill Evans (1997) . . ."

p. 92: [Effect of LaFaro's Death on Bill Evans]

"The death of Scott LaFaro had a debilitating effect on Bill Evans, both personally and professionally. For a while his grieving was so intense that he even lost all interest in playing the piano. Evans later told his friend Gene Lees that he felt 'vaguely guilty' about it. Lees said, 'He felt that, because of his heroin habit, he had made insufficient use of the time he and Scott had had together. LaFaro was always trying to talk him into quitting. After LaFaro's death, Bill was like a man with a lost love, always looking to find its replacement." (footnote refers to booklet note Complete Fantasy Recordings (1989))

p. 94: [Death of LaFaro aftermath]

"LaFaro's death produced an effect that often occurs as a result of an early and tragic death:  the departed bassist -- and Evans -- became larger figures in the jazz world. The romance of tragedy lingered around the demise of his old trio, brought to a piquancy by the release of their best recordings that had been made less than two weeks prior to LaFaro's death. It spurred people's interest in what Evans would do next, lending him a new aura beyond the musical."

p. 96; [Chuck Israels on LaFaro]

"Evans happily admitted that the trio with [Chuck] Israels was 'different', while Israels pointed out that 'only with Bill have I begun to realise my conception of music. It's a melancholy thing to say, but ...if Scotty hadn't died, I'd be struggling still to find a situation in which I could play what I wanted to play. I like to make the bass sound good. If playing time in a deep and firm and flowing way sounds good, then that's the way I like to play. If playing more delicate counter lines and filling [patterns] sounds right ... then I want to bass to sound light and clear.' (footnote 5 refers to Down Beat November 1962)

p. 119: [Denny Zeitlin on LaFaro and Evans in the context of listening to Evans's Trio '65 recording]

"His [Evans's] friend and fellow pianist, Denny Zeitlin, had some insightful comments about the album [Trio '65] when played 'Israel' in a Down Beat Blindfold Test later in 1965. 'I just wonder whether Bill has had a chance to sit down and listen to what Verve has done to his sound,' said Zeitlin. 'This is really a travesty, compared to the beauty that Riverside was able to give what his trio produced in the past. Especially in listening to a tune like 'Israel', which I  heard him do so many times in person and on the Riverside version, I find this leaves everything to be desired.'"

"Zeitlin went on to mourn the death of Scott LaFaro, claiming: 'I don't think any bass player in the immediate future is going to replace the role that Scotty filled. I don't think Bill's approach to music has changed so much that one doesn't feel the lack of someone similar to Scotty.' ..." (footnote 22 refers to Down Beat 21 October 1965)

p.130: [Eddie Gomez cf. Jimmy Blanton and LaFaro]

"By mid April 1966 when the group [the Bill Evans Trio] had reached Chicago's famous London House, [bassist Teddy] Kotick had departed to be replaced by the young New York bassist Eddie Gomez. Gomez had first come to notice as a member of Marshall Brown's Newport Youth Band, for whom he auditioned at the age of 13. 'He was the youngest kid ever to join the [musicians'] union,' said Brown, 'and when we went out on the road playing those ballrooms, it was really illegal for him to be onstage, but I'd sneak him on to play on number ... When I broke up the band in 1960, he was then technically one of the better bass players in town, and he was only 16. The only thing was, nobody knew it except me, but I knew it was just a question of time before Bill Evans found him. He's like another Jimmy Blanton.' (footnote 21 refers to Down Beat 2 June 1966) While Gomez is inevitably compared regularly to Scott LaFaro, Blanton does make a more suitable comparison. Gomez certainly learned from LaFaro, but his more forceful playing and powerful rhythmic drive leads back more clearly by way of Ray Brown to Blanton's example, especially his famous 1940s bass-and-piano duets with Duke Ellington."

pp. 138-139 [Evans and Gomez cf. LaFaro -- 18-19 August 1967 Village Vanguard recording California Here I Come]

"... The music that the Evans trio [Bill with Eddie Gomez, bass and Philly Joe Jones, drums] created during the nights of recording at the Vanguard is consistently inspired. The trio worked for the most part as a cohesive team, though the pianist is still figuring out how best to integrate bassist Gomez's obvious talent into the music. Gomez occasionally sounds ill-directed in his forays across the octaves on his instrument, especially in his frequent solos. Although he has immense speed and dexterity and a style not dissimilar to that of Scott LaFaro, the young bassist is not at this stage of his time with Evans as melodically interesting and rhythmically surprising as LaFaro had been some six years earlier. This is especially noticeable in his solo spots, no doubt a legacy of the live circumstances of the recording, where he is often all over his instrument but less often sustains a clearly shaped musical argument. An example to the contrary is his very LaFaro-like solo on 'Gone With The Wind' from August 18th, the solo falling in a set which is markedly relaxed and swinging, with close communication between all three players. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that Gomez is somehow inadequate in his playing on these August evenings: his consistent flow of ideas, his spirit of adventure and his constant search for variety, as well as his ability to revert to swinging walking bass lines when required, mark him out already as the most impressive bassist Evans had used since LaFaro's death."

p. 175: [McPartland November 1978 National Public Radio Interview with Evans -- Gomez cf. LaFaro]

"McPartland pushed Evans to compare Gomez with Scott LaFaro, but the pianist resisted.  'Some things you think are maybe once in a lifetime,' he said, 'and there's no way to compare with Scotty -- that was a once in a lifetime thing. But I have had marvellous experiences with other bass players -- with Eddie, certainly, for 11 years.' (footnote 9 refers to "radio interview with McPartland November 1978")

p. 183: [LaBarbera on working with Evans -cf. LaFaro]

"[Joe] LaBarbera was quickly given the opportunity to join on a more permanent basis: he accepted and found himself immediately out on the road with the trio. His hopes were high and ambitions unlimited. As he explained, 'My opinion was that the only stigma on a member of Bill's band was on the bass player, because of Scott's [LaFaro's] legacy. Bill had great drummers over the years, but they never shaped what the trio was doing the way Scott did. I wanted to be Scott LaFaro . . . I wanted to have that thing going with Bill in every possible way, to have some of that thing for me. I found out later that Bill had no preconceived ideas of what you should do . . . He was definitely not looking for people to emulate his earlier groups.' " (footnote 23 refers to Insert notes to Turn Out The Stars: The Artist's Choice (Warner Brothers 1996))

p. 189: [Andy LaVerne and Steve Kuhn on the Evans-LaFaro rehearsal tape]

"Evans often said in the last year of his life that he thought his current trio, with Johnson and LaBarbera, had the potential to be the best of his career, and that it was achieving different things to his previous groups. He told Brian Hennessey, 'This trio has the greatest potential of all, and I'm also feeling happier about my own playing.' He added: 'I don't want to belittle any of the earlier trios but sometimes I don't think I was as ready to lead the trio into better music. But now it's moving the same way as the original trio.' (footnote 4 refers to Jazz Journal International October 1985) He may well have felt that this group was following the pat of his first, but the context was entirely different. Where the first trio was much more a co-operative outfit, with Scott LaFaro often forcefully influencing the directions they would and would not make, this band was locked to the courses that Evans decided. LaFaro's role was made explicit by pianists Andy LaVerne and Steve Kuhn in 1996 when they discussed a rehearsal tape of the Evans/LaFaro unit. 'It seems like Scotty is the one in charge,' said LaVerne. 'Oh, absolutely,' replied Kuhn. 'Bill had the greatest respect for Scotty. And Bill being the kind of person he was . . . with his personal problems and all, if he really respected somebody he could let that person just go with it.' " (footnote 5 refers to Booklet notes to The Complete Bill Evans on Verve (1997))

pp. 193-194: [LaFaro's technique cf: Marc Johnson's re: different technologies]

"It is perhaps instructive to listen to these tracks [from the Bill Evans June 1980 recording Turn Out The Stars: The Artist's Choice] alongside the 1961 Village Vanguard recordings where freshness and mutual inspiration were dominant. The original trio had then not been together very long; neither had Evans been playing the repertoire into the ground. In the same way that playing with Miles Davis had been pivotal in Evans's career, his first trio was the first full flowering of his own artistic vision, and it happened to coincide with Scott LaFaro's extraordinary purpose and drive, constantly pushing and pulling Evans into new and different impulses and directions. This last trio [with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera] had a cohesion and mutual interdependence equal to that of the first, even though it was utterly unlike it in character. Now, Evans was pushing everybody else. And while Johnson uses LaFaro as a model -- as well as many contemporary bass players -- his rhythmic approach is different, and his tone and timbre mark out a bassist growing up in a completely changed world for the jazz musician. A number of bassists had brought new levels of sustain and drive to the double-bass: technical developments on the instrument, as well as their own musical imaginations, meant they could now swap at will between staccato and sustained notes."

"LaFaro lived during a time when jazz bassists were generally still using gut strings. this meant that there was less opportunity to produce natural 'sustain' for a note -- a problem shared by the guitar until amplification gave it a completely new lease on life in the 1940s. His technique was therefore built upon assumptions about the physical nature of his instrument that no longer applied to bassists of Johnson's generation. LaFaro sustained melodic ideas often by using techniques associated with classical acoustic guitarists: rapid note repetition to sustain a melodic curve, especially in the upper registers; occasional plunges into the instrument's lowest registers for dramatic effect; and long diatonic and scalar runs interspersed with well-worked pauses and ostinato patterns, often on asymmetric rhythms. LaFaro's timbre was also much more biting, more conversational, than that produced by later bassists. Steel strings and the discreet use of amplification revolutionised the bassist's role in jazz within a decade of LaFaro's death, as the work of Richard Davis, Eberhard Weber and Miroslave Vitous, among many others, demonstrated.  . . .

TOC 

Spellman, A. B. Four Lives in the Bebop Business. New York: Random House, Pantheon Books, 1966. 

At p. 134. LaFaro briefly mentioned in 'Ornette Coleman' chapter.

TOC

Szwed, John.  So What: The Life of Miles Davis.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

LaFaro discussed on pp. 168-169 in context of Miles Davis's hiring of Bill Evans.

Professor Szwed, John M. Musser Professor of Anthropology, Africa-American Studies, Music, and American Studies, at Yale University provides an interesting comment on the possibility that Miles Davis might have recorded with the Bill Evans Trio at one time:

At pp. 168-169: "When Evans formed a new trio with drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro, Miles [Davis] for the last time allowed his words to be used for promotion of a record, appearing on the cover of Everybody Digs Bill Evans ("I've sure learned a lot from Bill Evans. He plays the piano the way it should be played.")  And Motian said that the Evans trio had made plans to record with Davis, until bassist LaFaro was killed in an automobile accident."

At p. 423 "Notes" (for reference on p. 169 of main text):  The Motian reference to Davis possibly recording with the Evans trio is from p. 137 of the program booklet enclosed with the recording, The Complete Bill Evans on Verve.

TOC

Tudor, Dean and Nancy Tudor. Jazz. (Series: American popular music on elpee) Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1979. Index entry: 'LeFaro [sic, in recté LaFaro], Scott' with the following textual references: J5.106 (i.e., J5.109 [and J5.110]), J5.150, J5.170, and J6.55.

At J5.109 and J5.110 refer to albums Free Jazz and Ornette!

At J5.150 discusses the album Twins, referring specifically to the selection “Check Up” as “embracing a certain `border' quality (Coleman is from Texas) suggestive of Mexico. But it stands out for LaFaro's counterpoint behind Coleman's solos.”

At J5.170 discusses Gunther Schuller's album Jazz Abstractions and is part of a section that reviews seminal recordings of what Schuller termed “Third Stream” music, a cross-fertilization of European classical and African-American jazz idioms.

At J6.55 refers to Bill Evans's recordings with LaFaro at the Village Vanguard.

TOC

Walton, Ortiz. Music: Black, White, and Blue; A Sociological Survey of the Use and Misuse of Afro-American Music. New York: William Morrow, 1972.

At pp. 115-116: “Scott LaFaro, [Bill] Evan's bassist, dismisses the roots and traditions of Jazz in an interview with Martin Williams [“Introducing Scott LaFaro” Jazz Review 3 (August 1960) pp. 16-17]:” This is followed by a lengthy Williams quotation of LaFaro, who says that his first bass lessons derived from listening to recordings of Percy Heath and Paul Chambers, and that he had a deep respect for harmony, melodic patterns, and form.

Walton continues: “according to Williams, a few weeks after the foregoing interview LaFaro did become a member of the Ornette Coleman quartet for several engagements. In the process, he [LaFaro] gained enough prestige to allow for the dissemination of technically oriented novelties. Afro-American bassists came under considerable pressure to imitate the imitator. This meant an aesthetic compromise, the relinquishment of the vital force of Jazz, its physics, pulsation and rhythmicity, for rapidity of technical display.”

At p. 169: “Appendix” displaying two columns, the one on the left, `Name of Black Source'; on the right, `Name of White Performers (Imitators). Under the first column, twenty one entries down, appears `Charles Mingus and James Blanton' across the page from which is `Scott LaFaro, Steve Swallow, David Inzenzon [sic in recté Izenzon], Charles Haden'.

TOC

Williams, Martin. Jazz Changes. New York: Oxford, 1992 (Oxford University Paperback edition, 1993).

At p. 73: In the chapter on pianist Steve Kuhn. “Early in 1961, Kuhn joined Stan Getz through the intervention of the late bassist Scott LaFaro.”

Pp. 107-110: In the chapter, “Three Men on a Bass [LaFaro, Steve Swallow, Gary Peacock] First section “Scott LaFaro, by Way of Introduction” (pp. 107-110). This is a reprint of “Introducing Scott LaFaro” from Jazz Panorama: From the Pages of `The Jazz Review'. New York: Collier Books, 1964.

At p. 116: From the above chapter, third section, “Gary Peacock: The Beauties of Intuition”. “Scott LaFaro's unexpected death was a loss in several senses, not the least of which was regarding his contribution to development of the future of the bass in jazz.”

At p. 116: “In their various ways, truly contemporary bass players are melodists – percussive melodists, lyric melodists, or in LaFaro's case and Peacock's, virtuosos melodists. Furthermore, like the young horn men, they explore their instruments even beyond what is supposedly their legitimate range and function.”

TOC

Williams, Martin, ed. Jazz Panorama: From the Pages of `The Jazz Review'. New York: Collier Books, 1964.
 

LaFaro is discussed in two chapters of this compilation of articles originally appearing in the periodical, The Jazz Review.

At pp. 278-280: “Introducing Scott LaFaro”  Click here for full text.

At pp. [299]-305: “Two Reviews of `Third Stream' Music”, especially the second part, 'Full Face (1960)'.

TOC

Zavatsky,  Bill. "To the Pianist Bill Evans" in Theories of Rain and Other Poems by Bill Zavatsky.  New York: Sun, 1975.  pp. 48-50.  Library of Congress Catalog # 74-34537. ISBN:  0-9115342-08-1.

Includes the poem "To the Pianist Bill Evans" by Bill Zavatsky (pp. 285-287), with allusions to Scott and to the automobile accident which ended his life but not his music. The poem, "Copyright © 1975" is below in its entirety:

When I hear you
play "My Foolish Heart"
I am clouded

remembering more than
Scott LaFaro's charred bass
as it rested

against a Yonkers wall
in its transit
from accidental fire

like a shadowy
grace note
exploding into

rhythms of Lou
insanely driving
"Man, we're late!"

his long curved bass
straining the car
interior, a canvas swan

my hand clutched,
fingered, refingered:
steel strings as

of the human neck
the vulnerable neck
the neck of music

squeezed by hands
the fragile box
of song, the breath

I crushed out of the music
before I killed
by accident

whatever in me
could sing
not touching the keyboard

of terrible parties
and snow
              snow

falling as canvas and 
wood and hair flamed
behind a windshield

I imagined being
trapped inside, still
see it in my heart

our terror magnified
note by note
purified each year

the gentle rise
and circle of
cinders in

February air
in their transit
from fire

into music,
into memory, a space
where heroin

does not slowly wave
its blazing arm,
like smoking ivory

teeth and fingers
scorched by the 
proximity

of cigarettes laid
on anonymous piano
lips that crush

our function, in-
transigent wire,
inanimate wood

of another century
we must save by song!
for which we are paid!

continuing to be
used, insisting
our hands present

themselves
and keep
on taking our hands                   

I found Bill Zavatsky's poem about Bill Evans (and Scott LaFaro) in Art Lange and Nathaniel Mackey, eds.  Moment's Notice:  Jazz in Poetry and Prose.  Minneapolis, MN:  Coffee House Press, 1993.  In October 2003, Bill e-mailed me to tell me he found his poem on my LaFaro web site and informed me of its initial publication in his book, of copy of which he sent me. (reference Zavatsky-to-Ralston e-mail Nov 03)

TOC


 

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