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Scott LaFaro
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his 'voice' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years (1955-1961), his innovative approach to the bass astounded his contemporaries, and to this day his recorded performances continue to surprise and delight.
Those who have found the Bill Evans Jazz Resource on the Internet know of the profound interplay among Paul Motian, Scott LaFaro and Bill Evans in a jazz trio that for many musicians to this day remains a model of sonority, complexity, and swing. Scott LaFaro's bass playing 'alchemy' (to borrow from an Ornette Coleman recording on which LaFaro performed) propelled Bill Evans to meet the artistic challenge of balance in a jazz trio.
The trios of Art Tatum, Nat Cole, and Oscar Peterson feature the pianist. Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian were of one voice. The Evans trios that followed in the wake of the tragic death of Scott LaFaro in 1961, continued the search for balanced interplay but, notwithstanding the contributions of Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker, Gary Peacock, Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell and Elliot Zigmund, Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera, musicians with technical facility and swing, the pianist's voice remained dominant.
The post-LaFaro trios of Bill Evans achieved maturity and polish, the result of many years of playing together. Evans and LaFaro and Motian played (and recorded) as a trio less than two years, from December 1959 to June 1961. It is the sense of harmonic exploration and discovery, challenge and response, time's ebb and flow, that draws one to listen again and again to Portrait in Jazz, Explorations , Sunday at the Village Vanguard, and Waltz For Debby. These recordings are as fresh today as when they were first made, and together serve as an archetype of the jazz piano trio.
Scott LaFaro's mastery of his chosen instrument began after his 1954 graduation from high school. Although he played bass only six years, LaFaro remains a beacon for jazz bassists.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, LaFaro grew up in a musical family (his father played in many big bands). He started on piano while in elementary school, began on the bass clarinet in Junior High School, changing to tenor saxophone when he entered High School. He only took up the double bass the summer before he entered college, since learning a string instrument was required for music majors. About three months into college, LaFaro decided to concentrate on bass.
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Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz to Ornette! Revisited
by Alberto Bazzurro
Che cosa si può dire ancora di un'opera che ha stravolto il corso del jazz, uno di quegli snodi dopo i quali--qui fin dal titolo--nulla può essere più come prima? Punti di svolta decisivi e ineludibili che cambiano il corso di un'arte, pietre miliari come Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in pittura, l'Ulysses di Joyce in letteratura, o più specificatamente in poesia Un coup de dés di Mallarmé? Nulla, appunto, perché tutto dev'essere per forza di cose già stato detto e scritto, ...
Continue ReadingOrnette Coleman: Free Jazz To Ornette! Revisited
by John Eyles
For ezz-thetics' revisited series' fourth Ornette Coleman album, the label has ventured back further than any of its previous Coleman albums, to New York City in December 1960 and January 1961. Recorded at A&R Studios on Wednesday December 21st 1960 from 8pm to 12.30am, the Free Jazz session produced two pieces, the thirty-seven minute Free Jazz" itself, which was issued in September 1961 on an Atlantic album entitled Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation By The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet, and ...
Continue ReadingHampton Hawes: For Real!
by Richard J Salvucci
There are, Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, no second acts in American life. For pianist Hampton Hawes, born in 1928, there was scarcely a first. No sooner was he established as an up-and-coming talent than he was drafted into the Army. When he got out, he tried to pick up where he left off. A heroin habit he had acquired prior to military service led to a harsh incarceration because he refused to become an informer. Only a grant of clemency ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited
by Glenn Astarita
Bill Evans' The Legendary Trio at Birdland 1960 is a seminal recording that captures a fleeting moment of jazz brilliance, immortalizing the profound synergy of Evans with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Recorded live at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club in New York City, this album is a vivid snapshot of a group at the peak of its creative powers, navigating the complexities of jazz standards and original compositions with unparalleled grace and fluidity. The trio's ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited
by John Eyles
Keen-eyed Bill Evans aficionados will know that this album is the pianist's third in the Revisited series by ezz-thetics, following At The Village Vanguard 1961 Revisited and the double-CD Duos with Jim Hall & Trios '64 & '65 Revisited, both released in 2023. The Legendary Trio" refers to the threesome of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, the same group that recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961. The Legendary Trio was brought to a tragic end ten ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited
by Chris May
Thank you, Boris Rose. The obsessive New York jazz maverick set out to record every musician of note who performed in the city's clubs from the mid 1940s through the mid 1970s. He must have come close to succeeding. His vast accumulated horde of tapes--today presumed more or less safe, stacked floor to ceiling in a sizeable Bronx basement under the guardianship of his daughter Elaine--is a treasure beyond mere monetary value. Annotated but uncatalogued, there are many hundreds, perhaps ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans Trio: At The Village Vanguard 1961 Revisited
by Mark Corroto
Imagine yourself in Greenwich Village June 25, 1961. You are in attendance at a small pie shaped club called the Village Vanguard run by Max Gordon. This is before it was to be crowned as a jazz holy ground. Sonny Rollins had recorded his famous A Night At The Village Vanguard" (Blue Note, 1957). John Coltrane would record there in November of 1961 and again in 1966. The spot is a shrine with sessions from legends such as Albert Ayler, ...
Continue ReadingJazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his 'voice' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his 'voice' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his 'voice' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his 'voice' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his \'voice\' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his \'voice\' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his \'voice\' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today!
Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his \'voice\' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
read more
Just Because: Hampton Hawes With Scott LaFaro
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Before Scott LaFaro joined the Bill Evans Trio in late 1959, the young bassist’s second west coast stint included work with Chet Baker, Barney Kessel, Victor Feldman, Cal Tjader, Stan Getz and Hampton Hawes, among others. In California, LaFaro’s tone, time and adventurous ideas put him—along with Gary Peacock and Charlie Haden—in the vanguard of a new generation of bassists who took the instrument a step beyond functional time-keeping and harmonic guidance. With Evans, he would contribute to the development ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Scott LaFaro
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Scott LaFaro's birthday today! Rocco Scott LaFaro (1936-1961) was a musician of the first order, who found his \'voice\' in jazz in the mid-1950s. His played the double bass violin, better known today as the acoustic bass to differentiate this instrument from the electric (or electronic) bass. His life was cut short in an automobile accident in the summer of 1961 near Geneva, New York, his home town. Although he performed for only six years ...
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Mike Downes
bassDominic Duval
bassDavid Friesen
bassGary Peacock
bass, acousticFrank Tusa
bass, acousticCraig Akin
bassFrantisek Uhlir
bassAlan Lewine
bassKen Lister
bass, acousticMichael Staron
bass, acousticBrad Barrett
bass, acousticGianmarco Scaglia
bassRichard Andersson
bass, acousticSal La Rocca
bass, acousticDon Mopsick
bass, acousticRonaldo Diamante
bass, acousticEric Gruber
bassAdam Armstrong
bass, acousticTim Aucoin
bassBancroft And Lyne
vocalsPhil Ravita
bassMark Diamond
bassJake Leckie
bassDominik Schürmann
bass, acousticChris Maresh
bassGary Kelly
bass, electricSteven Bulmer
bass, acousticMaciej Domaradzki
bassAlison Keslow
bassJesse Dietschi
bass, acousticLars Tormod Jenset
bassShimpei Ogawa
bassGreg Oliva
bass, electricBruce Phares
bass, acousticManel Fortia
bassMarshal Herridge
bassMax Gerl
bassPatrick Carey
bass, electricPetros Dragoumis
bass, electricRick Kilburn
bass, acousticAlireza Kohany
arrangerAram Sinnreich
bassJohn Lyden
bassJohn Hench
bass, acousticRoman Gastelum
bassJodi Proznick
bass, acousticPhotos
Music
I Hear A Rhapsody
From: Pieces Of JadeBy Scott LaFaro