It was there his career exploded. The three not duplicated here were played only once that day. His death came just ten days after recording two live albums with the Bill Evans Trio, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz . But we LaFaros have staying quality, and my husband and I just celebrated our 60th year in this house. In the latter case, Getz fired LaRoca and hired Roy Haynes, but Kenton wasn't about to be second-guessed. we do worse! Click to reveal ai! His records with Bill Evans are among the finest jazz trio discs . Lets call it the chimerical voice of the rhythm sectionas well as what could often be the lead instrument when LaFaro was in your band. It wasnt until he left for Ithaca College, where music majors were required to play a stringed instrument, that he first played bass. Scott LaFaro was born 64 years ago today. LaFaro broke new ground on the instrument, developing a countermelodic style of accompaniment rather than playing traditional walking basslines, as well as virtuosity that was practically unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Mr. Berg, whose career encompassed free jazz, soul jazz, jazz rock, and straight-ahead playing, was driving east on Route 27 with his wife when Dad (Joe LaFaro) never forced us to play music. My mom was still pregnant with my last sister. Having followed him out to Los Angeles in the late 1950s along with the rest of the LaFaro family, LaFaro-Fernandez still lives in California and continues to answer daily inquiries about her brother, conduct interviews, and ensure his legacy will inform musicians and fans for generations to come. Both Nat Hentoff and Ralph J. Gleason took note. In Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World, Gene Lees wrote, "The shock of LaFaro's death stayed with Bill for years, and he felt vaguely guilty about itHe felt that because of his heroin habit he had made insufficient use of [their] time togetherAfter LaFaro's death, Bill was like a mane with a lost love, always looking to find its replacement. Expansive range was a totem of the LaFaro sound, the idea that the bass was so much a bass that it was also not a bass and more than a bass. The rest is told in his gripping visuals, The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist. You can read our interview with Holland here. What a natural setting for a multi-ecosystem guy like LaFaro, the dream bassist for a project of this nature, which is jazz, classical, painterly, open yet demonstrative. Lafaro's innovative bass playing, which combined virtuoso technique with a counter-melodic conception, was captured in all its glory at the Vanguard on June 25, 1961. The top of the instrument is a three-piece plate of slab-cut fir; the back is a two-piece plate of moderately flamed maple with an ebony inlay at the center joint; the sides are made of matching maple. We were like brothers., Six months before the session with Kuhn, LaFaro recorded with trumpeter Booker Little on April 13 and 15. Each year during the first week of April, The Smith hosts the Scott LaFaro Day Celebration concert that features a contemporary bass player. Scotty sort of led the way on the bass becoming a solo instrument in its own right. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a154b16ff047cd4 I get 10 to 12 emails a day asking about Scotty. On date night, people would end up at The Smith. This article is about the 1961 Village Vanguard recordings. Security video shows a crash in the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles which left a driver dead. The 25-year old Scott LaFaros death in a car accident shortly after was a major shock to the jazz world. So they were constantly trying for fresh approaches and fresh improvisationsAnd Bill told me, I remember it exactly, If I played the same lick on a tune two nights in a row, the next time I playe dit Scott would play it with me in harmonyhe would actually harmonize it so that at that point it was time for me to get rid of that lick and move on to something else.Is that what LaFaro was trying to bring to Getzs attention at the Blackhawk? This was Scottys home, and he would practice bass facing the corner in the living room because he could better hear the sound quality. For much of 1958, LaFaro was with pianist/vibraphonist Victor Feldman's band. We think of LaFaro as a jazz bassist with leanings toward classical music; its the lan, I think. The bass was badly damaged in the automobile accident that killed him, but was eventually restored and is sporadically used in performance to honor LaFaro. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Also, the exertion of a formidable musical will to take what was there, in an act of guidance. Each year during the first week of April, The Smith hosts the Scott LaFaro Day Celebration concert that features a contemporary bass player. Performers: Bill Evans, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Paul Motian, d. 7 May 1960. See all our current specials here. It was released in 1962. Labels. Once he got the gig, his college days were over. The tendency is to associate him with classical predilections, but here he is at one of the zeitgeist-shaking avant-garde sessions, and boy, does he drive the sound. Also, Club 86 was bringing in major stars as well. Composer: Porter: Everyone heard him. LaFaro burned like a meteorite, rising to the top rank of bassists in a few short years and working with a Whos Who ofjazzgreats in the compressed time frame preceding his death at age 25. Smith Opera House is owned and operated by the Smith Center for the Arts, a private not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. He practiced from sheet music for the higher-pitched clarinet to improve his facility the upper register for bass. The loss of LaFaro hit Evans hard, and he went into a brief seclusion. Other birthdays Monday: Jimmy McGriff, 64; Harold Vick, 19361987; and Eric Kloss, 51. Evans and Dolphy dont feature on a couple tunes, while LaFaro is the constant. Celebrating the life of Genevas legendary jazz bass hero Scott LaFaro has become an annual event at the Smith Opera House, ever since the City of Geneva declared April 3, his birthday, as Scott LaFaro Day in 2014. Before long he mastered the instrument, and he toured with trombonist Buddy Morrow and trumpeter Chet Baker. As weve already noted regarding the time period right around his tragic death, LaFaro packed a lot of art into his days. Killed in a car accident aged just 25, Scott LaFaro was widely regarded as the most technically gifted bassist of the 20th Century. He was with Buddy Morrows band (1955-56), toured with Chet Baker (1956-57) and worked during the next few years with Ira Sullivan, Barney Kessel, Cal Tjader and Benny Goodman among others. Such is the legacy of bassist Scott LaFaro, though I would suggest that what was was more than we often think. Performers: Bill Evans, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Paul Motian, d. 28 Dec 1958. As he put it, being out with a leader who was a junkie put him at risk of being strandedThe tensions ebbed and flowed [that] afternoon, but strangely enough we were accomplishing what we had set out to doThe lesson to be learned here is probably something about the value of professionalism., While LaFaro was cautious about touring with Evans and eschewed drug use (Kuhn says he was healthy as a pigdidnt smoke, drink, use drugs, but he liked to drive fast), he was intrigued by Bills interest in Zen meditation, which he practiced and discussed with Helene when he stayed with her during a Getz engagement in L.A. Scott was extremely picky and choosy, and he wanted to call the trio. The all-timer live session that produced the aforementioned discs is rounded out by two studio LPs, Portrait in Jazz (1960) and Explorations (1961), which I sense are not listened to as much as they ought to be, but the Vanguard date is sufficiently lambent that it pulls us to it, which is good on one handthis is one sweet, invigorating flameand less than ideal on the other, because Scott LaFaro (who, along with Jimmy Blanton, Id posit as jazzs most important bassist) was a lot more, and did a lot more, than the prevailing narrative would have us believe. I still have people from all over the world knocking at my doorstep, wanting to see where Scotty played. DSD 128 fs (2) DSD 64 fs (2) . He quoted Evans, who said, Im hoping the trio will grow in the direction of simultaneous improvisationIf the bass player, for example, hears an idea that he wants to answer, why should he just keep playing a background?, Scotty, of course, heard and answered plenty of ideas. In 2009 she published a biography about him, Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro. Shortly after, he acquired a bass made in 1825 in Concord, New Hampshire by Abraham Prescott. Find him on the web at colinfleminglit.com (where he maintains the unique online journal, the Many Moments Moreblog) and on Twitter @colinfleminglit. [15][16], According to Joachim Berendt, LaFaro's innovative approach to the bass caused "emancipation", introducing "so many diverse possibilities as would have been thought impossible for the bass only a short time before". I dont blame him, said Morrow. The album was the fourth and final effort from the unitLaFaro died in a car accident just ten days after the live date at the Village Vanguard from which Waltz for Debby and its predecessor, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, were taken. Helene says that she and Scotty were taken to hear Tony Bennett, the Mills Brothers, Dizzy Gillespie and numerous others. 1926). July 6, 1961 in Seneca, NY. Scott LaFaro - Artist Details. The highlight of the session was Scotts original, Misery (to Lady Day). Evans biographer Peter Pettinger said of the dedication to Billie Holiday, Not much happens, but a wavelength is established. He played a lot of top, cymbals, and Scotty wanted more drums, says Kuhn. According to Paul Motian, the death of LaFaro left Bill Evans "numb with grief", "in a state of shock", and "like a ghost". Bassist Scott LaFaro of Geneva had already achieved acclaim when he died in a car accident at the age of 25. Q: When did your brother start getting interested in music? They worked together with vocalist Dick Haymes, whose road show included dancers and a comic. Perhaps one thinks of the contrast, as I do: the balmy New England coast, sailboats alongside the bandstand, and then the hard, unforgiving asphalt of the interstate. He recorded with pianist Don Friedman as well. We would explore all around our neighborhood on West Street our house was where the elementary school is. Los Angeles Fire Department crews were called to the scene to extinguish the blaze. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNqSL3xGW70, The Evans Trios appearance at the Village Vanguard opposite Lambert, Hendricks & Ross in June 1961 culminated with the legendary recordings made on the last day of the two-week engagement, Sunday, June 25. Our Dad was from here. So help yourself to his more, if you will. Press J to jump to the feed. It is well remembered as the final performance by the Evans trio of the time, which included bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. That show typically includes stories about LaFaro, who forever changed the jazz worlds concept of what bass playing could accomplish with his counter-melodic style. It will be observed on his birthday anniversary, April 3. That is what so many families Sunday ritual were like. We were the kind that played a fraction, a millimeter behind. Scotty was on the road at the time, in California. Postings here are the last known photographs or videos of a person. Jim Hall. The texture, however, is the back of the handthats the form of caress, rather than the rough-skinned palm. Today would be the 78th birthday of the great Scott LaFaro, who died in a car accident in 1961. LaFaro continued to divide his time between Getz, Ornette, and Evans in 1961. Brother man, I can all but hear Ornette saying, we are going to blow some minds tomorrow.. It remains what is likely Evans' most well-known song,[citation needed] one that he would play throughout his career.