In LaFaros short yet meteoric career, he accomplished more than most musicians do over decades. 2023 Smith Center for the Arts, All rights reserved. Later we moved to Elmwood Place, and during the summer we would spend many of our days at the Brook Street Playground. Postings here are the last known photographs or videos of a person. Then wed go home and have dinner and ice cream. We are in a fix! All that listening to the trio had another effect on me. This year The Smith is excited to have National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters Kenny Barron (piano) and Dave Holland (bass) together on stage on Saturday, April 6. 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. 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. ai! The group attended the funeral in Geneva, which Kuhn adds was closed casket., LaFaro's death was devastating to Bill Evans. In fact, the tune Glorias Step, was an outgrowth of his interest in those chords. He also recalls getting the call from Scotty to spell the ailing Evans for a couple of nights at the Jazz Gallery. Freidman, LaRoca, and LaFaro recorded a demo session in 61 thats now available in a companion CD to the biography,Pieces of Jade. [14] On April 4, 2014 a ceremony to rename a downtown street Scott LaFaro Drive took place. It originally appeared as a solo piano piece on Evans' debut album, New Jazz Conceptions. 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. A record like this could easily have become just a mood disc: sound as fuzzy, woolly painting, in which the experiment becomes an end unto itself, the gesture, the gambit, being everything. In 2007, 46 years later, Roy introduced Helene to the great bassist Christian McBride. Evans and Dolphy dont feature on a couple tunes, while LaFaro is the constant. He said, Man, youve gotta hear this. Youre freeboomto lock in on LaFaro, and I do that quite a bit. LaFaro joined the Bill Evans Trio in 1959 and, although he would record with Ornette Coleman (including Free Jazz) and gig with Stan Getz, the bassist is best remembered for his association with Evans, particularly their Village Vanguard recordings of 1961. The title track, a musical portrait of Evans' niece, became a staple of his live repertoire in later years. 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. [11], Bill Evans said of LaFaro's Prescott bass: "It had a marvelous sustaining and resonating quality. He recorded with pianist Don Friedman as well. These two albums, recorded less than two weeks prior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ_rZZusz90 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbTEgBEaEM4. Places to dine, drink, stay near the Smith Opera House, A word of caution about buying tickets on the secondary ticket market. He played a lot of top, cymbals, and Scotty wanted more drums, says Kuhn. The texture, however, is the back of the handthats the form of caress, rather than the rough-skinned palm. Scotty also befriended the pianist-composer Victor Feldman, and recorded with him and drummer Stan Levey in January 1958. Performers: Hampton Hawes, p; Harold Land, ts; Scott Lafaro, b; Frank Butler, d. 14 Mar 1958. Tragically, LaFaros chance to see how far his talent would take him was cut short when he died in a car crash near Geneva in July 1961 at the age of 25. After that touch of piano, he really started to enjoy music and develop a keen awareness of what it was all about. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ_rZZusz90, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbTEgBEaEM4. He stuck with his new hire, offered Scotty the option of plane fare to New York or L.A., and showed him the door. [My] early years at the university were thoroughly engaging intellectually but were also a time of deep introspection. Also, the last picture taken by a person just before their death is acceptable. Genres. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has We calculated our top 40 new releases of 2022 We calculated our top 10 historical/reissue You never quite knew what Chicago bassist Kelly Sill was going to play (or what he was going to say). Scott was already playing like that with Bill., Recorded on November 29, 1960, the four-song session wasnt officially released until 2005. LaFaro-Fernandez: After Scotty played at the Newport Jazz Festival with Stan Getz (July 1961), he went to Geneva to try to convince the people who had been renting our house to buy it. As such, the album is a sort of memorial record for him; all of the tracks featured were either written by him, or feature a bass solo performed by him as the centerpiece of the track. Scotty grew up in Geneva, where his father Joe, whod played with the Paul Whiteman and Dorsey Brothers orchestras, earned a living as a violinist and shared his fondness for both classical music and big band jazz with his children. Mom needed the money. Scott LaFaro. He was playing mandolin and violin publicly by age 7. 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. He's seen here playing "Cherry" and "Chart of My Heart" with saxophonist Richie Kamuca's Quintet on a Stars of Jazz television broadcast on April 7, 1958. Died . He heard what I was doing at the piano, and I heard what he was doing. Once he got the gig, his college days were over. Little, another ill-fated star of the period who died at 23 in October 1961, described LaFaro in the liner notes as distant, but closea paradox that resolves only for those who were simpatico. He also recognized Scottys distinctiveness as an innovator who was much more of a conversationalist behind you than any other bassist I know[Hes] technicallyabout the greatest bassist we have. Remarking on the solo LaFaro plays on Bee Tees Minor Plea, the trumpeter said, The bass is a crude and rude instrument, but Scott makes it into something else. Helene says Scotty would have loved being described as something else, since I could remember how excited [he] was when he brought around to play for me the first record of Ornettes he owned,Something Else.. LaFaro continued to divide his time between Getz, Ornette, and Evans in 1961. Little must have loved LaFaros contributions, because he himself was one of those players between spheres: neither a bopper nor a hard-bopper nor an out-and-out New Thing guy. California had affordable education, and we could all go to college. Christian said, Scottys playing was the bible for bass playersJimmy Blanton the old testament, Scotty the new., LaFaro spent the evening of July 5 with old friends in Geneva then drove 80 miles west with Frank Ottley to visit another friend in Warsaw who was house-sitting at a place with a good stereo. Scott LaFaro at Newport July 2, 1961 - Killed in a Car Wreck 4 days later. 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? Its the top of the sheet, instead of the coarseness of the winter blanket. Friedman first heard LaFaro with Buddy Morrow, and then they worked together with Chet Baker. Jan. 30, 2021 1:47 PM PT. Mangione remembersLaFaro calling Baker an American tragedy, and says, Over the years, [Scotts] using the term an American tragedy still strikes me as incredibly ironic and portentous [given what happened] that night., At about 1:45 on the morning of July 6, LaFaro apparently fell asleep at the wheel and veered off Route 5-20, hitting a tree and killing himself and Ottley instantly. 2023 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. Both Nat Hentoff and Ralph J. Gleason took note. The loss of LaFaro hit Evans hard, and he went into a brief seclusion. Bill Evans Trio. She recalls that Zoot Sims so impressed her brother that he was impatient for the intermission to end, and that bassist Leroy Vinnegar hummed all the while he was playing, a habit Scotty later developed as well. Helene says he talked about seeing Duke Ellington for weeks, shaking his head in disbelief of howthey could fool with the melody and make it so much more. As for religion, she says that whenever shes asked, I always answer, We went wherever the music was best. That was Dads criterion, be it a mass at a Roman Catholic church or Friday evening Shabbat dinner at the cantors home., Scottys first instruments were piano, clarinet, and tenor saxophone. ", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIzbINNrqcQ. Before long he mastered the instrument, and he toured with trombonist Buddy Morrow and trumpeter Chet Baker. Haynes shared with Scotty a fastidiousness about clothing, and hed just been named toEsquiresBest-Dressed list. Includes Obituary, Biography, Discography, Photo, and Links. DSD 128 fs (2) DSD 64 fs (2) . My father passed away (from a heart attack) in 1957. Performance & security by Cloudflare. Composer: Gillespie Performers: Thad Jones, tp; Herb Geller, as; Billy Taylor, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Elvin Jones, d. June 1959. She had lost her husband, then four years later lost her son, and she still had young kids to raise. Each year during the first week of April, The Smith hosts the Scott LaFaro Day Celebration concert that features a contemporary bass player. A stacked bass makes for a stacked musical deck. His death came just ten days after recording two live albums with the Bill Evans Trio, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz . LaFaro was killed in a car accident ten days after the recording. The 25-year-old Scott LaFaro's death in a car accident shortly after was a major shock . We decided to move the family to California. ~ Charles A. Ralston, A Site About Dead Musicians and how they got that way. So even a low speed accident which would be survivable in today's cars, would be a mess in an older car. Scott was extremely picky and choosy, and he wanted to call the trio. Scott died instantly and the world lost a talented andinnovative musical voice. The great bassist is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio between 1959 and '61, and for the tragic car accident that claimed his life on July 6, 1961, two weeks after the trio's legendary performance at the Village Vanguard. Chuck and Gap Mangione were among the locals hanging out that night, andJade Visionsincludes Gaps recollection of listening to Chet Bakers recording of Grey December with Scotty. [10] Joe LaBarbera, who drummed in the trio with Evans and Johnson, says, Bill said regarding Scott and the music, that Scott hated it when it remained the same. RE: Person I Knew is a tribute to bass legend Scott LaFaro, who died tragically in a car accident 50 years ago this year at the age of 25.Phil Palombi plays the EXACT bass that made Scotty a legend on the Bill Evans Trio, Live at the Village Vanguard Sessions!. But you always knew that Read More Kelly Sill, Several years ago, one of Danilo Prezs students was suffering from tendinitis. It was an idyllic childhood. Ornette Coleman was another musician who appeared on the Jazz Abstractions datebut as with Dolphy and Evans, on just half the recordand I often imagine the conversations he might have had with LaFaro during breaks and between takes about what Coleman had in mind for the next day. LaFaro was taken from this world 60 years ago, on July 6, 1961, in Flint, New York, where he was involved in an auto accident a few days after playing with Stan Getz at Newport. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In 2009, Resonance Records reissued five tracks from Memories for Scotty on Pieces of Jade, together with twenty-two minutes of LaFaro and Bill Evans practising "My Foolish Heart" during a rehearsal in 1960. What were Scotts childhood and teen years like here in Geneva? we do worse! Your family ended up following Scotty out to California. We would explore all around our neighborhood on West Street our house was where the elementary school is. Today would be the 78th birthday of the great Scott LaFaro, who died in a car accident in 1961. Man, woman decapitated after car slams into big rig on 5 Freeway in San Fernando Valley. A jazz musicians legacy can be a multifarious slope. LaFaro was taken from this world 60 years ago, on July 6, 1961, in Flint, New York, where he was involved in an auto accident a few days after playing with Stan Getz at Newport. 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. But LaFaro had a pronounced Dolphy streak too, in that both musicians were playmakers, facilitators, helping others to raise their games by playing theirs at the highest level. Musician. Scotty and I were born in New Jersey but we moved back to Geneva in 1942. Scotty was on the road at the time, in California. He took up bass because he was required to play a stringed instrument at Ithaca College. By. LaFaro died in an automobile accident on July 6, 1961, in Seneca, New York,[5] on U.S. Route 20 between Geneva and Canandaigua,[9] four days after accompanying Stan Getz at the Newport Jazz Festival. Bassist Scott LaFaro of Geneva had already achieved acclaim when he died in a car accident at the age of 25. There is a creek that ran through the park, it would go up past Shuron Optical where they used this rouge chemical to make glass lenses, so the creek was always red. Those six numbers with LaFaro making up what became the Booker Little album are a masterclass in postbop bass. It was then he fell in love with the tenor saxophone. Pianist Walter Norris described him as a "wild fire," and said "he never used any stimulants to enhance life, but his every moment was seriously lived to the fullest." After that touch of piano, he really started to enjoy music and develop a keen awareness of what it was all about. Tracks such as "Solar" (RealAudio excerpt), from the Village Vanguard sessions, highlight his ability to play high notes with surprising speed. Following the Vanguard engagement, LaFaro played with Getz, Steve Kuhn, and Roy Haynes at Newport on July 2. Composer: Styne / Sondheim Performers: Bill Evans, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Paul Motian, d. 7 May 1960. Victor Feldman. . Despite his short career, he remains one of the most influential jazz bassists, and was ranked number 16 on Bass Player magazine's top 100 bass players of all time.[2]. The young bassist was friends to other artists and art during his all-too brief sojourn upon the mortal coil. A major shock also, the tune Glorias Step, was an outgrowth of live. On LaFaro, b ; Paul Motian, d. 7 May 1960 legacy can be a multifarious.! Heard what I was doing at the top of the keyboard shortcuts, https: //www.youtube.com/watch?.... Discography, Photo, and he wanted to call the trio in chords! 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