SCOTT LaFARO - R3 Bassment library...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Killed in a car accident aged just 25, Scott LaFaro was widely regarded as the most technically gifted bassist of the 20th Century. His records with Bill Evans are among the finest jazz trio discs ever made. Bassist Dave Green joins Alyn Shipton to pick the highlights of these, and to trace the other significant records in LaFaro's brief but brilliant career." ~ R3 Jazz Library this Sat.

V.good track listing for the program picking up on a lot of Scott's stuff away from Bill Evans, including the Hamp Hawes album from '58 (a fav) and Ornette! on Atlantic (ditto). Only ones I'd add are the fine quartet album with Booker Little on Time and the wwwwwwwwonnerful Contemporary trio album with Vic Feldman, "Introducing".

Looks to be another good show.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep a treasure of the planet on the bass ....

playlist here [includes Stanley Getz eh]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y6gbk

live video footage of LaFaro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gzwXQGvXgc

he played on 'The Broadway Bit' a Marty Paich opus with Art Pepper featured ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5N3pflu1XQ&feature=related

JUST FOUND THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfQlV6maOfk&feature=related

very hard to get 1960 in Japan [google helps rar rar]



also looking forward to hearing Dave Green's commentary .... heard him play a few times but he never said a word .....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

bloody great programme! *****, seminal etc ...

a marvellous introduction to the work of a bass player who just makes every other bass player's mouth open wide .....

many thanks to Mr Green and Alyn .... shame that LA only lasts 7 days

[Serial_Apologist]

Great programme, thanks Alyn, and lovely man Dave Green...

The point could have been made more strongly that, arguably, none of the great bass players of the 60s and 70s would have been without LaFaro's expansion of the possibilities. Since then, the young 'uns have very much gone back to the humble accompanist's role imv; with the exception of John Edwards plus one of two others in the free domain (in this country) I can't think of anyone post say 1975 who has added anything to the vocab of the bass viol.

S-A

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

hmmm Garcia Fons kinda blows me away ...

i haven't followed his work closely but Barre Phiillips has possibly explored some possibilities not in the La Faro expansion ....

an exceptional bassist, and a personal god for his work with Dolphy and Andrew Hill and other such albums, Richard Davis has had a cultural and political significance in his work as well as a musical presence in the avant garde

[Guest]

Fantastic programme. Explanations of DeFaro's actual hand technique, how he integrated with Bill Evans particularly were revelatory. R3 at its very best. Real expertise, real affection for the material, no gush but respect and awe implicit in everything the two said. Top stuff.

[Serial_Apologist]

Alyn mentioned to Dave Green the fact that Scott LaFaro was self-taught. I thought he was going to add, "Like yourself", but he refrained. Maybe time was scarce, but the topic might have added an interesting dimension to the discussion.

S-A

[Byas'd Opinion]

The drums must never stop!

[Byas'd Opinion]

Sorry, that was a cheap joke, but I couldn't resist it. LaFaro's great, but with lesser talents there's a lot to be said for bassists sticking to the "humble accompanist's role". And as for drum solos...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

ANOTHER very fine programme - thanks to all concerned.

Minor suggestions:

Scott plays a (wonderful) long acro solo on the Ornette! album, almost cello like. That perhaps would have given another side to his talents and the review. And of the available live tracks away from Bill Evans, the "Harold Land at the Cellar" (1958) with Scott, Elmo Hope !and Lennie Mcbrowne (Sonny Rollins then working LA section) gives a good feel of Scott in a laid back club session. And in far better overall sound than the Chet and Getz tracks played.

I played the Booker Little Quartet session (Time, 1960) after the broadcast and Scott is again remarkable on that. Mingus like at the top, combined with a Doug Watkins bluesey walking "drag". If you were not a really strong player it must have been very difficult to concentrate with all that going on behind you!

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

Not had a chance to listen to this programme yet as I was in Winchester on Saturday afternoon before planting some bulbs in my garden.

I didn't realise that La Faro made so many records outside of the Evans trio. Picking up on the point made earlier in the thread about the accompanist's role, I think that La Faro may have offered a degree of freedom within the confines of the pianist's group that had not existed before but I find the pianist's phrasing to be a bit stiff sometimes. I don't feel that he was quite a "goosey" as La Faro or Motian judging from the "Portaits" album but I don't have the VV live set in my collection which may prove otherwise. Without doubt, La Faro was the best bassist the pianist worked with and there are moments on the "portrait" disc which are quite exciting but this music is now well over fifty years old and sounds of it's era. Although they are a much more modern trio, the line up of Bley / Haden / Motian is far more interesting and flexible in the way that the feel time and I much prefer Haden's more "probing" approach to bass which is rather akin of someone tipping their toes into the icy waters of harmonic ambiguity. As I have said before, Evans is over-lauded in my opinion and would rather listen to Paul Bley any day of the week. Ultimately, I feel Evans became a pastiche of himself.

I totally agree with the facetious comment about drumming. This is really is the measure against which the swing or freedom of the bassist is measured. But have bassists really been that conservative in jazz since the late fifties? Most Modern Jazz records would have employed walking bass line figures and La Faro was one of the first to look beyond this for possibilities. However, the syntax of jazz bass playing today takes in a far broader range of influences where someone like Dave Holland can employ hip-hop lines for instance which have not been fully embedded in to the jazz mainstream. The freedom that John Pattitucci enjoys with Wayne shorter's current quartet surely demonstrates how a bassist can build upon La Faro's vision and work it into a very adventurous context. For my money, Shorter's quartet can play fast and loose with the way they feel time that would have been difficult to envisage in 1958 and, for my money, is as innovative nowadays as Evans' trio must have been in the late 50's. I would also suggest that Tarus Mateen,a lthough playing a curious bass guitar, in Jason Moran's "Bandwagon" demonstrates just how hard a piano trio can swing in no-time. In fact, having seen this band a few times, they are probably the ultimate example to challenge Serial Apologist's comments about bassists reverting back to the role of accompanist. Mateen is a staggering player whose partnership with Nasheet Waits represents a combination every bit as adventurous and innovative as La Faro and Motian. When I saw them with Logan Richardson a few years ago the music the quartet produced was nothing short of staggering and the pianist Stanley Cowell enthused afterwards just how great they were as a team. It is very hard to feel let alone count the "one" when Mateen and Waits getting going and the drive is quite phenomenal- rather like a sports car zipping through the gears in automatic. I would suggest that the Mateen / Waits combinstion has every right to be a justly celebrated as the La Faro / Motian one. Incidently, I much prefer Paul Motian's work of the last 30 years to the music he produced with Evans.

If you want a hard, driving swing both Christian McBride and William Parker bring a muscularity to the music that rivals that of Charles Mingus - a name that always gets over-looked when considering developments on the bass. Then, if you want to look for a contemporary bassist that follows in the role of Richard Davis as someone on a quest for interesting musicians , then Scot Colley is your man. All in all, the level of musicianship and number of expert exponents is far greater nowadays than in the 1950's.

[Serial_Apologist]

.

someone tipping their toes into the icy waters of harmonic ambiguity.
.

Ian's a poet,
In case 'e don't know it

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

he don't like brahms
thinks evans is stiff
does he get liszt?

[Ian Thumwood]

Jason Moran with Tarus Mateen

Where's the one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpHq_cRKGyw

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Ian ~ "Incidently, I much prefer Paul Motian's work of the last 30 years to the music he produced with Evans."Well YES!, if you can't get to sleep, Motians latter enervated ECM life sucking dirges are a treat (to beat yo' feet on the Hampshire mud).

And Ian, (oh I cant be arsed to look) did you say that you don't have/haven't heard the Evans trio at the Vanguard? So, politely WADDA YOU KNOW?

BTW: Chuck Israels, who came into Bill's trio after Scott's death was almost as good. There's a superb '60s Paris radio concert tape that gives Chuck a lot of solo space in which he eclipses everyone. Israels was in awe of Evans and has since written very perceptively about his music and the demands of playing at that level. Unlike ahem..


BN (He's so angry, it's like 1968 again)