A Dead Musician Directory Celebrity Page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSD3g1ndHE, LaFaro began working regularly with Ornette after Evans became ill with hepatitis in July 1960 and went to Florida to recuperate at his parents home amid rumors that hed died. Q: When did your brother start getting interested in music? Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Q: So if you were all living in California, how was it that your brother was near Geneva when he died? Killed in a car accident aged just 25, Scott LaFaro was widely regarded as the most technically gifted bassist of the 20th Century. What happened to your brother after Ithaca College? So even a low speed accident which would be survivable in today's cars, would be a mess in an older car. Active. LaFaro-Fernandez: My father passed away (from a heart attack) in 1957. Well, Michael Cera did play a bassist in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. Geller recalls that at the end of Scottys first night with the clarinetist, the two went around to hear Bill Evans. Does anyone have pictures of this bass, or have you seen it in person? [17], When I was in L.A., Scotty LaFaro and I roomed together. ), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gzwXQGvXgc, LaFaro signed on with Stan Kenton for a tour in the spring of 1959. It is LaFaros bass that makes this thing go, such as it does go. Stan said fine. Kuhn and drummer Pete LaRoca were Scottys choices, but in the midst of a two-week engagement at the Sutherland Hotel on Chicagos Southside, LaFaro had got tired of LaRocas playing. Those six numbers with LaFaro making up what became the Booker Little album are a masterclass in postbop bass. For many, that Evans association, with drummer Paul Motian, is the LaFaro legacy. Dave Green joins Alyn Shipton to pick the essential recordings of fellow bassist Scott LaFaro's brief but brilliant career, including work with Bill Evans. 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. Search Music. Labels. The 25-year old Scott LaFaro's death in a car accident shortly after was a major shock to the jazz world. On March 5, 2014, the Geneva (New York) City Council approved making April 3 Scott LaFaro Day. He was his own thing. Evanss illness resulted in the cancellation of a long engagement opposite Thelonious Monk at the Jazz Gallery. Youll have to adjust your ears, but theyll fall into line quickly. All rights reserved. Ornettes group with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell played the Village Gate for three weeks in August and September followed by engagements in Philadelphia and Detroit. 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. 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. 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. 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. Composer: Porter: While his music education began in grade school with piano and then clarinet and tenor saxophone in junior high and high school, he didnt start playing bass until his senior year, and only because a string instrument was required for his enrollment at Ithaca College, where his intent was to major in clarinet and tenor saxophone. Orrin Keepnews told Helene that when the trio recorded its second session,Explorations,on February 2, 1961, Scott was being very explicit about his problem; he was very reluctant to go back on the road unless it was for a lot more money. My father passed away (from a heart attack) in 1957. The entire day's recordings were released in 2005 as The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961. A master of the upright bass, he recorded with Bill Evans and Ornette Coleman before he died in a car crash at age 25. So help yourself to his more, if you will. 2023 Smith Center for the Arts, All rights reserved. Composer: Styne / Sondheim A professor encouraged him to audition for an open spot in the Buddy Morrow Orchestra. The three not duplicated here were played only once that day. Joining Palombi on this date are Don Friedman and Eliot Zigmund. He heard what I was doing at the piano, and I heard what he was doing. - The Absolute Sound Scott LaFaro's Pieces of Jade features long-lost material recorded in New York City shortly before the bassist's death in a car accident in 1961. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was an influential jazz bassist best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. 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. For when Jazz Abstractions wrapped, December 21 dawned, and that meant LaFaroalong with Dolphywas boomeranging back to A&R Studios for the landmark waxing of the legendary, epoch-rattling Free Jazz, with a lineup of Dolphy on bass clarinet, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums in the right channel, and Coleman on alto, Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Billy Higgins on drums, and LaFaro in the left. More on his story here. Dont get fancy, no double beatsPlay whats written.LaFaro flew east, passed the audition, and signed on for a six-week tour of one-nighters with Goodman. He wanted the conversation back and forth between each of the players, and he wanted to play melody. This Third Stream affair has jazz as a major tributary vein, and it has LaFaro to thank for it. Composer: Mercer / Kosma / Prevert Nov 13, 2008 #2 Mark Carlsen Oct 4, 2004 It was then he fell in love with the tenor saxophone. The helmsman remains present to take us many places where we otherwise might not have gone, and no one has steered that ship better than Scott LaFaro. We were like brothers., Six months before the session with Kuhn, LaFaro recorded with trumpeter Booker Little on April 13 and 15. 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. 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. [10] Rocco Scott LaFaro, in a career that lasted only six years, developed skills on the upright bass that few have been able to match. Each year during the first week of April, The Smith hosts the Scott LaFaro Day Celebration concert that features a contemporary bass player. You can read our interview with Holland here. 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. Performers: Victor Feldman, p, vib; Scott LaFaro, b; Stan Levey, d. 22 Jan 1958. He used a Zen epigram in the closing of his letter to Gloria: Im trying to remember a bit of Zen I like so well: If you seek the fruits ofgood actionso shall they escape you. I try to smile everyday with that., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uugimR8honE, When I asked Kuhn if Scotty had similar anxieties about touring with Getz, he said no, but he recalled a bandstand incident between the bassist and the tenor player whom Kuhn called extraordinarily paranoid. One night at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, he said, they clashed. Everything. He played in a trio or quartet at Belhurst from the time he got back until he died. Tracks. The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, "The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time - BassPlayer.com", "It was just one afternoon in a jazz club forty years ago", "It's official: April 3 will be Scott LaFaro Day in Geneva", "Innovation and Inspiration: Geneva celebrates the life and legacy of renowned jazz musician Scott LaFaro", "Honoring Scott LaFaro in Geneva, NY: Scott LaFaro Day, street re-naming, and a special Geneva Night Out on April 4th", NAMM Oral History Interview with Helene La Faro, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scott_LaFaro&oldid=1141284283, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Articles with dead external links from July 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Press J to jump to the feed. Scott Yanow, All-Music Guide Scott LaFaro's life and career were cut short in July of 1961. According to Paul Motian, the death of LaFaro left Bill Evans "numb with grief", "in a state of shock", and "like a ghost". My day consists of such a singular preoccupationthe physicology of music. Hentoff heard LaFaro as the most important new bassist since Paul Chambers and Wilbur Ware, and added, It may be necessary to add for those hearing LaFaro for the first time that his bass is not electronically amplified. Right there on stage, Stan stopped playing and yelled, MF, Ive got the melody! Notwithstanding flair-ups of this kind, Kuhn says that Getz held LaFaro in the highest regard. Other birthdays Monday: Jimmy McGriff, 64; Harold Vick, 19361987; and Eric Kloss, 51. Today would be the 78th birthday of the great Scott LaFaro, who died in a car accident in 1961. Performers: Bill Evans, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Paul Motian, d. Village Vanguard, 25 June 1961. One of the most substantial biographies Ive read in recent years is the 2009 publication that Helene LaFaro-Fernandez devoted to her brother Scott. It was written with so much love and insight. Performers: Pat Moran, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Gene Gammage, d. 1958. He was in his second year at college to study music when he joined Buddy Morrow's band and went on a cross country tour. The loss of LaFaro hit Evans hard, and he went into a brief seclusion. John Tynan wrote inDownbeatthat the rhythm duo [LaFaro and Billy Higgins] were the baddest cats on the date. My mom was still pregnant with my last sister. We also spent time at the First Presbyterian Church choir. Scottys death was hard on my Mom. The 25-year-old Scott LaFaro's death in a car accident shortly after was a major shock to the jazz world." Scott Yanow. At the time it was such a revolutionary idea, and it ushered in a sea change for jazz. 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. Remembering Geneva's jazz legend Scott LaFaro: An interview with his sister Helene LaFaro-Fernandez - Smith Center for the Arts Smith Center for the Arts CONTACT US 82 Seneca Street Geneva, NY 14456 315-781-5483 BOX OFFICE Tuesday-Friday 10am-4pm ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES by appointment boxoffice@thesmith.org LaFaro is heard soloing while George Duvivierplays the bass riff that Percy Heath had introduced on the first recordings of "Django" by the Modern Jazz Quartet. For much of 1958, LaFaro was with pianist/vibraphonist Victor Feldman's band. Performers: Bill Evans, p; Scott LaFaro, b; Paul Motian, d. 28 Dec 1958. Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFarorecounts how three days after his appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival with the Stan Getz Quartet, hed driven to Geneva, NY to take care of some business related to his mothers home there. 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. 52.119.1.55 LaFaro is one of those players who register to the ears like more than one man, generating a huge amount of sound with ostensibly little effort, and that sound resonating as direct, controlled, economical; this is part of the reason why. Former Major League Baseball pitcher Scott Erickson has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run crash in Westlake Village that killed two . 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. In the latter case, Getz fired LaRoca and hired Roy Haynes, but Kenton wasn't about to be second-guessed. Free Jazz did that kind of splicing and segmenting for you, as part of, neatly enough, its original integrated sonic package. Scott LaFaro. Pictures of people only please! Our Dad was from here. 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. See all our current specials here. On December 19 and 20, he took part in John Lewis, Gunther Schuller, and Jim Halls Jazz Abstractions sessions, with buddy Bill Evans and Eric Dolphy. Bill Evans. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. And how does it go? There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. I still have people from all over the world knocking at my doorstep, wanting to see where Scotty played. Read more about this topic: Scott LaFaro, Time is here and youll go his way.Your lung is waiting in the death market.Your face beside me will grow indifferent.Darling, you will yield up your belly and becored like an apple.Anne Sexton (19281974), Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose, it wasthe death of him.William Shakespeare (15641616), Ai! [My] early years at the university were thoroughly engaging intellectually but were also a time of deep introspection. LaFaro is best known as the bassist in Bill Evans' groundbreaking trio, and also worked with Chet Baker, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins and the Stan Kenton Orchestra. He was playing mandolin and violin publicly by age 7. Helene makes no secret of LaFaros exacting standards and competitive personality, and she quotes many who testify to the same. Composer: Gillespie LaFaro achieved fame in the Bill Evans Trio, which he joined in 1959 and which featured Paul Motian on drums. 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. How did that happen? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Died . 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. LaFaro spent most of his days practicing his instrument. Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 July 6, 1961)[1] was an American jazz double bassist known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. On date night, people would end up at The Smith. ", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Z8KuwI7Gc, Jade Visionscredits the demo session that LaFaro made with Steve Kuhn and Pete LaRoca nearly a year later as one where this conversational approach to group dynamics was evident. As was, really, LaFaro. And there truly couldn't be a better way to . Upon returning to L.A., LaFaro phoned his friend Herb Geller, who was then playing alto with Benny Goodman in New York. They worked together with vocalist Dick Haymes, whose road show included dancers and a comic. Gloria Gabriel was one of the dancers. Mom needed the money. In 1959, after working with trumpeter Chet Baker, bandleader Stan Kenton, vibraphonist Cal Tjader,[6] and clarinetist Benny Goodman, LaFaro returned east and joined Bill Evans, who had recently left the Miles Davis Sextet. California had affordable education, and we could all go to college. 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