)Then I made an awkward confession: I don’t know who Peter Erskine is.How about bars 5-9!! His records with Bill Evans are among the finest jazz trio discs ever made.
While he’s most renowned for his telepathic interplay with Evans and drummer Paul Motian, the New Jersey native also collaborated with avant garde pioneer Ornette Coleman, tenor saxophonists Stan Getz and Harold Land, clarinetists Tony Scott and Buddy DeFranco, pianists Hampton Hawes and Steve Kuhn, and trumpeter Booker Little during his brief time on the planet (LaFaro was killed at age 25 in a car accident on July 6, 1961, while driving home after performing at the Newport Jazz Festival).Five of the archival tracks here, originally recorded in 1961 with pianist Don Friedman and drummer Pete LaRoca, display LaFaro’s rich, woody tone and steady, unerring pulse as an accompanist on three standards (“I Hear A Rhapsody,” “Green Dolphin Street” and Dizzy Gillespie’s bop anthem “Woody ’n’ You”) along with two takes of Friedman’s original ballad “Sacre Bleu.” In this intimate setting, which finds LaRoca alternately cooking on a low flame with sticks and underscoring the proceedings with gentle brushwork on the kit, the trio swings in an elegant, understated fashion. And what we have printed here is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Paul Motian, the death of Lafaro left Bill Evans "numb with grief", "in a … Now, with the gift of the Scott LaFaro Bass, the ISB will make the instrument available for performances by ISB members as part of a future Scott LaFaro Archives at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, where Scott’s father, a violin virtuoso and band leader, attended in the early days of the conservatory and where Scott went to classes for a year before leaving school for a career that continues to grow in legend and influence. (Don’t make it happen to you! 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. The trio went on to record four albums before the untimely death of LaFaro in a car accident on July 6, 1961, just ten days after the final Village Vanguard recordings with the Bill Evans Trio.
There’s nothing quite like it.Compare take 3 with take 2, and notice how different the two are!
Insensitive overplaying is an excellent way to put yourself on the bottom of everyone’s list and stop gigging fast.
But at least I know who Peter Erskine is, now. Chicago, 1956.Composer: ColemanPerformers: Ornette Coleman, as; Don Cherry, c; Scott Lafaro, b; Ed Blackwell, d. New York City, 31 Jan 1961.Killed in a car accident aged just 25, Scott LaFaro was widely regarded as the most technically gifted bassist of the 20th Century. The 25-year old Scott LaFaro's death in a car accident shortly after was a major shock to the jazz world. The fills are all different, and they come in different places. A word of caution: this approach to … Takes 2 and 3 occurred on the same day! (Speaking of solos, Scott was definitely no slouch in that department!