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'Scotty LaFaro was one of my closet friends ...we were like brothers. I always used to tell Scotty what a genius he was. And he was! The guy played so beautifully. He was one of the only musicians I ever knew who could combine creativeness and technical ability in a perfect way.' Charlie Haden on Scott LaFaro
Scott LaFaro burst onto the scene in 1957-58 with breathtaking performances on the albums 'This is Pat Moran' and 'The Arrival of Victor Feldman'. He played with Monk and Dolphy and a host of others and studied the music of Sonny Rollins and Anton Webern along the way. He participated in the "sonic revolution" of Ornette Coleman's 'Free Jazz' Double Quartet and was an equal voice in one of the most wonderfully integrated units in the history of jazz, the first Bill Evans Trio.
While still in his early twenties, LaFaro developed bass playing to a new level of facility. He had a gorgeous tone and unflagging melodicism; a lyrical sensibility that reached full expression with the extraordinary recordings of the Evans Trio made in late June of 1961 at the Village Vanguard, just days before the tragic automobile accident that took his life and robbed the jazz world of the most influential bassist of modern times.
Scott set himself exacting standards and was rarely satisfied. While technically advanced, his development was grounded in feeling. His playing was cultured and exciting and it could break your heart.
This anthology showcases some of the considerable recorded highlights of Scott LaFaro's short career including 'The Arrival of Victor Feldman' and 'Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet' in their entirety and a quantity of selections from the Bill Evans Trio albums 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard' and 'Waltz for Debby’.
Tracklist
DISC ONE
THE PAT MORAN TRIO
1 Making Whoopee
2 In Your Own Sweet Way 3 Onilisor
4 Yesterdays
VICTOR FELDMAN TRIO The Arrival of Victor Feldman
5 Serpent's Tooth
6 Waltz
7 Chasing Shadows
8 Flamingo
9 S'posin'
10 BeBop
11 (There Is) No Greater Love
12 Too Blue
13 Minor Lament
14 Satin Doll
CAL TJADER - STAN GETZ SEXTET
15 Crow's Nest
16 Liz-Anne
HAMPTON HAWES QUARTET
17 Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
DISC TWO
BUDDY DEFRANCO AND HIS SEPTETTE
1 Ballad Medley: I'm Glad There Is You / There's No You
MARTY PAICH ORCHESTRA
2 It's All Right With Me
HERB GELLER AND HIS ALL STARS
3 Cow Song
TONY SCOTT QUARTET
4 Misery (To Lady Day)
BILL EVANS TRIO
5 Someday My Prince will Come
6 Autumn Leaves
7 Blue In Green
BOOKER LITTLE QUARTET
8 Bee Tee's Minor Plea
JOHN LEWIS ORCHESTRA & THE CONTEMPORARY STRING QUARTET
9 Variants On A Theme of John Lewis (Django) Variant 1
ORNETTE COLEMAN DOUBLE QUARTET
10 Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation
DISC THREE
ORNETTE COLEMAN
1 W.R.U
BILL EVANS TRIO
2 Haunted Heart 3 Nardis
STAN GETZ QUARTET
4 Airegin
BILL EVANS TRIO
5 Gloria's Step (#2)
6 My Man's Gone (#2)
7 Alice In Wonderland (#2) 8 Jade Visions (#2)
9 My Foolish Heart
10 Waltz for Debby (#2) 11 Detour Ahead (#2)
12 Some Other Time