Scott LaFaro recordings

azflyman · #1 09-06-2005, 08:48 AM

Greetings all,

Is there a list of recordings by Scott LaFaro anywhere? I would like to pick up some stuff by LaFaro to get a feel for his style. I am sure I have heard some recordings but would like to have a close listen to some prime examples. Any help is appreciated.

TIA,

az

Marc Decho · #2 09-06-2005, 08:52 AM

[quote=azflyman]Greetings all,

Is there a list of recordings by Scott LaFaro anywhere? I would like to pick up some stuff by LaFaro to get a feel for his style. I am sure I have heard some recordings but would like to have a close listen to some prime examples. Any help is appreciated.

TIA,

The best place to start are definately the Bill Evans stuff "Vanguard" and "Waltz for Debby", if you dig Lafaro (who the hell doesn't) I highly recommend spending alot of time on this website: http://www.geocities.com/chuck_ralston/08_slf.htm

this guy is THE Scott Lafaro expert

**Jeremy Allen** · #3 09-06-2005, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc Decho

if you dig Lafaro (who the hell doesn't)

Oh, you can find plenty of people who don't dig Scott LaFaro, shocking as it may seem to those of us who are such fans. As one bass player on the east coast told me, "All I hear when I listen to him is a bass player who ain't layin' it down." Most guys I run into who are really into hard-swinging hard bop (the neoclassical Marsalis et al. school) have little use for Scott LaFaro (or the various Bill Evans trios and their offshoots). More's the pity.
(I also remember the leader of a quintet once shouting at the drummer: "Tony Williams don't live here! Stop stepping on my dick!" And I thought, is this guy actually faulting Tony Williams' playing? Could it be possible? Of course it was possible, and I've since learned how many players don't like Tony's approach--maybe because its influence has tended to distract a lot of younger players from the goal of making music within the ensemble, a perversion of what he was doing in his own playing.)

Re: recordings, the other Bill Evans trio recordings (from the studio) are cool as well: "Portrait in Jazz" and "Explorations." He also played some straight-ahead stuff on "The Arrival of Victor Feldman," and some crazy out stuff on Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz."

Marc Decho · #4 09-06-2005, 10:15 AM

[quote=Johono5]Oh, you can find plenty of people who don't dig Scott LaFaro, shocking as it may seem to those of us who are such fans. As one bass player on the east coast told me, "All I hear when I listen to him is a bass player who ain't layin' it down." Most guys I run into who are really into hard-swinging hard bop (the neoclassical Marsalis et al. school) have little use for Scott LaFaro (or the various Bill Evans trios and their offshoots). More's the pity.

not dig Lafaro ?? what's the world coming too man !! ?? well there's always gonna be those neoclassical cats who don't want to see things progress.....I love that hard swingin' bop too, but variety is the spice of life

Ed Fuqua · #5 09-06-2005, 12:06 PM

JONONONO - word. That record ARRIVAL OF VICTOR FELDMAN, Scotty just ****ing takes over. He sounds so strong, so in charge, so swinging. That solo on SERPENT'S TOOTH, the one on NO GREATER LOVE; next time some "east coast bass player" starts talking that ****, lay one of THOSE tracks on them...

Paul Warburton · #6 09-07-2005, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

JONONONO - word. That record ARRIVAL OF VICTOR FELDMAN, Scotty just ****ing takes over. He sounds so strong, so in charge, so swinging. That solo on SERPENT'S TOOTH, the one on NO GREATER LOVE; next time some "east coast bass player" starts talking that ****, lay one of THOSE tracks on them...

That one, I think you have Ed, 'This is Pat Moran' is confusing because the record company listed the bassist as 'John Doling'.... Pat's ex husband.... it truly is Scott.
Anyway, as someone on our Forum, besides you Ed, made note that Scott, time-wise, just kickes ass on it, and was actually reminicent of Ray Brown in the testicle department. To my knowledge, Scott didn't get into the interplay thing until he left the west coast.

Alan Vorse · #7 09-07-2005, 11:20 PM

Yeah I remember ol Stanley Crouch over at Jazz Times, devoting most of an article about how Scot was not a real jazz player because he couldn't swing.

Marc Decho · #8 09-08-2005, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harmolodic

Yeah I remember ol Stanley Crouch over at Jazz Times, devoting most of an article about how Scot was not a real jazz player because he couldn't swing.

i've got to say it.... Stanley Crouch pisses me off! every time I see him doing an interview I want to punch him in the mouth

Randy Ward · #9 09-08-2005, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

JONONONO - word. That record ARRIVAL OF VICTOR FELDMAN, Scotty just ****ing takes over. He sounds so strong, so in charge, so swinging. That solo on SERPENT'S TOOTH, the one on NO GREATER LOVE; next time some "east coast bass player" starts talking that ****, lay one of THOSE tracks on them...

I've been looking to get this one & your praise of it makes me think today is the day to go out and get it.

Has anyone ever heard the Bill Evans Trio Live at Birdland, from a radio broadcast? I've been looking for this CD for several years. Seems like it is the holy grail of LaFaro CDs as it is another live CD of the trio.

Paul Warburton · #10 09-08-2005, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by univac jr.

Has anyone ever heard the Bill Evans Trio Live at Birdland, from a radio broadcast? I've been looking for this CD for several years. Seems like it is the holy grail of LaFaro CDs as it is another live CD of the trio.

Yeah, I have it, and to my knowledge is one of those 'black market' tapes.

Alan Vorse · #11 09-08-2005, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc Decho

i've got to say it.... Stanley Crouch pisses me off! every time I see him doing an interview I want to punch him in the mouth

+1

Aaron Saunders · #12 09-08-2005, 11:29 PM

I admit it -- I didn't dig LaFaro at first. Then, for some reason, last February I was sitting in English Lit class reading Miller's forward to Death of a Salesman while lisening to Sunday at the Village Vanguard and I just...I finally got it. It all clicked. Beautiful day

.

Paul Warburton · #13 09-09-2005, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron Saunders

I admit it -- I didn't dig LaFaro at first. Then, for some reason, last February I was sitting in English Lit class reading Miller's forward to Death of a Salesman while lisening to Sunday at the Village Vanguard and I just...I finally got it. It all clicked. Beautiful day

.

That's exactly what happened to me. It was like a light bulb going on. The only difference being that it happened to me when that stuff was first released. As i've said before, when that stuff first came out, you could travel across the entire world and hear the impact of those records on pianists, bassists and drummers. That freedom of playing just resounded all over the place.

PB+J · #14 09-09-2005, 07:54 AM

I just got the feldman recording, and man, can LaFaro play. I've always loved the Evans recordings, and LaFaro, but this is a real revelation.

One of several great things is his tone--how did he get that tone? at a time when most bass tone was still thumpy and indistinct on record, La Faro's tone is clear, sustaining, and deep. Articulate and swinging, but with plenty of bottom, and it's so clearly an all acoustic tone. It's the same tone he gets on the Vanguard recordings, but it's better recorded here, and more consistent. Compare it to the tone that Oscar Pettiford gets on "another one, which was recorded just a few years earlier and is a bassisit's album. LaFaro just has a better, more musical tone. It just confirms that it's LaFaro, not the recording technology, that makes the sound. The guy had it all.

Ike Harris · #15 09-09-2005, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

That's exactly what happened to me. It was like a light bulb going on. The only difference being that it happened to me when that stuff was first released. As i've said before, when that stuff first came out, you could travel across the entire world and hear the impact of those records on pianists, bassists and drummers. That freedom of playing just resounded all over the place.

Similar thing happened to me. I had purchased the "Vanguard" album my last year of college and it made little sense. Then a year or two later I happened to hear one of the earlier ones at a friends house, and it began to all click together. I've been hooked ever since.

Ike

Paul Warburton · #16 09-09-2005, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc Decho

i've got to say it.... Stanley Crouch pisses me off! every time I see him doing an interview I want to punch him in the mouth

Marc...after welcoming you to TBDB, and getting to know you, and your writing style a bit, there's only one thing you need to come to grips with and that's your penchant for holding all that stuff inside.
You just gotta learn to let all that emotional stuff go!
Please start telling us how you really feel!
People use to tell me the same thing, but now I've turned it down a bit.
Get down!!
Actually, I agree with you.

Ed Fuqua · #17 09-09-2005, 09:48 AM

Please bear in mind that Stanley Crouch describes himself as "a failed free jazz drummer".

**Jeremy Allen** · #18 09-09-2005, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PB+J

LaFaro just has a better, more musical tone.

Different generations, different musical settings, different requirements/musical needs = difficult if not fruitless to make direct comparisons and value judgments.
Having said that--yeah, LaFaro's tone is the sound I hear in my head when I think of a great bass tone. Even the, dare I say it, ideal bass tone...
But check out OP playing cello sometime (he picked it up when he had a broken arm once and couldn't play bass, tuned it in fourths and away he went): he plucks it and plays some of the most facile, swinging bebop ever (check out his cello solo on "Perdido," it's a pure distillation of melodic hipness). Not so much about his bass tone, obviously, but LaFaro and OP took different routes to getting their melodic ideas out.

Bruce Lindfield · #19 09-09-2005, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

Please bear in mind that Stanley Crouch describes himself as "a failed free jazz drummer".

Was that a Jazz Drummer, who failed to be 'Free' (enough) or did he just...fail?

jmpiwonka · #20 09-16-2005, 12:19 AM

i've heard two lafaro recordings and that's it.
first one i got was the bill evans trio "sunday at the village vangaurd". i got it heard and i knew how much lafaro is/was hyped up, by my teacher then too and i heard it....i thought, holys**t it's all actually true. i listened to that album like five times in a row.

then just recently, me and my brother were talking about ornette coleman and he goes, hey jeff, i have this cd with lafaro on bass i think with ornette. i said whatever, don't lie to me. he goes here look. i don't know what its called (because its currently in my car) but the cover is yellow and blue. this cd really does it for me, the playing on here is mindblowing for me, AWESOME tone, i was just thinking today that he has the perfect tone, so i've been listening to that in my car for the past three days, i'm on my third or fourth time through it now