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Double Bass Scott LaFaro Photos

Stev187

Stev187

Peavey MegaBass Club!
Jan 11, 2011
965
130
Lansing, MI
#1
Because of his untimely death at such a young age, there are relatively few photos of Scott LaFaro. I thought I had seen most of them, but this one popped up in a search today:

lafaro.jpeg


1) Is this Scott? It sure looks like him. The image popped up on someone's Pintrest page. The bass might help us date the photo, but you can't see that much of it. Could be the Prescott or his previous bass. And it's really hard with him, because just about any photo he took would be within a 4-5 year period when he basically looked the same.

2) Anybody have info on the photographer or insight on the photo? I always like to know and credit photogs when I can. I did a tineye.com reverse image search and came up with nothing.

I searched this forum to make sure I wasn't duplicating anything.

Have a great weekend.

Steve
 
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#5
Sean Riddle said:
This definitely looks like LaFaro. I have a gut feeling that he's in his early 20s or late teens in that photo, thus probably making that his Mittenwald bass. Maybe there's someone in Geneva or at Ithaca College who might be able to properly date this photo?
Click to expand...

This was my guess, too--a photo from his time at Ithaca. It's not in Helen's book, and I have never seen it before. It's a nice shot. I've been looking at photos of him for most of my life, and I was really surprised to see this new one.

And yeah, that's definitely him.

Steve
 
#8
In the mid 80's I was playing a gig outside of Rochester, NY, (near Geneva, NY, S.LaFaro's hometown)...
An elderly gentleman (in his mid 80's!) came up to us and asked - "Do any of you know who Scott LaFaro was?"
I/We answered in the affirmative. (Duh!) The geezer goes on to inform us that he was Scott's tenor sax teacher in high school (Scott L. played tenor sax before bass, FYI.)
I asked him how Scott sounded on tenor sax and he replied - "He was TERRIBLE!"
We owe him a great debt for steering S.L. away from the Saxamaphone!
Thanks, Geezer!
 
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#12
Don Kasper said:
In the mid 80's I was playing a gig outside of Rochester, NY, (near Geneva, NY, S.LaFaro's hometown)...
An elderly gentleman (in his mid 80's!) came up to us and asked - "Do any of you know who Scott LaFaro was?"
I/We answered in the affirmative. (Duh!) The geezer goes on to inform us that he was Scott's tenor sax teacher in high school (Scott L. played tenor sax before bass, FYI.)
I asked him how Scott sounded on tenor sax and he replied - "He was TERRIBLE!"
We owe him a great debt for steering S.L. away from the Saxamaphone!
Thanks, Geezer!
Click to expand...

I want to say that geezer was Val Anzalone, who played and taught a lot around Rochester and told me the same story about Scott. But the dates don't line up because if your story took place in the 80's and he was in his 80's then, he would have had to be 100 when I played in a big band with him, and I don't think he made it that far. He passed a couple years ago, at 90-something, I believe.
 
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#14
Don Kasper said:
I'm in my late 60's and am now considered a "geezer".

Thanks, Bob!
Click to expand...

Whaaaaat? Don, I would have sworn you were 80. LOL

I remember you commenting on that picture I took of the two of us that you hadn't seen that much grey since you toured a battleship.
 
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