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Chapter 9. New York: Getz, Coleman, and Evans 1960
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111 • ChapTer 9 • new York: getz, coleman, and evans 1960 Charlie Haden tells the story that when Scott went over toThelonious Monk’s place to audition for him,Monk just stared out the window for a long time before asking him to play something . Scotty did and Monk stared out the window again, then asked him to play something else.This was repeated four or five times and the last time Monk turned to Scotty and said, “Nice talking to you.” Nevertheless, Scotty did play with Thelonious Monk for theTown Hall concert in November of 1959 and again the second week of January at Storyville in Boston.Scotty said that he learned a lot more about rhythm when he played with Monk and that it was a great experience, telling Martin Williams in an interview published in the August 3, 1960 Jazz Review: “With Monk, rhythmically, it’s just there, always.” Paul Motian, who was also on that one-week gig, mentioned to me that he learned to listen with Monk, and he recalled that they got paid $200. The Bill EvansTrio played two concerts, 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.in NewYork on Saturday,January 30 atTown Hall,and Scotty spoke of his experiences with Bill extensively in the interview 112 JadeVisions:The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro with MartinWilliams in Jazz Review:“It’s quite a wonderful thing to work with the Bill Evans Trio.We are really just beginning to find our way. Bill gives the bass harmonic freedom because of the way he voices, and he is practically the only pianist who does. It’s because of his classical studies. I found out playing with Bill that I have a deep respect for harmony, melodic patterns and form … we were each contributing something and really improvising together , each playing melodic and rhythmic phrases.The harmony would be improvised;we would often begin only with something thematic and not a chord sequence. I don’t like to look back, because the whole point in jazz is doing it now. There are too many things to learn and too many things you can do, to keep doing the same things over and over. My problem now is to get that instrument under my fingers so I can play more music. My ideas are so different from what is generally acceptable nowadays that I sometimes wonder if I am a jazz musician.” Scotty went on to relate how he listened to Miles’ records, Paul Chambers, Percy Heath, Stan Kenton, Lee Koeniz, of the influence of horn players like Miles, Coltrane, Rollins, and that he felt he must practice, or feels he couldn’t play. The trio left NewYork to tour across the country, playing in Boston, the Sutherland Lounge in Chicago, and in San Francisco February 2 through the twenty-first at the Jazz Workshop.They came back to NewYork late in the month,appearing in a concert package at Town Hall. The trio was booked at Birdland March 10–23. Count Basie was the headliner for this stint.During this booking several earlyhours radio broadcasts were made.Some excerpts from these came out on bootleg LPs in the early 1970s and this same material appeared in the 1990s on a CD called The Legendary Bill EvansTrio: The 1960 Birdland Sessions.This was recorded live at Birdland on March 12 and 19,April 30, and May 7. [174.129.59.198] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:45 GMT) NewYork: Getz, Coleman, and Evans 113 The trio was booked at Birdland again from April 28 through May 11 with Dinah Washington receiving top billing, then John Handy. Recordings exist from radio broadcasts made at this time as well and were released on the same album. Now that he was back in NewYork,Gloria came to stay with Scotty at his and Don’s place for a short while.Then they found a small apartment for themselves in theVillage. She was working in a show and sometimes Scotty would pick her up at rehearsal, but often he’d spend the day practicing. Gloria told me,“I could hear him when I came up the stairs.The people in the building just loved hearing him because it wasn’t drums, it wasn’t horns, it was just this beautiful bass.That’s when he wrote ‘Gloria’s Step.’” Many folks thought that title was because Gloria was a dancer, but Scotty told me it was because when...