Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro

Foreword

xi Foreword by Don Thompson In the movie IT’S A Wonderful Life Jimmy Stewart gets to see the world as it might have been if he had never been born.This is something everyone probably thinks about now and then.We all like to think we will have made a difference in the world but nobody ever knows for sure if that will turn out to be the case. In music there are people who are so important that it is impossible to imagine the world without them.Think about music without Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven. Think about jazz without Duke Ellington,Charlie Parker,or John Coltrane.It’s impossible to imagine.In the history of jazz there have been only a handful of real innovators on each instrument.These people have shaped the way their instrument has come to be played. On piano the list would include Art Tatum, Bud Powell, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans. On saxophone there would be LesterYoung, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. On bass there would be Jimmy Blanton,Oscar Pettiford,Ray Brown,Red Mitchell,and Scott LaFaro. Of that group of bass players, Ray Brown and Scott LaFaro stand out from the rest. Ray Brown personifies the bassist’s role in a rhythm section.With his beautiful sound,amazing groove, and Bach-like lines, Ray was the man everyone wanted to sound like.That is until Scott LaFaro came along. xii  JadeVisions:The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro The first time I heard Scotty play was on Portrait in Jazz with Bill Evans. I had been playing the bass for three or four years but was not really that interested in it.I was playing a lot of piano and vibes at the time so playing the bass didn’t really matter to me that much but when I heard that track of “Autumn Leaves” all that changed.There was a spirit of adventure and freedom I had never heard before and all of a sudden it became very important to me to really learn how to play the bass. Hearing Scotty play with Bill Evans had opened up a whole new world of music to me and I wanted to be a part of it. Everything about Scotty’s playing killed me. His sound, his solos (which actually reminded me a bit of Red Mitchell) and his time feel, which was amazing. But what really got to me was the interplay between him and Bill Evans.The idea of a musical conversation was not really that new but the combination of Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro proved to be a magical one and together they took that concept to a whole new place. Bill had provided the setting that gave Scotty the freedom to play the music however he happened to feel it. Being free is one thing but along with that freedom comes a great responsibility and it takes a great musician to work in that setting and really succeed on all levels. Scotty had everything he needed to make it work. He had great time, extraordinary ears, a fantastic sense of form and so much chops he could play pretty well anything that came into his head. He was also blessed with the gift of melody and counter-melody but most important of all he had a beautiful musicality and sensitivity that enabled him to respond and interact with the other players without playing all over them. He knew exactly what the music needed and no matter what he played, or how much he seemed to be playing, the music was always his first concern and he never let the music down. Foreword  xiii What Scotty played was amazing then and is amazing still today. His solos were technically overwhelming but melodically breathtaking.The solo on “My Romance” is one of my favorites and the last eight bars, in particular, is pure melodic perfection. Scott LaFaro is one of a small group of musicians who really changed the course of jazz. It’s not hard to imagine where he might have gone with music had he not been taken so early in his life. For me, and probably most of today’s bass players, it’s even harder to imagine the world of the bass without Scotty in it. He brought a brand new concept to the bass and in doing so...