Scott LaFaro: Details about techniques,life,death..?
Owatonna Public Library #1
biographical details, or details about his untimely death?
E.J. Kenward
Bean
<op...@ic.owatonna.mn.us> wrote:
I have no real information, but might I add another question? In reading
Gene Lees intro to Bill Evans Fantasy box set, it seemed like he didn't
like LaFaro and maybe others didn't much like him either. What was he
like? Was he aloof?
Just interested.
Andy
Matthew Snyder
>I have no real information, but might I add another question? In reading
>Gene Lees intro to Bill Evans Fantasy box set, it seemed like he didn't
>like LaFaro and maybe others didn't much like him either. What was he
>like? Was he aloof?
>Just interested.
Well, I've read Charlie Haden describe LaFaro as his "best friend in
life," and Haden is one of the world's nicest guys. So LaFaro couldn't have
been jerk, I would guess.
Matt Snyder "The musician whose chief concern is to make
hsn...@crab.rutgers.edu every performance better than the last may
so fail to participate and delight in his
own music that he will impress his audience
only with the anxious rigor of his technique."
- Alan Watts
SA...@maine.maine.edu
say more about the writer than about Scott LaFaro. He
didn't like b.s. too much. SL was from upstate NY, Geneva,
went to Ithaca College. He may have come across as arrogant
but was more reserved and confident, certainly tolerant of
and encouraging to young jazz fans. I didn't know him very
well but he was playing a Monday night at Birdland with
Booker Little/Herb Geller fronted group. When I went up
to him between sets, he remembered my face from Ithaca
and introduced me to Booker Little after I told him my name.
We had some friends in common and I filled him in on
those folks whereabouts. That was the last time I saw him.
The Bill Evans thing came a bit later and then his auto
accident. Most likely fell asleep at the wheel heading home
after listening to a group and sitting in at an upstate
club. Pretty solid guy for a revolutionary on his instrument.
Best wishes, Sam
sa...@maine.maine.edu
Allen Welsh
and died in a car crash in Geneva NY while visiting his mother on July 6,
1961 at the age of 25. He certainly helped to de-emphasize the bass
player's detested "timekeeping" role, and developed a melodic and free
style that captured the attention of many many other players. (Info from
Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz in the 1960s)
Allen Welsh
Scott La Faro was born in Newark NJ on April 4, 1936 and lived for
twenty-five years. He died in a car crash near Geneva NY, after a visit
to his mother's home, on July 7, 1961.
La Faro de-emphasized the bass player's detested "timekeeper" role, and
developed a free and melodic style that amazed Ray Brown at the time. He
worked in California in the mid-50s with Rumsey, Kessel, etc. By 1959, he
worked primarily from NYC.
-- from Feather's Encyclopedia of Jazz in the 60s.