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Biography
Infobox musical artist| | name = Lennie Tristano| image = Lennie Tristano 1947 (Gottlieb).jpg| caption = Lennie Tristano, ca. August 1947| image_size =| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist| birth_name =| alias =| birth_date = Birth date|1919|3|19| death_date = death date and age|1978|11|18|1919|3|19| origin = Chicago, IL | instrument = Piano | genre = Cool jazz bebop post bop avant-garde jazz | occupation = Pianist composer music teacher | years_active =| label =| associated_acts = Lee Konitz Warne Marsh | website =| notable_instruments = Leonard Joseph Tristano (19 March 1919 – 18 November 1978) was a jazz pianist , composer and teacher of jazz improvisation . He performed in the cool jazz , bebop , post bop and avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long been appreciated by knowledgeable jazz fans. In addition, his work as a jazz educator meant that he has exerted a substantial influence on jazz through figures such as Lee Konitz and Bill Evans .
Life
Tristano was born in Chicago into an Italian immigrant family from Aversa . He was Blindness|blind from infancy and studied piano and music theory from pre-teen years, graduating from his home town's American Conservatory of Music in 1943.
Tristano's interest in jazz inspired a move to New York City in 1946. His advanced grasp of harmony pushed his music beyond even the complexities of the contemporary bebop movement, though Tristano was always explicit about acknowledging his enormous debt to CharlieParker and Bud Powell . Other key ingredients in his style were Nat King Cole and Art Tatum , influences most audible in his early drummerless trio recordings. Though he and his followers remained at something of a slant to mainstream bebop, Tristano did on occasion play and record with bebop's preeminent figures such as Dizzy Gillespie and CharlieParker , and Tristano was a pallbearer at Parker's funeral.cite book | first=Peter|last=Ind | title=Jazz Visions:Lennie Tristano and his legacy | publisher=Equinox | year=2005|page=56|isbn=9781845532819 Often the "Tristano school" has been contrasted with bebop, however, by being labelled "cool jazz",cite book | authorlink=Joachim-Ernst Berendt|first=Joachim|last=Berendt | title=The Jazz Book | publisher=Paladin | year=1976|page=20 though this risks lumping his music in with unrelated styles like the West Coast cool jazz of the 1950s.
Recordings
Among Tristano's most important earlier recordings was a 1949 sextet session with his students, saxophone players Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh . After recording a number of conventionally structured compositions, Tristano had the group record "Intuition" and "Digression." Both pieces were completely improvised, with no prearranged melody , harmony or rhythm .cite book | first=Max|last=Harrison | title=A Jazz Retrospect | publisher=Quartet | year=1991|page=70|isbn=070430144X These two songs are often cited as the first recorded examples of free jazz or free improvisation .
His 1953 recording Descent into the Maelstrom is especially significant: an experiment in overdubbing which in its harsh atonality anticipates the much later work of players like Cecil Taylorcite web|title =Descent into the Maelstrom |first=Scott|last=Yanow |publisher=Allmusic| url =Allmusic|class=album|id=r149110|pure_url=yes|accessdate =2010-09-15 and Borah Bergman (who has specifically mentioned the piece as an important influence on his work).
Tristano released two important albums on Atlantic Records , which remain his best-known work. Lennie Tristano (album)|Lennie Tristano , from 1955, is famous for including innovative experiments with overdubbing ("Requiem" and "Turkish Mambo") and altered tape-speed ("Line Up" and "East 32nd").cite web|title =Lennie Tristano Collectables |first=Thom|last=Jurek |publisher=Allmusic| url =Allmusic|class=album|id=r720670|pure_url=yes|accessdate =2010-09-15 The second side is a straightforward club gig in the company of Lee Konitz. "Requiem," a tribute to the late Charlie Parker, is notable for its deep blues feeling & ndash; a style not usually associated with Tristano. However, perhaps the most significant work lies in the composition "Line Up", a spiralling linear improvisation based on the changes to " All of Me (song)|All of Me ".
The New Tristano (1962) remains a landmark in solo jazz piano.Ind, p63 Though on this occasion no overdubbing was used, the music is just as densely conceived, especially the classic "G Minor Complex," an improvisation on the changes of " You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To ". Tristano's mimicking of a jazz bassist's accompaniment with his left hand on these recordings is distinctive and often imitated. The combination of this line with the dazzling line-spinning of his right hand also gives the music a contrapuntal flavour explicitly paying homage to J.S. Bach|Bach .
Tristano's distrust of jazz record labels and increasingly infrequent public performances meant that his recordings are comparatively scarce, and many of them are concert recordings of very variable fidelity. Some of his live performances were recorded and have been released, including those from the Half Note Club in New York from the 1950s, and concerts in Europe from the 1960s. He was one of the first musicians to start his own record label, Jazz Records , which is still in existence and is run by his daughter, the drummer Carol Tristano . The label Inner City released a compilation of various Tristano recordings, Descent into the Maelstrom.
Teaching methods
By the mid-1950s, Tristano focused his energies more on music education . He can be regarded as one of the first jazz teachers to teach jazz in a structured way, beginning in the late 1940s and continuing to his death in 1978.
Tristano approached each student individually and hence lessons were structured to meet the needs of each individual; however, each student was challenged in ways that would allow the student to find and express their own musical feelings, or style.
Tristano would often have his students learn to sing and play the improvised Solo (music)|solos by some of best-known names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong , Lester Young , BillieHoliday , CharlieParker and Bud Powell . Solos were often learned by first playing them along with the original recording, from a phonograph record or magnetic audio tape, at half the normal speed, hence the pitch would drop by one octave. Eventually the student would learn the solo at normal speed. Tristano stressed that the student was not learning to imitate the artist, but rather should use the experience to gain insight into the musical feeling conveyed by the artist.
One of the key teaching tools used by Tristano was the metronome . In practicing fundamentals such as musical scale|scales , the student would set the metronome at or near to its slowest setting and play the scales and arpeggios in a legato fashion covering the full range of their instrument with very even dynamics. Developing a strong awareness of the beat (music)|beat was a key element of his teaching philosophy.
Influence
His innovative tutelage has inspired an eclectic group of artists: Charles Mingus , Billy Joel , William Russo (musician)|Bill Russo , Connie Crothers , Lenny Popkin , Sal Mosca , Liz Gorrill , Herbie Hancock , Lee Konitz , Warne Marsh , Sheila Jordan , Bill Evans , Woody Mann , Billy Bauer , Fran Canisius , Betty Scott , Gary Foster , Jeff Morton , Willie Dennis , Jerry Tilitz , Don Ferrara , Ronnie Ball , Peter Ind , Jimmy Halperin, Billy Lester, Alan Broadbent , Mark Turner , rock guitarist Joe Satriani , Keith Emerson , and even Franciscan priest/rapper Fr. Stan Fortuna .
A book by bassist Peter Ind , Jazz Visions: Lennie Tristano and His Legacy , was released in October 2005. The book documents and discusses Tristano's contributions to jazz music.
Compositions
Lennie Tristano's compositions include "Retrospection", "Line Up", "317 East 32nd", "Requiem", "Turkish Mambo", "Dissonance", "New Sound", "Wow", "Judy", "Crosscurrent", "Ju-Ju", "Passtime", "April", "Lennie's Pennies", "Parallel", "Abstraction", "Coolin' Off With Ulanov", "Freedom", and "Resemblance".
References
reflist
External links
http://www.lennietristano.com The Lennie Tristano Experience
http://www.jazzdisco.org/tristano/ Jazzdisco
http://www.newartistsrecords.com New Artists Records
http://www.jazzrecordsinc.com Jazz Records
http://jazzhistorydatabase.com/collections/tristano-info.html Lennie Tristano Symposium collection (Ignore the apology and scroll down to "Events")
Persondata | NAME = Tristano, Lennie | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = 19 March 1919 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = 18 November 1978 | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Tristano, Lennie Category:Blind musicians Category:Bebop pianists Category:Cool jazz pianists Category:Post-bop pianists Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz composers Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American jazz musicians of Italian descent Category:1919 births Category:1978 deaths Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Avant-garde jazz pianists Category:American jazz educators
