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Tristano Myths Refuted
by Richard Tabnik
The following is culled from some e-mail correspondence I had and I thought
that some people might dig to see it... It is being posted again because
few people saw it and many member [the jazz news group *rec.music.bluenote*]
requested it...-R.T.
1] *I always wondered why Tristano stopped performing and recording after
like the late 50*s. His music was fascinating, and from what I*ve read
about him he was pretty unique, too. Someone told me that he used to actually
give lessons in the dark so that his students couldn*t see any better
than he could.*
There are a lot of myths about Lennie Tristano! Connie told me heonce
apologized for not putting on the light when it got dark during the changing
seasons, and promptly put it on. He wasn*t weird or strange. He was very
deep. I*ve talked a lot about him w/ Connie and there are recorded interviews
w/ him from local radio shows. The one time I heard he wanted the lights
out was when Mingus came to his studio and wanted to fight about some
crap. LT. said, *O.K., if you turn out the lights so we can be equals*,
and Mingus backed down...
2] *But what was the story on Tristano? Why did he stop performing?*
In one interview, I heard him say that he felt that the club scene was
dead; if you listen to a lot of the music that happened around then, one
must agree. He also said that he got a rep for being difficult with promoters
because he didn*t feel like wearing a tie or wanted to wear his bedroom
slippers when he would play a concert. Even though this sounds like no
big deal to us these days, it was shocking then.
Lennie Tristano performed in Berlin and at the Half Note in the 60*s and
these have been released. He recorded at home and at his studio. Music
up through 1966 has been released on Jazz Records [Jazz Records, P.O.Box
30273, NY, NY 10011-0103] .
3] *I don*t think I*ve ever seen any of that stuff. Are they available
on CD?*
Stuff from 65-66 has just been released on Jazz Records. It is called
*Note to Note*. *Descent Into the Maelstrom* has some tracks from Paris.
The lp/cd CONTINUITY is from this time, also.
4] *Funny, but as great as Konitz, Marsh, Tristano and those other guys
were, you see very little follow up on their music. I know that Gary Foster
was sort of a disciple, and he plays a lot on the west coast. But other
than that, who? Nice to see you carrying the mantle, but as you say, it
doesn*t get much recognition.*
It is funny; Tristano influenced a lot of people through his music and
through his teaching. It*s kind of hip now to say you were influenced
by Tristano but only if you had nothing to do with him... Currently, tenor
saxophonist Mark Turner expresses his admiration for Lennie*s music [as
well as Warne Marsh] and plays some of his lines.
People also took parts of his innovations, like Shearing, Herbie Hancock,
and he never got the credit. Also, the so-called creative music scene
isn*t really very open to innovation or feeling or individuality, now
less than ever, in my opinion. Most of the crap that got laid on L.T.
was, in reality, really true about everyone else:
1. They called him cold and unemotional. How can someone who devotes their
life to the purity of their art, who never sells out, be cold and unemotional?
It*s people playing rehashed licks and styles, and cold technique who
are cold and unemotional. Lennie*s incredible technique came from his
stretching out from his feeling, not vice versa as most people try to
do.
2. Some people used to put down L.T. because they said that you couldn*t
teach jazz. Then they started making a lot of $ at it w/ books, schools,
records, you name it and the one person who could have written a GREAT
book didn*t because he felt that everyone is a individual and has to learn
their own way, not with a method! Who*s got that kind of integrity?
3. People say it*s not important music, didn*t have any influence. Wynton
Marsalis told a high school student who was studying with me at the time
that it was too advanced for her to listen to when she had been into it
for four years! All I know is that I hear some of the greatest music of
all time when I hear Lennie and every note is beautiful. That is really
amazing to me and has been true for me for over 25 years and continues
throughout my life..
5] *I sort of hear a little of Tristano in Shearing. But Hancock? I don*t
think I hear that.*
Shearing lifted *locked hands chords* from Tristano, but Lennie never
gets the credit. They were close friends when GS arrived from England;
L.T. even helped him get established, but GS shut the door on him. L.T.
felt it was because GS felt that the association would hurt him professionally.
Listen to Miles Smiles. Herbie really dug L.T.*s line, sound, and chords.
Once when L.T. and CC went to the Vanguard to hear Herbie, cool Herbie
almost fell all over himself coming over to talk to LT. Also dig Red Garland's
solo on Oleo w/ Miles quintet...sounds like L.T.*s *Line Up*. Bill Evans
said he was influenced, not directly from L.T., but by Lee and Warne;
but that*s sort of deceptive because it all came from LT...
6] *Is [drummer] Carol Tristano any relation to Lennie?*
Carol is Lennie*s daughter and is currently directing Jazz Records, the
company that L.T. started, as well as being an important partof New Artists
Records, the co. that I*m in with Connie Crothers, Lenny Popkin, Liz Gorrill,
and others. Have you heard them? Lennie really helped some of the greatest
individuals in music develop and express themselves.
7] *I have never heard of Popkin or Gorrill. I have heard vaguely of Crothers
- but know nothing of her.*
Connie Crothers and Liz Gorrill are, in my opinion, two of the greatest
pianists of all time. Lenny Popkin is, in my opinion, one of the greatest
[tenor] saxophonists of all time. Their recordings are available on New
Artists Records and Jazz Records. CC also has one on Inner City or Steeplechase
and LP has one on Choice. All are available through North County Dist.
[Cadence magazine.]
8] *Funny, I never pictured Tristano having a daughter. Did he have any
other children?*
L.T. was a human being. He had children. On *The New Tristano*, the suite,
*Scene and Variations*, is named for three of his children, Carol, Tania,
and Bud.
9] *Interesting that she plays drums, because he supposedly always kept
drums in a very secondary role in the groups that he formed.*
That really is another myth. Listen to *Descent Into the Maelstrom*. He
recorded with Roy Haynes! Drummer Nick Stabulus really wails! He loved
sessioning with Elvin Jones and gigged with him, stopping only because
Elvin became John Coltrane*s drummer. He did a lot of sessions w/ Max
Roach, whom he also worked with on the *Bands for Bonds* recordings, and
Kenny Clarke. At the Half Note gig, L.T. played with Philly Joe Jones,
Billy Higgins, Arthur Taylor, and Paul Motian.
Currently, check out Roger Mancuso, who gigged as well as studied w/ Tristano,
on *Deep Into the Center*, a duo w/. CC and RM on New Artists Records,
also *Life At The Core*, a quartet w/ me, Andy Fite, g, RM drums, and
Calvin Hill, bass.
L.T. and RM recorded but this hasn*t been released yet. Roger is astounding.
No one is doing the things he does effortlessly on the drums: amazing
time combinations, baffling tempo mixtures, sort of a polytempo, and incredible
energy, swing, and feeling at any level of volume.
Carol is an amazing drummer; warm, swinging, subtle, intuitive. I have
had the joyous privilege of playing with her from about the middle '80's
to the middle '90's. We also recorded a CD, *In the Moment*, on New Artists
Records. She makes time flow like a river and the image I often get is
like a spaceship that can go anywhere - in time, space or dimensions -
that*s so connected to my feeling that it all just happens. Carol is truly
incredible.
I am so thrilled to have the chance to play with two such unique and original
drummers.
Jazz Critic Art Lange also refuted the Tristano-drummer myth in a wonderful
article in the January 1999 issue of Coda Magazine.
10] I talked with Connie Crothers tonight and wanted to write to you and
clear up something and let you know what she said.
L.T. never said that the reason he stopped performing had anything to
do with his being blind. In fact, in the 40*s he used to walk all over
NYC and, as a teenager in Chicago, used to go hang out in the South side
by himself to dig jazz. Sometimes he*d be the only white person around
and just dug hanging out there. The scene in NYC became very violent and
dangerous @ the 60*s; that*s why he stopped walking around, not because
of his blindness.
He tried to work in the early 60*s! He went on tour w/Lee and Warne and
dug it but Lee quit and no one wanted the band. He tried to get gigs as
a solo pianist but, at that time, they said that solo wasn*t enough. He
tried to get a gig, I think at the Half Note, w/ Lenny Popkin on tenor
saxophone., but was refused. They wanted Warne [now they wanted Warne!]
who had moved to LA. The club owners and promoters turned their backs
on him, not vice versa.
L.T. didn*t dig bullsh*t or hostility and he wouldn*t hold still for it.
He once told Connie that he could deal with anything from a person; *I
just can*t cope with hostility.*
The jazz scene at large started putting him down in the early-mid 60*s.
Connie told me about how people would really express some far-out hostility
against L.T. at her, like, he was some evil genius, and crap like that.
He was so into performing that in the early 60*s he wanted his own jazz
club, a sweet, cool scene to play at as well as featuring others. The
first thing he did was go out and buy a completely rebuilt beautiful Steinway
grand piano! Isn*t that wild, that was his priority! How many clubs can
say that?
He went looking at places around the time of the World*s Fair in NY so
rents were really high and he got discouraged. He would*ve put his own
$ and effort into it but the $ was too much...
Connie says she never heard him complain. Once when she was listening
to him play at the Half Note, she saw that he didn*t seem happy when he
came off stage. She asked him why and he simply said, *I*m tired of playing
in bars.* I can really dig that! It*s really something spending your life
as background for the sale of alcohol.
L.T. was *a union man*, he was into the musician*s union, although he
didn*t agree with everything they did. But he wanted a union contract
and in the '60*s, this wasn*t happening! The record co., East Wind, became
a Union signatory in order to enable them to release L.T.*s *Descent Into
the Maelstrom*!
He was also selective about how he worked and recorded. Unlike many other
musicians to this day, he wanted to perform and record in a representative
setting, in other words, he wanted to play with people that he played
with and stretched out with and developed with and had rapport with...not
some A+R or producer bullsh*t!
George Wein wanted him to play at Newport Jazz Festival. L.T. wanted to
use a band w/ Lee, Warne, Niels Henning Orsted Pederson, and Billy Higgins.
He also wanted $ so that he could pay them for some rehearsals but G.W.
wouldn*t. G.W. also advertised L.T.*s gig BEFORE the contract was signed.
And he did it in a f*cked-up way: *Lennie Tristano will prove to the world
that he can still play great* or some crap like that. So L.T. didn*t do
the gig and he actually ran an ad at his own expense in the Village Voice
saying that he wasn*t going to be there and why.
He started becoming ill in the late 60*s; by the middle 70*s, he was incapacitated
with his illness. He went on to produce concerts for other musicians:
Connie Crothers, Liz Gorrill, and Sal Mosca in public concert. In his
own home, he featured the people later featured on the Lennie Tristano
Memorial Concert record on Jazz Records ..including Lenny Popkin, Fran
Canisius, Nomi Rosen, Virg Dzurinko, Larry Meyers, Lloyd Lifton, Peter
Scattaretico, Stan Fortuna.
Lennie Tristano NEVER gave blindness as a reason and it never got in his
way. He loved wandering the streets of NYC and loved being on tour.
I hope you dig all this and I also want to know if you*re interested in
getting a copy of some of L.T.*s radio interviews.
*The Jazz Musician*s function is to feel* -Lennie Tristano
For catalogs, write:
Jazz Records,
POBox 30273,
NY, NY 10011-0103
www.jazzrecordsinc.com
New Artists Records
POBox 549
NY, NY 10018
www.newartistsrecords.com
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