Lennie Tristano

Hey guys, thanks for the hint. Y'know, the universe, just like the rest of us, tries to make sense of itself. And so it lends itself to producing intriguing parallels and coincidences just to prove to itself (poor U!) that it exists for a reason and is not just there for the ride. Anyway, Tristano, ...

Does anyone know the derivation of the name "Tristano?" I know "trist" is the Indo-European root for sad, but that makes no sense. Tristano from Triest? But it's Tristano not Triestano. So does anybody know?

Oh Marv, (I hear Jostber complain) ease up on Lee. He made a living performing not just teaching. Naturally he had to keep up with the times and the divagations of musical taste more than Lenny. It’s just that (I reply), as Lee says somewhere in his book, at the time he didn’t realize what he ha...

Last night I dreamed I heard a four-track overdub of Lee, just Lee, Lee only, ownlee, laying down the lines and putting together a saxophone quartet. It was beautiful! Sad but stately like Bartok's 6th Quartet. As far as you know has Lee produced any overdubbed polyphony of himself?

Hi Jostber, Kenny Wheeler reproduces here (Angel Song) the abstract and languid Miles Davis of Sketches of Spain (1959-1960). But I think in Sketches and Bitches Brew (1969) Miles did Kenny and world music a disservice by generally disregarding the rhythm section (Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Joe Jon...

It just now occurs to me what’s so fascinating about this concert. I hear in the high-energy performances the relief felt at the time by everyone of good faith that the death of the 1940s, one of the worst decades in human history, is only a light snowfall away.

Jostber, I read the above referenced review. Consensus there is that Lee played better and better the older he got. Have I gone crazy to think he played worse and worse? Lee performed in L.A. about two years ago at The Jazz Bakery. A duet, bass and sax. I've heard more engaging sounds come out of my...

Paul Bley remarks on page 190, "Fuck the audience. The listeners are privileged audience participants, with no relationship to anything except the fact that they're there for moral support." Paul, the audience is there to judge whether you're full of shit or not. Because obviously you can'...

Lee and Warne had composed one of those exuberant, polytonal melody lines that Lennie typically asked his students to thread through a standard chord progression. They named it Sax Of A Kind. The standard in this case is Fine And Dandy. The title, Sax Of A Kind, may allude to the introductory verse ...

Not fifteen seconds into You Go To My Head, Lennie opens up the harmony with descending chords like a fish being gutted, momentarily disconcerting Billy and Lee who are comfortably settled in their guitar/alto duet. Half a minute later Lennie invites Lee and Billy to counterpoint but, as if the forw...