Scott LaFaro

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox musical artist

Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 – July 6, 1961)<ref name="LarkinJazz">Template:Cite book</ref> was an American jazz double bassist known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro broke new ground on the instrument, developing a countermelodic style of accompaniment rather than playing traditional walking basslines, as well as virtuosity that was practically unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Despite his short career and death at the age of 25, he remains one of the most influential jazz bassists, and was ranked number 16 on Bass Player magazine's top 100 bass players of all time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early lifeEdit

LaFaro was born in Newark, New Jersey,<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> the son of a big band musician. He was five when his family moved to Geneva, New York. He started playing piano in elementary school, bass clarinet in middle school, and tenor saxophone when he entered high school.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He took up double bass at 18 before entering college because learning a string instrument was required of music education majors. After three months at Ithaca College, he concentrated on bass.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> He played in groups at the College Spa and Joe's Restaurant<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on State Street in downtown Ithaca.

CareerEdit

Beginning in 1955, he was a member of the Buddy Morrow big band.<ref name="yanow">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He left that organization to work in Los Angeles. LaFaro spent most of his days practicing his instrument. He practiced from sheet music for the higher-pitched clarinet to improve his facility with the upper register for bass. Fellow bassist Red Mitchell taught him how to pluck strings with both the index and middle fingers independently. For much of 1958, LaFaro was with pianist/vibraphonist Victor Feldman's band.

In 1959, after working with trumpeter Chet Baker, bandleader Stan Kenton, vibraphonist Cal Tjader,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and clarinetist Benny Goodman, LaFaro returned east and joined Bill Evans, who had recently left the Miles Davis Sextet.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> With Evans and drummer Paul Motian he developed the counter-melodic style that would come to characterize his playing. Evans, LaFaro, and Motian were committed to the idea of three equal voices in the trio, working together for a singular musical idea and often without any musician explicitly keeping time.<ref>Pettinger, Peter, Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings, Yale University Press (1998), pp. 91-92.</ref>

By late 1960, LaFaro was in demand as a bassist. He replaced Charlie Haden as Ornette Coleman's bassist in January 1961.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> For a time, Haden and LaFaro shared an apartment. He also played in Stan Getz's band between jobs with the Bill Evans trio. Around this time he received a greeting card from Miles Davis suggesting that Davis wanted to hire him.<ref name="Chronology">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In June 1961, the Bill Evans trio began two weeks of performances at the Village Vanguard in New York City. The trio attracted attention for its style. The last day was recorded for two albums, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DeathEdit

LaFaro died in an automobile accident on July 6, 1961, in Seneca, New York,<ref name="yanow" /> on U.S. Route 20 between Geneva and Canandaigua,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> four days after accompanying Stan Getz at the Newport Jazz Festival. According to Paul Motian, the death of LaFaro left Bill Evans "numb with grief," "in a state of shock," and "like a ghost."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Obsessively, he played "I Loves You, Porgy," a tune that had become synonymous with him and LaFaro. Evans stopped performing for several months.<ref>Pettinger, p. 114.</ref>

Evans said that LaFaro had been "one of the most, if not the most outstanding talents in jazz." Legendary bassist Ray Brown added, "This was one of the most talented youngsters I've seen come up in a long time. For his age, he really had it covered. ... It's a shame, really a shame. It's going to set the instrument back ten years." Motian noted, "We were supposed to make a record date with Miles [Davis]: the trio, Bill, myself and Scott. ... We were talking to Miles about it, it was all set up, and then Scott got killed and the whole thing got forgotten."<ref>Shadwick, Keith, Bill Evans: Everything Happens to Me, Backbeat Books (2002), p. 91.</ref>

InstrumentsEdit

LaFaro started his professional career playing a German-made Mittenwald double bass, but it was stolen in the spring of 1958.

Shortly after, he acquired a bass made in 1825 in Concord, New Hampshire, by Abraham Prescott. The top of the instrument is a three-piece plate of slab-cut fir; the back is a two-piece plate of moderately flamed maple with an ebony inlay at the center joint; the sides are made of matching maple. It has rolled corners on the bottom and very sloped shoulders on the top, making it easier to get in and out of thumb position. LaFaro continued to play this bass until his death. The bass was badly damaged in the automobile accident that killed him,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but was eventually restored and is sporadically used in performance to honor LaFaro.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Bill Evans said of LaFaro's Prescott bass: "It had a marvelous sustaining and resonating quality. He would be playing in the hotel room and hit a quadruple stop that was a harmonious sound, and then set the bass on its side and it seemed the sound just rang and rang for so long."<ref>Pettinger, p. 113</ref>

In 2008, Evans's final bassist, Marc Johnson, played LaFaro's bass on an Evans tribute album recorded by Johnson's wife, Eliane Elias, titled Something for You: Eliane Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans.<ref>Heckman, Don, liner notes, Something for You: Eliane Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans (Blue Note Records, 2008).</ref>

Posthumously released itemsEdit

In 1988, Insights label of RVC Corporation in Japan released Memories for Scotty. The album included five tracks recorded in New York City during 1961 with pianist Don Friedman and drummer Pete LaRoca.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2009, Resonance Records reissued five tracks from Memories for Scotty on Pieces of Jade, together with twenty-two minutes of LaFaro and Bill Evans practising "My Foolish Heart" during a rehearsal in 1960. Also in 2009, Helene LaFaro-Fernandez' biography of her brother Scott, titled Jade Visions, was published by the University of North Texas Press, with an extensive discography.

HonorsEdit

On March 5, 2014, the City Council of Geneva, New York approved making April 3 Scott LaFaro Day.<ref>David L. Shaw, "It's official: April 3 will be Scott LaFaro Day in Geneva", The Finger Lakes Times, Friday, March 7, 2014</ref> On April 4, 2014, a ceremony to rename a downtown street Scott LaFaro Drive took place.<ref>David L. Shaw, "Innovation and Inspiration: Geneva celebrates the life and legacy of renowned jazz musician Scott LaFaro", The Finger Lakes Times, Sunday, April 6, 2014</ref><ref>Jim Meaney, "Honoring Scott LaFaro in Geneva, NY: Scott LaFaro Day, street re-naming, and a special Geneva Night Out on April 4th", Genevanightout.org, Tuesday, April 1, 2014</ref>

According to Joachim Berendt, LaFaro's innovative approach to the bass caused "emancipation," introducing "so many diverse possibilities as would have been thought impossible for the bass only a short time before."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Bassist Charlie Haden recalled:

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