Scotty LaFaro was one of my closet friends ... we were like brothers. I always used to tell Scotty what a genius he was. And he was! The guy played so beautifully. He was one of the only musicians I ever knew who could combine creativeness and technical ability in a perfect way. - Charlie Haden on Scott LaFaro.

Scott LaFaro burst onto the scene in 1957-58 with breathtaking performances on the albums This is Pat Moran and The Arrival of Victor Feldman. He played with Monk and Dolphy and a host of others and studied the music of Sonny Rollins and Anton Webern along the way.

He participated in the sonic revolution of Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz Double Quartet and was an equal voice in one of the most wonderfully integrated units in the history of jazz, the first Bill Evans Trio. While still in his early twenties, LaFaro developed bass playing to a new level of facility. He had a gorgeous tone and unflagging melodicism; a lyrical sensibility that reached full expression with the extraordinary recordings of the Evans Trio made in late June of 1961 at the Village Vanguard, just days before the tragic automobile accident that took his life and robbed the jazz world of the most influential bassist of modern times.

Scott set himself exacting standards and was rarely satisfied. While technically advanced, his development was grounded in feeling. His playing was cultured and exciting and it could break your heart.

This brand new anthology, Alchemy Of Scott Lafaro: Young Meteor Of The Bass showcases some of the considerable recorded highlights of Scott LaFaro’s short career including The Arrival of Victor Feldman and Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet in their entirety and a quantity of selections from the Bill Evans Trio albums Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby.

Disc One:
THE PAT MORAN TRIO
1. Making Whoopee
2. In Your Own Sweet Way
3. Onilisor
4. Yesterdays
VICTOR FELDMAN TRIO - The Arrival of Victor Feldman
5. Serpent’s Tooth
6. Waltz
7. Chasing Shadows
8. Flamingo
9. S’posin’
10. BeBop
11. (There Is) No Greater Love
12. Too Blue
13. Minor Lament
14. Satin Doll
CAL TJADER - STAN GETZ SEXTET
15. Crow’s Nest
16. Liz-Anne
HAMPTON HAWES QUARTET
17. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams

The first CD opens on a quartet from The Pat Moran Trio, which itself begins with the lavishly sculpted Making Whoopee, and then we get a track where LaFaro seems ever destined to break free of the strict time structure, In Your Own Sweet Way, the fervently joyful Onilisor and the resplendent Yesterdays.

Along next we get a whole host from the Victor Fledman Trio (The Arrival of Victor Feldman), which opens on the scintillating jazz scuttle of Serpent’s Tooth, the upright bass-fed, vibraphone-led Waltz, the sweeping Chasing Shadows, the sheer elegance of Flamingo and the dutifully embodied S’posin’.
Up next is one of his stand out tracks, the terrifically frenetic, yet always controlled BeBop and the late night, smokey jazz club appeal of (There Is) No Greater Love and they are in turn backed by the opulent Too Blue, the lavish Minor Lament, and the set (disc) rounds out on the sparklingly low slung Satin Doll.

Disc Two:
BUDDY DEFRANCO AND HIS SEPTETTE
1. Ballad Medley: I’m Glad There Is You / There’s No You
MARTY PAICH ORCHESTRA
2. It’s All Right With Me
HERB GELLER AND HIS ALL STARS
3. Cow Song
TONY SCOTT QUARTET
4. Misery (To Lady Day)
BILL EVANS TRIO
5. Someday My Prince will Come
6. Autumn Leaves
7. Blue In Green
BOOKER LITTLE QUARTET
8. Bee Tee’s Minor Plea
JOHN LEWIS ORCHESTRA & THE CONTEMPORARY STRING QUARTET
9. Variants On A Theme of John Lewis (Django) Variant 1
ORNETTE COLEMAN DOUBLE QUARTET
10. Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation

The second disc opens on the languishingly beautiful balladry medley from Buddy DeFranco and his Septette, I’m Glad There Is You / There’s No You and the Marty Paich Orchestra’s spirited, veritably cinematic It’s All Right With Me, and then we get brought forth Herb Geller and his All Stars’ breathtaking Cow Song, and a simply heavenly Misery (To Lady Day) by the Tony Scott Quartet.

Along next is a trio from the Bill Evans Trio, which opens on the sublime beauty of Someday My Prince will Come, the perfectly timed Autumn Leaves (where the level of almost telepathy and synchronization between these three is marveling), and then comes the sadness and beauty of one of the greatest jazz ballads every written, Blue In Green.

The disc rounds out on one from the Booker Little Quartet in the form of the bluesy artistry if Bee Tee’s Minor Plea, the sheer, unadulterated elegance of the John Lewis Orchestra & The Contemporary String Quartet’s Variants On A Theme of John Lewis (Django) Variant 1, closing on the expressively earnest Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet.

Disc Three:
ORNETTE COLEMAN
1. W.R.U.
BILL EVANS TRIO
2. Haunted Heart
3. Nardis
STAN GETZ QUARTET
4. Airegin
BILL EVANS TRIO
5. Gloria’s Step (#2)
6. My Man’s Gone (#2)
7. Alice In Wonderland (#2)
8. Jade Visions (#2)
9. My Foolish Heart
10. Waltz for Debby (#2)
11. Detour Ahead (#2)
12. Some Other Time

The third disc opens on the organically improved mastery of Ornette Coleman’s W.R.U. and the artistic perfection of the Bill Evans Trio’s Haunted Heart and their unfathomably hip Nardis, and then we get brought forth the dynamite Airegin (Nigeria spelt backwards, for those not in the know) by the STAN GETZ QUARTET, the disc, and the set therein, closing on a whole host from the Bill Evans Trio.

The first is the captivating Gloria’s Step (#2) which is in turn backed seamlessly by the shining opulence of My Man’s Gone (#2), then we get the underrated joyful little melody Alice In Wonderland (#2), the sheer gossamer of Jade Visions (#2), an intense longing that bleeds throughout My Foolish Heart, ending on the mesmerizing piano poetry of Waltz for Debby (#2), the sizzle cymbal full of mystery, drama, and beauty within Detour Ahead (#2), and both the beautiful Some Other Time and another fluid rendition of Airegin.

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