THE COMPLETE LENNIE TRISTANO ON KEYNOTE
LENNIE TRISTANO TRIO
MERCURY 830 921-2

Lennie Tristano (p); Billy Bauer (g); Clyde Lombardi, Bob Leininger* (b). NYC, October 1946; *May 1947. Eight titles, nineteen takes. Time: 53:41.

SUBCONSCIOUS-LEE (The complete Tristano on Prestige)
LENNIE TRISTANO / LEE KONITZ
PRESTIGE OJCCD-186-2 Time: 39:40

Tristano (p); Lee Konitz (as); Bauer (g); Arnold Fishkin (b); Shelly Manne (d). Five titles, NYC, January 1949.

Konitz (as); Warne Marsh (ts); Sal Mosca (p); Fishkin (b); Denzil Best, Jeff Morton* (d). Four titles, NYC, June 1949; *September 1949.

Konitz (as); Mosca (p); Bauer (g); Fishkin (b); Morton (d). Four titles, NYC, April 1950.

INTUITION (The complete Tristano on Capitol)
LENNIE TRISTANO / WARNE MARSH
CAPITOL CDP 7243 8 52771 2 2 Time: 75:55

Tristano (p); Konitz (as); Marsh (ts); Bauer (g); Fishkin (b); Harold Granowsky, Best* (d). Seven titles, NYC, March 1949; *May 1949.
Marsh (ts); Ted Brown (ts); Ronnie Ball (p); George Tucker (b); Morton (d). Nine titles, twelve tracks. Los Angeles, October 1956.

THE COMPLETE ATLANTIC RECORDINGS OF LENNIE TRISTANO, LEE KONITZ, AND WARNE MARSH
MOSAIC MD6-174 Six discs: Time: 6:24:11

Tristano (p); Konitz (as); Gene Ramey (b); Art Taylor (d). Twenty-one titles, NYC, June 11, 1955.

Tristano (p); Peter Ind (b); Morton (d). Four titles, NYC, 1954-55.

Tristano (p). Seven titles, NYC, 1960-61

Konitz (ts); Mosca (p); Ind (b); Dick Scott (d). Six titles. Hackensack, September 1956.

Konitz (as, ts); Bauer (g); Fishkin (b); Scott (d). Four titles, Hackensack, October 1956.

Konitz (as, ts); Jimmy Rowles (p); Leroy Vinnegar (b); Manne (d). Seven titles, Los Angeles, December 1956.

Konitz (as); Don Ferrara (tp); Bauer (g); Ind (b); Scott (d). Eight titles, Pittsburgh, March 1957.

Konitz (as); Marsh (ts); Mosca, Ball* (p); Bauer (g); Oscar Pettiford (b); Kenny Clarke (d). Eight titles, NYC June 14 & 21*, 1955.

Marsh (ts); Ball (p); Paul Chambers (b); Philly Joe Jones (d). Two titles, NYC, December 1957.

Marsh (ts); Chambers (b); Paul Motian (d). Four titles, NYC, January 1958.

Around 1950, the term "cool" came into use to distinguish modern jazz from the hot jazz of New Orleans and Chicago. One of the few developments for which the term was actually descriptive was the music of Lennie Tristano documented on these discs. The music was characterized by steady unaccented bass and drums providing unobtrusive support for the soloists, who supplied rhythmic variation in their long melodic lines incorporating bop harmonic devices. Volume levels tended to be even throughout a piece, further focusing attention on the improvised compositions of the soloists, often delivered in intricate joint improvisation. Perhaps the demands on the performers and the audience are the reason that the music was current for less than twenty years, was limited to a relatively small circle of performers, and is represented by very few commercial recordings, most of which are on these discs. Thanks to the advocacy of Barry Ulanov and Metronome magazine, the innovations were quickly brought to the attention of the national jazz community. Tristano and Bauer were elected to the 1948 Metronome All Stars, and the 1949 All Star record was dominated by Tristano, Konitz, and Bauer, just months after their New Jazz (Prestige) and Capitol recordings. Warne Marsh was on the 1952 All Star date, and Konitz returned in 1956.

Lennie Tristano was born in Chicago in 1919, and from the ages nine to nineteen, studied piano, wind instruments, and theory in a school for the blind. He began teaching even before receiving his college degree from the American Conservatory in 1943. He also played Chicago saloons in various contexts and made some private recordings with Hermanites Earl Swope, Shorty Rogers, Don Lamond, and Chubby Jackson. In 1946, he left Chicago for New York, partly at the suggestion of Jackson. Another factor was his wish to escape the solicitude for his blindness from those with whom he had grown up. Jackson introduced him to Barry Ulanov, who promptly recorded Tristano and Bauer for V-Disc.

Billy Bauer (New York, 1915-- ) was already known as a member of Woody Herman's First Herd and Woodchoppers when he began studies with Tristano in 1945, which led to his distinction as the leading bop guitarist and Metronome All Star regular.

Before World War Two, Warne Marsh (Los Angeles, 1927-1987) played tenor with Hoagy Carmichael, and was influenced by the style of Tex Beneke. While in the army, he met Tristano, and became a student in 1948.

Lee Konitz (Chicago, 1927-- ) was eighteen when he began studies with Tristano, then an old man of twenty-six. Before rejoining Tristano in New York, he played a memorable alto with the Claude Thornhill band, which led to a continuing association with Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans, which in turn led to his membership in the Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool" nonet. He took another vacation from Tristano in the early 'fifties when he was principal soloist in the Stan Kenton band.

Perhaps the strongest influences on Tristano were Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, and for his counterpoint and continuous lines, Johann Sebastian Bach. Tristano may also be the first to use block chords in jazz piano. All of these can be heard in the earliest of these recordings, made for Keynote in 1946. The piano, bass, and guitar instrumentation was that of the Art Tatum and Nat Cole trios, and in 1946, the pure Tristano style was present embryonically-- Interlude (Night in Tunisia) can almost be mistaken for a King Cole trio record. But even then, the interplay between Bauer and Tristano was stunning.

The first recordings on the Prestige label (initially called New Jazz) were the Tristano quintet sides with Konitz and Bauer, reissued on Prestige-OJC. These and the sextet sides recorded a couple of months later-- with Warne Marsh added-- are the definitive legacy of the Tristano school. It still takes one up short to realize that Tristano and his major disciples recorded together on only twelve sides-- not all of which were released on 78. The titles are mostly pseudonyms for standards-- These Foolish Things (Retrospection); Don't Blame Me (Judy); What Is This Thing Called Love (Subconscious-Lee); Lullaby in Rhythm (Tautology); I Got Rhythm (Crosscurrent); You Can Depend on Me (Wow); Sax of A Kind (Fine and Dandy); Marionette (September in the Rain). Intricate opening ensemble choruses are followed by breathtaking successions of solos. Perhaps because clarinet was one of his early instruments, Konitz plays almost without vibrato or overtones and the pure alto sound beautifully carries the flow of his melodies. Marsh's tone somewhat resembles that of Stan Getz, but his tenor inventions are solidly in the Tristano camp. One of the Capitol sides, Intuition, is a unique example of "free jazz"-- an unstructured collective improvisation. Tristano begins with some Tatumesque runs, and he is joined successively by the others until the full sextet is contributing. This preceded Ornette Coleman's efforts with the device by several years, and the Tristano sextet performed with harmonic smoothness and none of the cacophony of the Coleman groups. The 1949 Konitz sextet sides with Sal Mosca filling in for Tristano are fine additions to the canon. Mosca (1927-- ) studied with Tristano from 1947 through 1955, and continued to perform with Marsh and Konitz into the 'eighties.

The Mosaic set begins with two discs devoted to a complete Tristano-Konitz performance at the Sing Song Room of the Confucius Restaurant in Manhattan on June 11, 1955. Most of the selections were released on Atlantic lps, but here all five of the evening's sets are complete. Fine in their own right, they provide a useful complement to the studio recordings. Bass and drums are more prominent and less metronomic, and the looseness not present in a controlled setting allows us to hear Tristano and Konitz in a more conventional jazz context, sometimes including closing choruses of fours with Art Taylor. The jamming quality of their interaction at times recalls the Brubeck-Desmond quartet. Perhaps critics led by the complexity of the New Jazz and Capitol sides to dismiss Tristano and Konitz as "Chinese music" could more easily appreciate their essential and undiluted jazz qualities in this live quartet recital.

The third Mosaic disc is more demanding, consisting of recordings made in Tristano's studio-- eleven piano solos, two of which were dubbed onto rhythm tracks by bass and drums, and one of which is a "trio", with two overdubbed piano parts. Endlessly fascinating, these compositions/improvisations distill Tristano's conceptions of jazz, of piano, perhaps of music. The melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic development in these pieces is as carefully constructed as in a Beethoven sonata. By now, Parker had more fully displaced Tatum as an influence, and the origins of jazz in dance and march music are completely obliterated. Although Tristano occasionally performed in public in the 'sixties, for the last ten years of his life he was something of a recluse. In only this, his perfect timing was off-- performing opportunities for jazz were diminished, and the academic recognition of jazz came too late.

The other three Mosaic discs and half of the Capitol disc are devoted to post-Tristano work of Konitz and Marsh. Although both would broaden their talents eclectically, on these early recordings the Tristano influence is still apparent.

In the 1955 session, Konitz, Marsh, Bauer, and Mosca repeat the fidelity to the Tristano school of their 1949-50 Prestige sides, and outsider Oscar Pettiford is allowed generous solo space. The remaining Konitz sessions are more conventionally mainstream. In September 1956, he switches to tenor, with a sound and style reminiscent of Lester Young. Back on alto in October, his eclecticism incorporates more Parker and perhaps a bit of Paul Desmond. Bauer occasionally abandons his single note fluency for chording. It's almost as if the children have left the nest and are establishing their independence. The December 1956 Konitz tracks, previously issued only in Japan, have an Art Pepper quality, perhaps induced by with the west coast rhythm section. Konitz resumes his Tristano identity in the live recording from Pittsburgh, and on one number Konitz is joined by Don Ferrara's trumpet with some attractive interweaving by the horns.

In 1956, after Tristano closed his school and confined his teaching to private tutoring, several of his students went to Los Angeles, among them Marsh, another tenor player, Ted Brown (Rochester, 1927-- ), and pianist Ronnie Ball (Birmingham, England, 1927-- ). (It's a curious coincidence that except for Tristano and Bauer, all the principal soloists on these discs were born in 1927.) The sides Marsh and company recorded that October were released on Imperial and are now on the Capitol disc, with several alternate takes. All three of the soloists contributed compositions-- those of Ball and Marsh resemble those of the Tristano groups, while the Brown numbers blend Tristano with the looser swinging style of the Shorty Rogers Giants. Separately and together, the two tenors are brilliant, and Ball plays a lively Tristano-style piano. The Mosaic set ends with fine New York sessions in which Marsh solos beautifully in strict Tristano style, favoring the upper register of the tenor. He is nicely complemented by the bass of Paul Chambers, who also contributes impeccable bop solos.

The music of Lennie Tristano and his associates was a rewarding branch of the transformations bop brought to jazz in the nineteen forties. Although its commercial potential was minimal and it did not last long in its pure form, it has permanently influenced the mainstream, even though some contemporary musicians so influenced may not have heard the original performances. Each of the albums reviewed here is individually meritorious. Together they document a unique stage in the history of jazz.