Leonard Joseph Tristano (19 March 1919 - 18 November 1978) was a jazz pianist and composer. He performed in the Cool jazz, bebop, post bop and Avant-garde jazz genres. He remains a somewhat overlooked figure in jazz history, but his enormous originality and dazzling work as an improviser have long been appreciated by knowledgable jazz fans; in addition, his work as a jazz educator meant that he has exerted a substantial indirect influence on jazz, through figures such as Lee Konitz and Bill Evans. is the 78th day of the year (79th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... CD reissue of Daviss 1957 LP Birth of the Cool, collecting much of his 1949 to 1950 work. ... This article is about the genre of music, for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character see Bebop and Rocksteady. ... Post-bop is a term for a form of small-combo jazz music that evolved in the early-to-mid sixties. ... Avant-jazz (also known as avant-garde jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines elements of avant-garde art music composition with elements of traditional jazz. ... Lee Konitz (born 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player. ... William John Evans (better known as Bill Evans) (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and one of the most famous of the 20th century; he remains one of the major influences on post-1950s jazz piano. ...

Life

Tristano was born in Chicago into an Italian immigrant family. He was blind from infancy and studied piano and music theory from pre-teen years, graduating from his home town's American Conservatory of Music in 1943. For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ... This article is about the visual condition. ... The American Conservatory of Music was a conservatory university located in Chicago, Illinois. ...

Tristano's interest in jazz inspired a move to New York City in 1946. His advanced grasp of harmony pushed his music beyond even the complexities of the contemporary bebop movement, though Tristano was always explicit about acknowledging his enormous debt to Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. (Other key ingredients in his style were Nat King Cole and Art Tatum, influences most audible in his early drummerless trio recordings.) Though he and his followers remained at something of a slant to mainstream bebop, Tristano did on occasion play and record with bebop's preeminent figures such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Often the "Tristano school" has been contrasted with bebop, however, by being labelled "cool jazz", though this risks lumping his music in with unrelated styles like the West Coast cool jazz of the 1950s. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in music. ... This article is about the genre of music, for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character see Bebop and Rocksteady. ... For other persons of the same name, see Charles Parker. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965) was a popular American singer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. ... Arthur Tatum Jr. ... For the Australian cricketer nicknamed Dizzy, see Jason Gillespie. ... For other persons of the same name, see Charles Parker. ...

Recordings

Among Tristano's most important earlier recordings was a 1949 sextet session with his students, saxophone players Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. After recording a number of conventionally structured compositions, Tristano had the group record "Intuition" and "Digression." Both pieces were completely improvised, with no prearranged melody, harmony or rhythm. These two songs are often cited among the first examples of free jazz or free improvisation. The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family. ... Lee Konitz (born 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player. ... Warne Marsh (26 October 1927 - 17 December 1987) was an American saxophonist born in Los Angeles. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in music. ... For the popular Tamil film, see Rhythm (film). ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the taste or inclination of the musician(s) involved; in many cases the musicians make an active effort to avoiding overt references to recognizable musical genres. ...

His 1953 recording Descent into the Maelstrom is especially significant: an experiment in overdubbing which in its harsh atonality anticipates the much later work of players like Cecil Taylor and Borah Bergman (who has specifically mentioned the piece as an important influence on his work). Cecil Percival Taylor (born March 15 or March 25, 1929 in New York City) is an American pianist and poet. ...

Tristano released two important albums on Atlantic Records, which remain his best-known work. Lennie Tristano, from 1955, is famous for including innovative experiments with overdubbing ("Requiem" and "Turkish Mambo") and altered tape-speed ("Line Up" and "East 32nd"); the second side is a straightforward club gig in the company of Lee Konitz. "Requiem", a tribute to the late Charlie Parker, is particularly notable for its deep blues feeling – a style not usually associated with Tristano. The New Tristano (1962) remains a landmark in solo jazz piano; though on this occasion no overdubbing was used the music is just as densely conceived, especially the classic "G Minor Complex", an improvisation on the changes of "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To". Tristano's mimicking of a jazz bassist's accompaniment with his left hand on these recordings is distinctive and often imitated; the combination of this line with the dazzling line-spinning of his right hand also gives the music a contrapuntal flavour explicitly paying homage to Bach. Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label, and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. ... For other people named Bach and other meanings of the word, see Bach (disambiguation). ...

Education

By the mid-1950s, Tristano focused his energies more on music education. He can be regarded as one of the first jazz teachers to teach jazz in a structured way, beginning in the late 1940s and continuing to his death in 1978. Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. ...

Influence

His innovative tutelage has inspired an eclectic group of artists: Charles Mingus, Bill Russo, Connie Crothers, Lenny Popkin, Sal Mosca, Liz Gorrill, Herbie Hancock, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Sheila Jordan, Bill Evans, Billy Bauer, Fran Canisius, Betty Scott, Jeff Morton, Willie Dennis, Don Ferrara, Ronnie Ball, Peter Ind, Jimmy Halperin, Billy Lester, Alan Broadbent, rock guitarist Joe Satriani, Keith Emerson, and even Franciscan priest/rapper Fr. Stan Fortuna. Charles Mingus (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. ... William Russo, better known as Bill Russo (June 25, 1928 – January 11, 2003) was an American jazz musician. ... Connie Crothers is a jazz pianist from Palo Alto, California who was born June 2, 1941. ... Sal Mosca(born April 27, 1927 in Mount Vernon, New York) is a jazz pianist who was a student of Lennie Tristanos. ... Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an Academy Award and multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer from Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Hancock is one of jazz musics most important and influential pianists and composers. ... Lee Konitz (born 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player. ... Warne Marsh (26 October 1927 - 17 December 1987) was an American saxophonist born in Los Angeles. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... William John Evans (better known as Bill Evans) (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and one of the most famous of the 20th century; he remains one of the major influences on post-1950s jazz piano. ... Billy Bauer (b. ... Willie Dennis (January 10, 1926 – July 8, 1965) is an American jazz trombonist. ... Alan Broadbent is a jazz pianist born April 23, 1947 in Auckland, New Zealand. ... Joseph Satch Satriani (born on July 15, 1956, in Westbury, New York, U.S.) is an American guitarist and former guitar instructor. ... Keith Noel Emerson (born 2 November 1944 in Todmorden, Yorkshire) is a British keyboard player and composer. ... Father Stan Fortuna is an ordained Roman Catholic priest notable for his evangelical musical contributions of various genres, primarily Catholic-based hip hop. ...

Tristano's distrust of jazz record labels and increasingly infrequent public performances meant that his recordings are comparatively scarce, and many of them are concert recordings of very variable fidelity. Some of his live performances were recorded and have been released, including performances from the Half Note Club in New York from the 1950s, and concerts in Europe from the 1960s. He was one of the first musicians to start his own record label. This label, Jazz Records, is still in existence and is run by his daughter, the drummer Carol Tristano. The label Inner City released a compilation of various Tristano recordings, Descent into the Maelstrom. The Half Note was a legendary jazz club located at the intersection of Hudson & Spring in Manhattan. ... Jazz Records is a United States jazz record company specialising in the issue of previously unreleased recordings from the family archive of jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. ...

A book by bassist Peter Ind, Jazz Visions: Lennie Tristano and His Legacy, was released in October 2005. The book documents and discusses Tristano's contributions to jazz music.

External links

• The Lennie Tristano Experience
• Jazzdisco
• New Artists Records
• Jazz Records
• Solo transcription by Roberto Soggetti
• Lennie Tristano Symposium collection