It’s not instant composing. It’s not following any kind of a formula. All you do is hear music in your head and reproduce it.
– Lennie Tristano
In 1983 the Norwegian Broadcasting Company produced a 1 hour television documentary on the life, music, and teaching of the pianist, composer, and jazz educator Lennie Tristano. I have to admit that I haven’t check out nearly as much of Tristano’s music that I should have, but after coming across this documentary I’m very interested in going back through his music.
One of the things I find so fascinating about Tristano is that his legacy was not just as a musician, but also a music educator. He was one of the earliest jazz educators I’m aware of, predating even the Stan Kenton clinics, I believe. His philosophy was to help students express their ideas through freeing themselves from the “tyranny” of their thinking brain. But that didn’t mean that Tristano relied exclusively the “think method,” he required his students to learn scales, jazz melodies in all keys, and practice with a metronome. He stressed ear training and learning to sing and play improvised solos by jazz greats.
At a time when most jazz musicians were following the lead of Charlie Parker, Tristano developed and encouraged a different approach that became influential in the cool jazz period to follow. In 1949 Tristano even recorded music with the form of the music improvised, predating the free jazz movement by about a decade. Some jazz critics today argue that one of the reasons Tristano isn’t better known today is because his music was so hard to quantify and pin down to a particular jazz style.
Learn more about Tristano and his music at The Lennie Tristano Experience.
