Brian Bromberg’s Tribute to Scott LaFaro

Brian Bromberg with his bass (photograph by Michel Bocande, courtesy of DL Media)

This past Friday Be Squared Productions released a new album featuring bass player Brian Bromberg. The title of the album is LaFaro, and those familiar with the many recordings released by pianist Bill Evans will recognize this as a tribute to Scott LaFaro, who was a major contributor to the inventiveness of the Bill Evans Trio in which he played. Mind you, Evans is acknowledged in his own right only by the second track on the album, “Waltz for Debby.” (I’ve lost track of the number of times that Evans recorded that tune!)

Miles Davis, on the other hand, is acknowledged through four tracks (in “order of appearance”): “Solar,” “Blue in Green,” “Milestones,” and “Nardis.” Those that are historically inclined probably know that “Solar” dates all the way back to his sessions for Prestige Records. It was recorded about a year and a half before Davis formed his quintet with John Coltrane. (The bass played in that quintet was Paul Chambers. According to my sources, LaFaro never played or recorded with Davis.) Nevertheless, one might wish to conclude that Evans (by way of LaFaro) was the stronger influence in creating the “program” for the LaFaro album. If for no other reason, he recorded “Waltz for Debby” four times during his tenure with Riverside!

At this point I should make the disclaimer that, while I often appreciate “tribute” albums such as LaFaro, they always send me burrowing through my own collection to dig up earlier sources for at least some of the tracks! That said, there is more than enough inventiveness on Bromberg’s new release to allow one to appreciate its own merits. I suspect that I am particularly drawn to listening to jazz piano trios because, when they exercise the full extent of individual inventiveness, their merits are up there with those of the classical music piano trio.

Regarding the album itself, the above hyperlink leads the reader to the Web page for purchasing the Audio CD. However, those that follow the link to the MP3 Web page will be in for a treat. In addition to all twelve of the tracks on the CD, there are three “bonus” tracks. One of them provides another Evans selection, “Peri’s Scope.” According to his Wikipedia page, this was named after Peri Cousins, described as the object of “Evans’s first long-term romance.” If I am following the dates on that page correction, that romance was over by the time LaFaro began to make recordings with Evans in the early Sixties! On the other hand, “Peri’s Scope” was one of the first tunes that LaFaro recorded with Evans (at a session on December 28, 1959)!