Lennie Tristano
Day 58
#94 – Leonard Joseph ‘Lennie’ Tristano (1919–1978). American jazz pianist, composer and teacher of jazz improvisation. Albums include: Crosscurrents (including the recordings Intuition and Digression, 1949), Lennie Tristano (1955) and The New Tristano (1962).
It is said that Tristano, in a sextet session in 1949, was the first to record a type of music that came to be called ‘free jazz’ – two pieces (Intuition and Digression) that were completely improvised. After sketching out his name, I noticed the ‘IST’ in his surname and looked at turning this into ‘1st’ and adding ‘recording of free jazz?’ underneath. The music is sophisticated and smooth so I went for a more classical typeface (Perpetua). Laid out straight it looked a little dull, so I twisted and spliced the type to add interest.
1.5 hours
Listen...
to excerpt from ‘Digression.’