George Russell
Day 29
#90 – George Allen Russell (1923–2009). American jazz pianist, composer and theorist. Albums include: The Jazz Workshop (1957), Ezz-thetics (1961) and the book The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953).
Russell’s book has had far reaching impact, especially in the realm of modal jazz. Art Farmer said that it “opens the door to countless means of melodic expression”. Bill Evans and Miles Davis utilized the theory and used it to record modal jazz, such as the album Kind of Blue. The modern Lydian musical scale is a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. So 7 pitches. As ‘Russell’ had 7 letters I placed these on a page to represent the book in a rising fashion. The word ‘George’ helped balance the page.
1 hour
Listen...
to excerpts from ‘The JazzWorkshop’.