The Multi-track Recordings of Lennie Tristano

Jazz Research Journal, Issue 7, No, 2.

In the 1940s, pianist Lennie Tristano was among the first to attempt to teach jazz improvisation as an area of study distinct from instrumental technique. In doing so, he employed a methodology that was considered highly unorthodox at the time and that is still somewhat unique for jazz pedagogy. Chief among these unorthodox pedagogical devices was the use of visualization and other mental techniques for musical practice and composition. These methods enabled students to separate imaginative musical experiences from the habits of muscle memory, while at the same time speeding up the acquisition of certain digital techniques and developing the musical imagination.

MUSICultures Vol. 38, p205, 2011

has ramifications for discussions of pedagogy. Using the lineal tradition of pianist Lennie Tristano and saxophonist Lee Konitz as a case study, this paper considers these issues as well as how lineal traditions may fit with the current institutional model for jazz education.

Thesis, 2021

This project investigates the process of creating new works for two jazz trio ensembles, with a particular emphasis on improvisation with acoustic instruments and technology. Utilising a practice-based research model the project documents and outlines the conceptual basis for the work, reflects on a series of public performances and examines studio recording sessions. By analysing the musical content, use of technology, and the musician’s reflections on their decision making, the overall goal is to articulate the musical potential of improvising with technology in a jazz context. Exploring technology and developing extended techniques towards a hybrid acoustic- electronic “group sound” that is distinct but still recognisable as jazz, is a core focus of this research. Specific software, hardware controllers, and audio effects are identified, and an analysis of the ways in which technologies are engaged by each musician is presented. Artistic reference points identify current and historical practice within this area and a range of case studies give context for how the music created here is relevant to contemporary jazz in Australia. The resulting musical output is documented in audio and video formats and includes multiple performer analyses, enabling detailed examination by the reader of how each musician merges improvisation using acoustic instruments and improvisation with technology. Ultimately this research has allowed two professional jazz ensembles to forge new musical pathways, creating expanded practical skills for the author and the musicians involved. This research will be of interest to jazz musicians seeking to broaden their practice through improvisation with technology. Additionally, the project is relevant to any reader/musician engaged with improvisation in contemporary music more broadly.

2000

2018

During the 1960s, a small, unrelated group of future-minded musicians imagined a blending of electronic music with jazz. What they imagined was not simply plugging-in and going electric but using electronics to change the sound textures of jazz. For several years this activity was restricted to using electronic music on tape or employing devices to electronically alter the sound of a jazz instrument. The inescapable merger of jazz with electronic music came with the introduction of the first commercial keyboard synthesizers, devices that were played in a way that was familiar to musicians while introducing new sonic possibilities. This article reviews early adopters of the synthesizer by jazz musicians from 1964 to 1971 and the inception of fusion jazz. This is the story of pioneering artists who believed that a union of electronic music with the expressive energy of jazz had great potential.

This thesis examines the music of two pioneers of free improvisation in jazz: Lennie Tristano and Ornette Coleman. Besides emphasizing the melodic language of both musicians, this study presents analyses and transcriptions of their compositions and improvisations. The author's approach as a musician-researcher stresses the importance of transcription and emulation as study methods.

The history of jazz is one of cascading events and styles that continually inform and influence what follows. This transformation is an accumulation over time of styles, methods, and techniques. During the 1950s and 1960s, electronic music gradually left the confines of the institution and migrated into the hands of independent musicians. Among the early explorers were jazz musicians who laid a foundation of experiment for later musicians to model and emulate. This article discusses two types of such experiments: (1) Jazz incorporating prerecorded electronic music on tape (1960–1970) and (2) Jazz using live electronics other than synthesizers (early years from 1965–1970). A discography is provided.

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 1998

2023

The research investigates the relationship between acousmatic music and instrumental music, using developments in 20th century western art music to define its context including the compositional practices of Arnold Schoenberg (d.1951), Claude Debussy (d.1918), Nikolai Roslavets (d.1944), Luigi Nono (d.1990), Iannis Xenakis (d.2001) and Natasha Barrett (1972-). This was a practice-based PhD resulting in the creation of a series of new compositions for a variety of forces that addressed the following research questions: 1. What have been the problematics of the development of compositions for acousmatic and acoustic instrumental forces and how are these present in the work of the key practitioners referenced above? 2. What are the cultural conditions that have precipitated the perpetuation of the problematisation of the relationship between acousmatic and acoustic compositional practices? 3. Is it possible to generate a series of original sound compositions that explore and provide potential solutions to the problematic at the core of the research? The pieces that where investigated and referenced were: Claude Debussy: Nuages, movement 1 from Trois Nocturnes Arnold Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10 Nikolai Roslavets: 5 Preludes, In the Hours of the New Moon Luigi Nono: Intolleranza 1960, La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura Iannis Xenakis: Pour la paix (musique concrète/choral), Diamorphoses (musique concrète) Natasha Barrett: Submerged (acousmatic), Little Animals (acousmatic) The research determined which techniques work well together to create original and balanced art music, and explored different ways of creating dialogue between sound-objects and instruments. The techniques under investigation, to use with music for orchestra and tape, are Debussy's chromatic mediant relations, Schoenberg's 12-tone serial techniques, Roslavets's transpositional near symmetry by quints, extreme orthography and synthetic chords, Nono's narrow-banding of note groups and the idea of democratic lines, Xenakis's atonal architectural techniques like unions (intersections) and differences of sets, and Natasha Barrett's coarticulation of sound-objects.