[78-L] George Russell

[David Lewis]

Bertrand CHAUMELLE wrote:
> > George Russell has died
 
> Which one?     Julian Vein

 
Dr. B wrote:

Could it have been Davy Crockett's friend, you know, the one played by
Buddy Ebsen in the Disney version?

Mike (collected full sets of BOTH series of Davy Crockett cards when I
was 10) Biel 


>>>>

No, this George Russell had nothing to do with Davy Crockett. He was an innovative and original jazz composer whose system for improvisation inspired Miles Davis' Kind of Blue; Russell composed the tune "All About Rosie." He was a native of Cincinnati.

 

He did work on 78s also. He did the arrangement for "Cubana Be Cubana Bop" by Dizzy Gillespie in 1946; I think that came out on Victor. Russell arranged "A Bird in Igor's Yard" for Buddy DeFranco in 1949 which was recorded for Capitol but not released by them at the time. It came out in the early 70s; in Sweden first, then in the US. Take my word for it Mike; those are some great, pioneering efforts in jazz.

 

His best work was in the early LP era; "Jazz Workshop" (RCA), "Ezz-Thetic" (Riverside), "Jazz in the Space Age," "N.Y. N.Y." and "Live at the Five Spot" (Decca) are all really terrific kind of bent-up, fractal takes on the mainstream/hard bop sound, lydian-chromatic theory or not. I was thinking about it earlier today and I probably listen to more George Russell than any other bop era artist except for Diz, Monk and Bud Powell. 

 

I will miss him, tho it's been a long time since he's produced anything; since maybe the mid-90s, and that stuff wasn't his strongest suit. I will not miss him as much as I do my Dad though, who died on the 8th. This has been a cruel month for that sort of thing. Dad liked George Russell and I played some of George's music on the memorial radio tribute for my Dad. 

 

Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com



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