George Russell (musician)

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George Allan Russell (born June 23, 1923 in Cincinnati , Ohio , † July 27, 2009 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American jazz musician, composer and music theorist.

Live and act

Russell, whose father was a music professor at Oberlin College, received his training as a drummer a. a. at Wilberforce University . In 1941 he composed his first work, New World , for Benny Carter and became a member of his band. After being drafted into World War II, he developed tuberculosis, which is why he spent a long time in hospitals. Because of his illness he also had to end his career as a drummer - he later turned to playing the piano. In the hospital he began to deal intensively with music theory. He later went to New York City , where he studied composition with Stefan Wolpe and met musicians such as Miles Davis , Gerry Mulligan , Max Roach , Johnny Carisi and Charlie Parker . He was commissioned to compose a piece for Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra. The result was Cubano Be / Cubano Bop , a piece in which he fused Afro-Cuban music with jazz music. It was performed at Carnegie Hall in 1947 and made him famous. In 1949 Buddy DeFranco recorded Russell's play Bird in Igor's Yard , in which he combined influences from Charlie Parker with those of Igor Stravinsky .

In 1953 Russell's music theory work Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization was published , which made a significant contribution to the emergence of modal jazz and prepared important jazz records such as Kind of Blue ( Miles Davis , 1959) or A Love Supreme ( John Coltrane , 1965). He took the mid-1950s with a sextet, the next Russell and Bill Evans , and (also Miles Davis influenced over the Russell theories) Art Farmer belonged, The Jazz Workshop , his first album as a leader on. For the Brandeis Jazz Festival he wrote All about Rosie , New York, New York based on a poem by Jon Hendricks ; it has been performed by New York jazz greats like Bill Evans, Max Roach , John Coltrane, Milt Hinton , Bob Brookmeyer and Art Farmer. In the early 1960s his album Ezz-Thetic was created with Eric Dolphy , Don Ellis and Steve Swallow . In 1961 he rearranged All About Rosie for the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band .

In 1964 Russell went to Europe. He stayed longer in Norway and Sweden , where he worked for the Swedish radio under Bosse Broberg and u. a. performed with the young musicians Jan Garbarek , Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen . He also played with the Americans Don Cherry , Cameron Brown , and Al Heath , who lived in Europe . In 1969 he returned to the USA at the invitation of Gunther Schuller to set up a jazz department at the New England Conservatory of Music .

He has also performed with his fourteen-musician orchestra in the USA and Europe. The 1985 album The African Game received two Grammy nominations. At the invitation of the Contemporary Music Network of the British Council , he went on tour in 1986, which resulted in The International Living Time Orchestra , with which Russell has since worked. The orchestra includes keyboardists Brad Hatfield and Steve Lodder , guitarist Mike Walker , bassist Bill Urmson , drummers Billy Ward and Pat Hollenbeck , trumpeters Stanton Davis , Tiger Okoshi and Stuart Brooks , saxophonists Andy Sheppard and Chris Biscoe , the clarinetist Pete Hurt and trombonists Dave Bargeron and Richard Henry .

Since the late 1980s he has composed a number of larger compositions such as Uncommon Ground (included on the CD The London Concert ), An American Trilogy and the three-hour symphony Time Line for orchestra, jazz band, choir, rock musician and dancer.

Russell died of complications from his Alzheimer's disease.

Prizes and awards

Russell was recognized as a NEA Jazz Master in 1990; he received the British Jazz Award and the French Oscar du Disque du Jazz . In 1989 he received a MacArthur Fellowship .

Works

Discography (selection)

  • 1956: Jazz Workshop
  • 1959: New York, NY
  • 1960: Jazz in the Space Age
  • 1960: Stratusphunk
  • 1961: Ezz-thetics
  • 1962: The Stratus Seekers
  • 1962: The Outer View (with Sheila Jordan )
  • 1965: At Beethoven Hall (with Don Cherry)
  • 1970: Trip To Prillarguri
  • 1972: Living Time (with Bill Evans)
  • 1973: Listen to the Silence
  • 1976: Vertical Form VI
  • 1978: New York Big Band
  • 1980: Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature
  • 1981: Othello Ballet Suite (1967) / Electronic Organ Sonata No 1 (1968)
  • 1982: Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature - 1968
  • 1982: Live in an American Time Spiral
  • 1983: The African Game
  • 1986: So What
  • 1989: The London Concert
  • 1996: It's About Time

Book publication

  • George Russell: The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization 1953, 2001, ISBN 0-9703739-0-2 .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Russell, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Russell, George Allan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician, composer, and music theorist
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Cincinnati , Ohio , USA
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 2009
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts , USA