Lennie Tristano (album)

According to Ira Gitler in The Masters of Be-Bop, the overdubbing and tape speed manipulation on this album unleashed a furor.{{cite book |last1=Gitler |first1=Ira |url= |title=The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide |date= |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-306-81009-1 |edition=Revised and updated |page= |pages=242–244 |language=en |oclc=45994390 |orig-date=1966 |accessdate=}} Tristano had begun experimenting in 1951, when he had additional piano tracks, some of which had been speeded up by engineer Rudy van Gelder, added to his recording of the songs "Ju Ju" and "Pastime". Tristano later recalled that not a single reviewer questioned the multitracking of those songs when they were released in 1952. According to Tristano, questions began to arise six months to a year later. At the time, Tristano declined to discuss it. In an interview years later, he described a private incident where Leonard Bernstein and Willie Kapell debated the topic in his home. After Bernstein declared his certainty that the songs were multitracked, Kapell demonstrated that the speed was possible by playing a Mozart tune 16 times faster than it would generally be played.

Following the release of Lennie Tristano, the usage of multitracking and tape speed was widely questioned and criticized on the songs "Line Up", "Turkish Mambo" and "East Thirty-Second". In the case of "Turkish Mambo", Tristano played three separate and conflicting piano tracks, with left-hand rhythms of five, six and seven beats beneath right-hand improvisation.{{cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Henry|last2=Waters|first2=Keith|title=Jazz: The First 100 Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kuz4EHH05I4C&dq=%22Lennie+Tristano%22&pg=PT264|publisher=Thompson/Schirmer|accessdate=29 September 2016|language=en|date=1 January 2006|isbn=9780534628048}} Tristano made specific reference to that song in defending his choice, stating that "[i]f I do multiple tapes, I don't feel I'm a phony thereby. Take "The Turkish Mambo". There is no other way I could do it so that I could get the rhythms to go together the way I feel them."

On the question of tape speed, he added, "If people want to think I speeded up the piano on "Line Up" and "East Thirty-Second", I don't care. What I care about is that the result sounded good to me." Contributing bassist Peter Ind, inspired to later use the same technique on his own album Looking Out, argued on the contrary to those who feel this is a deceptive technique that it is simply another tool an artist may use to craft his work.

Though controversial immediately on release, Tristano's decision to use the technique was described in 1997 by The New York Times as "celebrated".

In 1997, The New York Times dubbed the album a masterpiece.{{cite news |first=Ben |last=Ratliff |title= Jazz; A Flurry of Boxed Sets Wraps Up the Year |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E5D6133CF937A25751C1A961958260&sec=&spon= |work=The New York Times |date=1997-12-14 |accessdate=2008-05-12 }} Thom Jurek from AllMusic described the album as "gorgeous [...] with a beautiful juxtaposition between its first and second halves, with the rhythmic and intervallic genius of Tristano as an improviser on full display during the first half and the pianist as a supreme lyrical and swinging harmonist during the back half."

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings included the album in its suggested "core collection" of essential recordings.

All tracks composed by Lennie Tristano, except where noted.Songs and composers from {{AllMusic|class=album|id=r156741|label=Lennie Tristano}}. Track length information from {{AllMusic|class=album|id=r923110|label=Lennie Tristano (Warner Jazz)}}

1. "Line Up" – 3:34
2. "Requiem" – 4:53
3. "Turkish Mambo" – 3:41
4. "East Thirty-Second" – 4:33
5. "These Foolish Things" (Harry Link, Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey) – 5:46
6. "You Go to My Head" (J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie) – 5:20
7. "If I Had You" (Jimmy Campbell, Reginald Connelly, Ted Shapiro) – 6:29
8. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" (Bing Crosby, Ned Washington, Victor Young) – 6:07
9. "All the Things You Are" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) – 6:11

Lennie Tristano's home studio, New York, 1954-1955{{cite web |author=Togashi, Nobuaki |author2=Matsubayashi, Kohji |author3=Hatta, Masayuki |title=Lennie Tristano Catalog|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/lennie-tristano/catalog/#atlantic-lp-1224 |publisher=jazzdisco.org |accessdate=2012-06-14 }}

• Tracks 1-4
• Lennie Tristano – piano
• Peter Ind – bass (tracks: 1, 4)
• Jeff Morton – drums (tracks: 1, 4)

The Sing-Song Room, Confucius Restaurant, New York, June 11, 1955

• Tracks 5-9
• Lennie Tristano – piano
• Lee Konitz – alto saxophone
• Gene Ramey – bass
• Art Taylor – drums

Design

• Barry Ulanov – liner notes
• Jay Maisel – artwork{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r720670|label=Lennie Tristano (Collectables)}}

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Lennie Tristano albums

Category:1956 albums

Category:Bebop albums

Category:Atlantic Records albums

Category:London Records albums