Lennie Tristano

New York Improvisations

 

"Jazz is not a style. To me, jazz is a feeling" - Lennie Tristano

New York Improvisations is not the product of a club date or a studio session. Rather, the album is a series of home recordings made by Lennie in his home studio over the two year period of 1955 and 56. The songs on the record had not been previously released, and so with the technical assistance of Lenny Popkin (preparation of the master) and Don Pulse (technical assistant, Columbia Recording Studio), the original tapes of Lennie Tristano playing with bassist Peter Ind and drummer Tom Weyburn were for the first time made available to the general public. The record itself is an Elektra Musician Jazz Masters Edition, released in 1983 (about 28 years after the tapes themselves were made). The listener needs to be reminded that these recordings were made by Lennie for personal consumption, and probably as teaching aids, as much of is career was focused on teaching. Therefore they don't have the polish one would expect from the studio, with abrupt endings and fades. Nevertheless, they are a valuable record of one of jazz music's most enigmatic artists.