George Russell

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

George Russell was born in 1923 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up as an adopted child. He sang in a church choir and heard the big bands that played on the Ohio river steamers. At the age of seven he was already on stage with Fats Waller. He began as a drummer and played in Benny Carter's band. When he was called up during the Second World War, he turned out to have tuberculosis. In hospital a fellow patient taught him the basics of music theory. He then moved to New York, where he belonged to a group of young innovators around Gil Evans, with, among others, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan.

Music and breakthrough

His first famous piece he wrote for Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra: Cubana Be, Cubana Bop (1947), in which bebop and Afro-Cuban music come together. During a second long stay in hospital he worked out his theory, which he published in 1953 as Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. It was one of the first theories of harmony to take jazz rather than European music as its starting point. His modal ideas influenced Miles Davis and John Coltrane in the recording of Kind of Blue. With his own groups, with, among others, Bill Evans, he made albums such as New York, N.Y. (1959) and Ezz-thetics with Eric Dolphy.

Influence

From 1964 to 1969 Russell lived in Scandinavia, where he worked with young musicians such as Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal and experimented with electronic tape. Afterwards he taught for years at the New England Conservatory in Boston. His music was often complex and layered. He died in 2009.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1958Modern Jazz Concert
• 1959New York N.Y.
• 1970Othello Ballet Suite / Electronic Organ Sonata No. 1
• 1971The Essence of George Russell
• 1973Listen to the Silence
• 1982New York Big Band
• 1986The African Game
• 1987So What
• 1991The Outer View
• 2014The Esoteric Circle

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 5: Jazz Festival^NL Reader
• After Hours: Session 2^NL Reader
• After Hours: Session 3^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Third stream GenreFor the jazz festival of Brandeis University in 1957, Charles Mingus and George Russell, among others, wrote new pieces.
• Modal jazz GenreIn 1953 the composer George Russell described the idea in his theory book on the Lydian concept.

See also

• New York Big Band
• The Outer View
• Third stream
• Modal jazz