Track Listing

1. Line Up
2. Requiem
3. Turkish Mambo
4. East Thirty-Second
5. These Foolish Things
6. You Go to My Head
7. If I Had You
8. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You
9. All the Things You Are
10. Becoming
11. You Don't Know What Love Is
12. Deliberation
13. Scene and Variations: Carol/Tania/Bud
14. Lovelines
15. G Minor Complex

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12639 in Music
• Published on: 1994-01-01
• Released on: 1994-02-22
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Great music; poor release.
If you are at all interested in the art of solo jazz piano you _must_ listen to this CD, which contains two Tristano albums, 'Lennie Tristano' (which also includes his trio), and 'The New Tristano' (which doesn't). The first of these albums features Tristano's revolutionary use of overdubbing, which led critics in the fifties to savage this album; many considered the technique as being somehow 'anti-jazz'. To answer these critcs/iques Tristano recorded 'The New Tristano' which used no overdubbing. Many people feel that this album is his masterwork. Here his improvisations have the intellectual rigour of the Bach preludes and fugues, while maintaining a strong swinging forward motion reminiscent of Art Tatum. Some of the best 'line playing' in jazz can be found here -- I love this album! The only reservation I have with this 'two for one' release is that the crown jewel of 'The New Tristano', 'C Minor Complex', is not included for lack of space. This is almost an insult to Tristano's memory, and at least a crying shame. This muck-up could be compared to leaving 'So What' off Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue'. For this reason I give this CD 4, not 5 (or 10 if I could) stars.

A very important jazz record from an underestimated genius
Lennie Tristano was a piano genius and also a master of arranging and making new and inspirational jazz music. The best example is here in this double package of his 2 most well-known jazz records: Lennie Tristano from 1955 and The New Tristano from 1962. The first contains the 4 masteful compositions Line Up, Requiem, Turkish Mambo and East Thirty-Second Street which is brilliant in its use of time changes, melody lines and atmosphere. Requiem is a great tribute to Charlie Parker who died the same year as this record was made. The rest of the record is 5 live recordings with Lee Konitz on tenor sax. Ghost of a chance is a very fine version. Lennie was a fan of the long, emotional improvisational line on the piano, and this is most evident in the solo record The New Tristano. This is a great piano classic with Lennie mixing in classical inspirations as well as bop, stride and whatever path his feelings lead him to in the creation of the music. My favourites here are Becoming, Love Lines and G Minor Complex. Absolutely essential jazz. Another record which is recommended is the hard-to-get Descent In the Maelstrom with the incredible title track.

Tristano was a jazz genius
Mixed in with many of the more well known jazz musicians were some wonderful musicians that other musicians knew and loved, but the general public knew little about. Unfortunately, Tristano was one of these. A brilliant composer and pianst, his body of music is often hard for the average listener to access, since it didn't always follow along "traditional" lines. I always thought of Tristano as the technically magnificent Monk, but that sells both musicians short. Tristano was his own man, and the music that poured out from him was challenging, but always brilliant. It is a crime against nature and Tristano that the recording company left "C Minor Complex" off of this CD, though. Obviously, whoever made this CD knew very little about the music.