1

Lennie Tristano – Teaching Methods and Improvisational

Techniques

Presented to the Department of Music

St. Francis Xavier University

Antigonish, Nova Scotia

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree

Bachelor of Music

Submitted by Daryl Nichol

April 2016
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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Biography 3

Teaching Methods 7

Improvisational Techniques 24

Select Discography 45

References 46

Appendix A: Solo Transcriptions

Appendix B: Downbeat Interview October 30, 1958

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Introduction

Lennie Tristano was a remarkable pianist and is among the few true visionaries in jazz.

As an artist often overlooked by critics, he brought to the 1940’s a unique and personal

conception of what he believed jazz should be. Tristano’s ideas of hearing, feeling and playing

jazz led to a highly organized and conceptual system of his own teachings. This had tremendous

influence on such artists as Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Charles Mingus, Phil Woods, Richie

Beirach, and David Liebman among many others.

Tristano was the first jazz musician to perform and record non-structured music based on

the necessity of instrumental competency and intuitive spontaneity, which would much later be

known as ‘free jazz’. He employed the knowledge of an experienced classical musician,

extensively using advanced concepts of counterpoint, polytonality and complex polyrhythms.

While he was strongly connected to bebop harmonically, he was more rhythmically and

melodically innovative. Tristano’s music incorporates extended and dense harmonies,

chromaticism, fast single-line runs, block chords, aspects of linearity and spontaneous and dense

contrapuntal activity within the interactions of group playing. Tristano’s biggest jazz piano

influences were Earl Hines and Art Tatum, though he had a deep appreciation for the music of

Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell.

Because of Tristano’s avoidance of commercial music industry, his uncompromising

personality, and his love for teaching music, he became a respected teacher of jazz improvisation

as an art-form, and one of the most brilliant stylists in jazz music. His love of the music,

combined with his pioneering individuality, broke the barriers of jazz, while remaining grounded
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in its roots. His former bandmate and student, Peter Ind, states that, “Tristano’s legacy is what he

added technically to the jazz vocabulary and his vision of jazz as a serious musical craft”. (Shim,

2007)

Another student of Tristano, Connie Crothers, says that “Lennie believed that all study of

the aspects of music and the mastery of an instrument should be inclusive and comprehensive as

possible to enable the musician to be free from constraint so that the feeling could pour out in a

continuous streaming.” (Shim, 2007)

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

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Biography

Leonard Joseph (Lennie) Tristano was born March 19, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois and died

November 18, 1978 in New York City. Born with quickly deteriorating eyesight, he would later

become completely blind. He listened to the player-piano in his home, and by age 4, he could

work out playing simple tunes, and by age 10 was fluent at the most popular songs. At age 8, he

had taken some classical piano lessons, which he later dismissed as unconstructive.

“I learned nothing of value, and had to unlearn everything to go on. Technically, classical

training is all wrong for a jazz pianist. It was diametrically opposed to everything I was trying to

do, which was improvise.” (Shim, 2007) It was around the age of 10 that Tristano began listening

to recordings of Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke and Ted Lewis.

Despite the hardships of his visual disability and having to attend a school for

handicapped children, Tristano thrived in his studies. Music came very naturally to him, and he

learned to play fluently on clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone, four-string guitar, trumpet, cello,

drums, in addition to leading his own band. By the end of his high school years, Tristano had

studied the piano, cello and orchestra in great depth, and learned to tune pianos. He learned

difficult piano works by Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Chopin, Moskowski and Meldelssohn. (Shim,

2007)

From 1938 to 1943, Tristano attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago,

earning a bachelor’s degree in 1941. Courses included: piano, counterpoint, keyboard harmony,

ear training, pedagogy, form and analysis, music history, composition, and orchestration. His

graduation recital included music by Bach, Beethoven, Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin,
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Liszt and Debussy. In addition, he completed courses in psychology, educational psychology,

aesthetics and criticism, principles and methods for instructive education, social psychology,

secondary education and logic. (Shim, 2007) This fueled his interest in, and approach at teaching

music, which would become the central focus of his life and career.

In the early 1940’s, Tristano visited jazz clubs in south Chicago, to seek out live jazz. It

was here that he was introduced to the music of Charlie Parker. In 1942, Tristano was

approached by Lee Konitz, who was seeking instruction in playing jazz music. In 1943, Tristano

took a position teaching at the Axel Christensen School of Popular Music, and was given

permission to teach with his own methods. In 1944, Tristano was featured in an article in

Metronome, bringing attention to his ability as an arranger and performer. “Though Tristano

could replicate anything of Art Tatum piano playing, which demonstrates his high level of

technical facility and understanding of advanced harmonic concepts, by the mid 1940’s he

focused on having a more individual style rather that imitating Tatum.” (Shim, 2007)

Uninspired by the commercialism of the music industry in Chicago and the unaccepting

critics of his progressive style, he moved to New York City in 1946 in hopes of increasing his

potentials for recognition and opportunity. Once there, Tristano performed with many of the

leading jazz players, including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. A prominent music critic,

Barry Ulanov, wrote favorable reviews of Tristano in Metronome magazine, and in 1947,

Tristano was awarded the magazine’s Musician of the Year Award. In 1948, tenor saxophonist

Warne Marsh began studying with Tristano. Soon after, guitarist Billy Bauer, saxophonist Lee

Konitz, bassist Arnold Fishkin joined the group. This formed the band that would play on

Tristano’s 1949 album, Crosscurrents. These innovative recordings exemplified Tristano’s

approach of long, intricate melodies played over a smooth, unvaried swing time-feel. ‘Tristano
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took the timbre and rhythms of the cool concept into more atonal areas, combining polyphonic

and polyharmonies but keeping the basic pulse subtle.’ (Taylor, 1982)

By 1951, Tristano opened his own school of jazz, which was a first of its kind. He

employed his best students, including Marsh, Konitz and Bauer. It was also a location for jam

sessions and weekly concerts where aspiring students had an opportunity to perform what they

were working on. It was also a quiet place to play and listen to music without the distractions,

alcohol and drugs common to the New York City jazz clubs. Tristano named one of his

compositions after the address, 317 East 32nd Street. Tristano’s band played, there, and other

infrequent gigs in New York City until the summer of 1952, when Konitz left the group to play

with Stan Kenton’s band.

In 1953, Tristano recorded an innovative album, ‘Descent into the Maelstrom’. He used

an atonal approach with multi-tracking overdubs and focused on motifs instead of having a

harmonic structure worked out beforehand. This approach foreshadowed pianist Cecil Taylor by

many years. His 1955 Atlantic Records album, ‘Lennie Tristano’, was groundbreaking in that he

controlled the entire creative processes. Along with multi-tracking, he altered the recording tape

speed to speed up the recordings. (Line Up, East 32nd St.) Though some found this to be

deceptive and unauthentic, Tristano considered it another technique at his disposal, to make his

music sound like the way he wanted it to. Tristano expanded the harmonic vocabulary of jazz

improvisation with this album.

In 1956, Tristano separated from his wife and relocated his teaching studio to his home in

Queens. This contributed to him becoming more and more disconnected from the New York jazz

scene, though he did perform occasionally at the Half Note in New York in 1958. Tristano’s

second Atlantic Records album, ‘The New Tristano’, was released in 1962, displaying the pianist
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at his best. Unlike his last album, there was no manipulation of tracks or speed. This solo piano

album, largely improvised, had left-hand bass lines, block chords, complex harmonies, a bold

and forceful tone, polyrhythm, and a chromatic linear approach to bebop inspired melodies.

In the mid 1960’s, Lennie Tristano reunited to play with Konitz and Marsh in New York

and Canada. In 1965, he toured Europe, performing solo piano in the style of his ‘New Tristano’

album. One concert, the ‘Berlin Piano Workshop”, featured Tristano alongside pianists Earl

Hines, Teddy Wilson, John Lewis, Bill Evans and Jaki Byard. During the 1970’s, Tristano chose

not to travel, and instead continued to focus on teaching music and organizing concerts for

students. Though he virtually stopped performing in public, and preferred to spend his days at

home, he did continue to play music with his students. Drummer Bill Chatin recounts playing

with Tristano in lessons, “...totally thrilling...jumping into another dimension...like a wake-up

call...he was never less than The New Tristano...” (Shim, 2007)

In the 1970’s, Tristano developed severe eye pain, and had problems with his lungs,

including emphysema and a bout with pneumonia in 1974. Over the next few years, he

recommend to his students that they stop studying with him, as his attitude became more

withdrawn. He suffered a fatal heart attack in November of 1978. Lennie Tristano is remembered

for his unique style of jazz piano, his devotion to teaching, and for his love for music and the

people around him.

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Teaching Methods

In the 1940s, Lennie Tristano was among the first to attempt to teach jazz improvisation

as an area of study distinct from instrumental technique. (Jago, 2015) His unconventional

approach would prove to be very successful for his students, many of whom went on to have a

successful career in jazz. Tristano developed a method that focused on jazz improvisation as an

art-form, and saw improvisation as a true means of expressing a feeling, on an intuitive and

spontaneous level. As well as encouraging students to gain a complete understanding and fluency

of their instrument (or voice). Tristano believed that his students needed to internalize jazz

language at an aural level, by listening and singing the solos of Charlie Parker, Lester Young and

others musicians that he favored. According to Dave Liebman, in the 1960s, Tristano was among

the few, if not the only, person professionally teaching jazz improvisation in New York City.

Tristano’s main teaching goal was to transform his students into artists capable of full

expression via their instruments. This was done by a rigorous method of ear training and

technical practice, at a harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic level. His students were expected to

have complete mastery of their instruments, be able to play in all keys, and have a significant

grasp of rhythmic complexity. They were also trained to transpose by ear and sing all intervals,

melodies, and harmonic movements accurately. (Jago, 2015) Warne Marsh explained the nature

of his earlier lessons with Tristano as getting familiar with the real substance of music, similar to

what a classically trained musician would be fluent in; polyrhythms, mixed meters, good

harmony and ear training.

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An interesting aspect about Tristano’s teaching was his insistence on developing an

understanding of musical development and technique away from the instrument, by means of

mental visualization. This is not surprising, as Tristano was extremely good at visualizing

musical notation and ‘seeing’ the keyboard in his mind. His idea was that the imagination could

play an important role in working out the kinks of the technical aspects of your instrument, as it

would apply to the theoretical challenges in exercises and melodies. This could also make

‘practicing’ possible anytime and anywhere, provided you had a sufficient lack of distraction

needed for focus. Tristano suggested singing out loud what you would imagine playing on your

instrument, while slowly and carefully imagining the physical details required to do so. This

improved the ear by way of aural integration. At the same time, students were to vividly imagine

which fingers they would use. When it came time to play, these details would be more worked

out than before, as if already practiced. This helped students gain a mental image of pitches, and

a clearer understanding of their relationship which each other. The ability to clearly imagine

melody in a harmonic framework would guarantee that the information was internalized, rather

than just intellectualized for the sake of the current situation.

This was all part of Tristano’s long-term plan for his students to transcend to the higher

level of awareness needed for true, unrestricted, spontaneous improvisation. Very different from

today’s jazz music education, Tristano considered the learning of solos, development of fluidity

in all keys, exploration of harmony, and the act of improvising to be aural projects rather that

problems to be solved intellectually. (Jago, 2015)

To learn a selected solo of a jazz improviser, Tristano had a very specific teaching

method. The first step was to sing the solo along with the recording and visualize playing it on

their instrument as they sing the pitches. Everything involved in the sound, including time feel,
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accent placement, timbre, articulation and mood were all as essential as the pitch elements of the

solo and needed to be embodied in the process of this initial learning of the solo. (Jago, 2015)

The next step was to sing the solo without the recording playing, while maintaining the

focus on pitch accuracy and the exact placement of the note within the time feel. Next was to

play on the instrument, while aiming to re-enact how the notes sound and feel on the recording.

Tristano felt it necessary not only to sing, but to actively focus on accurately hearing the fine

nuances of the solo, so as to develop a physical understanding of how to identify with the act of

singing it.

Tristano firmly believed that all aspects of learning music were best embodied rather than

intellectualized. He emphasized that things be learned slowly, by way of aural impression and

imaginative visualization, to best result in a deeper and engrained ability to express the music

they feel with authentic expression and intuitive spontaneity. This is much the same way a person

would naturally learn to use the devices needed to absorb a new language (syntax, vocabulary,

grammar).

Ear Training

Tristano’s students were expected to recognize and be able to sing intervals named. On

the piano, Tristano had students play intervals, triads, and finally, chord extensions, which were

added, from the 7th all the way up to 13th scale degree. These were done in all chord qualities and

inversions, and formed the foundations of further harmonic exercises. Ear training exercises

involved learning scales in all keys, focusing on major, harmonic, melodic and jazz minor.

These were incorporated into exercises based on harmony, melodic fragments, and

polyrhythm. Scales were played hands together in thirds, sixths, and tenths. Rhythmically, they
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were to be played in groupings of two, three, four, and so on. This served to help the technical

aspects of articulation and speed. Tristano instructed that scales were to be played with feeling,

and that notes played should really sink into the keyboard, and to hear each note fully and

cleanly.

Examples: C harmonic minor scale ascending in tenths, in groups of fours.

B major scale descending in thirds, in groups of threes.

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Singing

The most fundamental and essential part of Tristano’s lessons was learning to listen and

sing along with records of the great solos of his favorite soloists. All solos and other exercises

had to be sung and internalized by students before being allowed to play them on their

instrument. Tristano firmly believed that it did absolutely nothing to simply learn the notes and

memorize a solo. His preferred process of engraining a musical language was to sing the material

perfectly, without needing to resort to looking at notation. This served to assimilate all the

aspects of re-creating the nuances of a jazz soloist, engraining the music at a physical and

emotional level.

The focus was always on finding and recreating the feeling or essence of the music,

through the body by singing, which Tristano insisted could not be discovered by reading it on

paper. Tristano emphasized that every note was to be sang perfectly, in regards to pitch, rhythm,

and articulation. He also suggested setting the record at half-speed if needed, to really hear

everything clearly.

It is worth noting that only certain soloists were allowed to be modeled in student’s

lesson. Tristano insisted that the evolution of jazz was only developed by certain players over the

years, those who played with authentic feeling and have complete control over their sound.

Soloists he would model from included: Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Billy Holiday, Roy

Eldridge, Charlie Christian, Bud Powell, Fats Navarro and Frank Sinatra. By singing specific
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solos from these artists, away from their instruments, along with the recording, then gradually

without the recording, Tristano’s students were able to internalize the authentic language of the

music, while fully realizing the details of the tone and phrasing involved.

Harmony

Tristano’s method of learning harmony at the keyboard was based on developing a

thorough understanding of diatonic and intervallic relationship. Every triad was to be arpeggiated

in all inversions, open and closed position, starting on each scale degree, for all three scale types

(major, harmonic and melodic ‘jazz’ minor), in all 12 keys. By doing this, students became

familiar with all chord types diatonically possible within a key. In addition, this exercise

sharpened the ability to transpose and further aided in the process of improvising on the chord

changes of a song.

Example) 42 possible triads from C major harmony.

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Tristano emphasized grasping the concept of tritone substitution, and learning what notes

would become what, when using this technique.

In the following examples, three different dominant chords are changed by using the bass

note a tritone away, keeping all other notes in place. The 3rd and flat 7th become reversed upon

subbing the root to its tritone. The following conversions should be noted when using tritone

substitution.

1 ----------------------#4, b5

b9 ---------------------- 5

2, 9 ------------------- #5, b13

#9, -3 ------------------ 6, 13

3 ------------------------ b7
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4, 11 -------------------- 7

Example 1) Ab13(b9) becomes D7(#9)

Example 2) C13(#11) becomes Gb7(#9,b13)

Example 3) F7(b9,b13) becomes B9

Another common harmonic device taught by Tristano was preceding a chord by a

dominant chord with the root a semitone above.

In this example, Gmin11(b5) is preceded by a dominant chord a semitone higher, Ab13.

Fmaj9 is then preceded by Gb9(b5).

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Tristano also taught concepts of polytonality, through the process of superimposing

chords on top of other chords. This allows for the perception of two tonalities within one sound.

For example, Fmaj7(#11) could be perceived as both an Fmaj7 chord and Cmaj7 chord.

Improvisation could be approached from either in mind.

Lennie Tristano preferred that his students learned to use complex harmony and

especially dense dominant chords when approaching the chord of resolution. Another harmonic

technique taught by Tristano was changing the chord qualities for the purpose of delaying or

bypassing resolutions. In contrast to the tri-tone substitution, this type of alteration changed other

notes in the chord, affecting the quality, but leaving the root the same.

Example) Instead of resolving to Bb major or minor, an extended harmonic progression is

created.
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Polyrhythm

Rhythmic complexity is characteristic of Tristano’s music, as he frequently used concepts

of ‘cross-rhythms’ in his playing. His teaching validated his ability and interest. The goal was to

be able to feel more than one time signature at the same time. The method was to tap with

different limbs, different rhythms, simultaneously. Piano students played scalar exercises, with

each hand using a separate meter. Furthermore, the fingers used would also represent the time

signature.

For example, an exercise could be designed to play 4/4 and 5/4 simultaneously, by using

these methods. This type of exercise improved hand independence, finger control, as well as

synchronicity of the two contrasting meters.

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By using groups of fingers equal to the amount of notes in each independent rhythm, this

once again shows Tristano’s ideal method of internalizing a concept naturally and physically,

which he believed bypassed the intellectual way of learning. This approach by Tristano taught

pianists to have a more refined command over the tone they produced, no matter what finger was

being used. Students were encouraged to be able to produce an equal and meaningful feeling in

every note, which required having full facility of independent fingering technique. An example

of this could be:

Much of Tristano’s compositions, which were based over pre-existing jazz standard chord

changes, involved the use of polyrhythmic figures, superimposed over a 4/4 meter. This involves
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having a motif, or sequence of motifs, run over the bar line and start again, each time beginning

at a different place in the bar. In lessons, his students were taught how to figure out how these

worked by writing them out, but ultimately were encouraged to feel the phrases naturally,

without focusing on the bar line. Students also designed short phrases that were odd-numbered

beats long, then played then sequentially up the scale, over a 4/4 meter. This caused an overlap of

the bar line, while the phrases themselves remained the same.in length. Tristano’s structure of

practicing this very slowly and intently, helped to enable and engrain the feeling of playing

polyrhythms.

Here is an example of a 3/4 note length phrase played sequentially up the C major scale,

over a 4/4 meter.

Tristano also taught students the idea of taking a short melodic shape and actively

moving it around to other parts of the scale, all all keys, manipulating it to harmonically fit over

different chord types as well. This helped students improve fluidity of diatonic scales, as well as

to develop an ear for motivic development.

Voicings

As Tristano’s teaching developed through the years, he began referring to all pitches and

root movements by number. Piano voicings were learned in all keys, and were called out by
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Tristano for the student to play. Focus was put on the idea of forming the hand to the shape

needed, imagining the sound of the chord ahead of time and just ‘dropping’ it onto the chord.

Tristano believed this to be a method of learning the geographical nuances of each key signature

on the piano. These were played hands separately, then hands together, when needed.

Below is a complete list of the piano voicings Tristano required students to know, in the

key of C:

Major 7(6,9) chords

Major 7(#11) chords

Minor 7 chords
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Minor 6 (maj7) chords

Diminished 7 chords

Dominant 7 chords
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The chord voicings above were memorized and moved around the keyboard by different

intervals, starting with a half-step and advancing to larger leaps. This served to improve the

students’ ear by hearing new chord sequences while improving hand facility by introducing new

and unfamiliar hand shapes. After these voicings were learned, Tristano’s students created ‘chord

lines’ with these voicings, paying close attention to the top melody note. The bottom note was to

also create a simple melody when possible. This demonstrates Tristano’s linear approach to

melody, even within a chordal context. Student were taught the skills to improvise whole

choruses of personalized chord melodies, as a means of contrast to playing single note lines.

An example of a chord melody based on Tristano’s piano voicings.

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Technique

Tristano taught his students to break the habit of playing patterns that fall naturally on the

keyboard. By creating exercises that forced the hand into new positions, students learned to play

with an equal intensity and tone, no matter what finger was used to play the note. Tristano

emphasized the importance of playing with evenness and consistency, in order to have full

control over articulation. According to Tristano, it was only when this was accomplished could

one play with true feeling. By playing scalar exercises that isolate two or three fingers at a time,

students developed the technique required to create equal and meaningful tones.

Time and Relaxation

One of the most important aspects of Tristano’s theory of teaching jazz improvisation was

the idea that by practicing at extremely slow tempos and gradually speeding up, one could make

material so engrained, to the point of it being second-nature. By focusing on playing at extremely

slow tempos, the cognitive part of playing is bypassed, creating a stronger connection between

the feeling of the music and the instrument. Tristano considered the metronome an invaluable

tool to create a perfect reference of time, especially when learning to play polyrhythms with

precision. Setting the metronome to its slowest setting allowed students to become fully aware of

their thought processes while emphasizing the need for perfect note expression and placement.

One of Tristano’s students, Stan Fortuna, describes slow practicing, “You actually worked

on getting slower and slower...It took me a long time to get through a song like that, playing

quarter notes on the bass. But what that did though, boy, once I got through it, it opened up the
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world. I never practiced playing fast. The next thing I know all of a sudden...was I could just play

as fast as I wanted to play.” (Shim, 2007)

Studying jazz improvisation with Lennie Tristano was an intense and personal

experience. Tristano incorporated many aspects of musical development into the lesson, altering

his approach to suit the student’s progress, strengths and weaknesses. For those who studied with

Tristano for many years, they achieved an increase in the overall control of their instrument,

understanding of melodic linearity, polyrhythm, polytonality, along with a general mentality of

awareness, spontaneity, and relaxed expression. Tristano stressed the fact that relaxation was key

to having full control over getting the music from your head, out of the instrument. He would

physically lift pianists’ hands off the keyboard if he thought there was tension. Relaxation of the

whole body, including breathing, was addressed.

Melody and Solo Structure

Tristano had a clear understanding of how the shape of a solo was important to the

essence of jazz improvisation. The same as telling a story, it should have a beginning, middle and

end, and an appropriately timed climax, characterized by high notes, bigger intensity, and more

rhythmic variation. Tristano also taught the idea of creating contrast within solos by adding a

‘bridge section’ to the solo. This could be in the form of polyrhythmic complexities, or perhaps

switching to playing block chords or taking larger melodic leaps. Ultimately, Tristano had

students write out their own solos, helping to solidify their ideas and practices. This was also

Tristano’s method of composition, as written lines could serve as new melodies based on the

chord changes of jazz standards.

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When it came to learning a melody, Tristano stressed the need to learn to memorize it and

play it very slowly, with the metronome, without any accompaniment. Once a melody was

learned, it could then be the driving force behind how you approach the improvisation. Melodies

had to be internalized before improvising was permitted, and were played in all keys. Even when

improvising, Tristano suggested singing the melody, which further engrained the harmonic

context of the song, and prevented getting lost.

Improvisational Techniques

The analysis of Tristano’s playing will include transcriptions of improvisations that span

the years during which he produced the bulk of his work. There are many similarities in the

presented solos, and many examples will demonstrate multiple aspects of his playing. The

following improvisational techniques used by Lennie Tristano include: bebop language,

chromaticism, side-stepping, polyrhythm, accents, and locked-hand block chords.

Bebop Language
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Lennie Tristano’s style comes directly from a deep appreciation of bebop players, like

Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, among others. A few characteristics of bebop language

commonly found in Tristano’s improvisations are: The use of scales, arpeggios, and chromatic

enclosures.

Scales

In bar 19 of Tristano’s solo on ‘Subconscious-Lee’, he plays an enclosure that outlines

the 3rd of Bb major, proceeded by a leap to an accented major 9th, followed by a long ascending

Bb major scale.

In bar 27 of the same solo, Tristano uses a descending F ‘jazz’ minor scale, placing chord

tones on the downbeats.

In the second chorus of ‘Line Up’, over a two-bar C7 chord, Tristano plays an ascending

chromatic scale and a descending C dominant bebop scale.

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In chorus 5 of ‘Line Up’, Tristano moves through the Bb dominant bebop scale over the

Bb7 chord.

Here is another example of Tristano using a Bb dominant bebop scale over Bb7 in chorus

6 of ‘Line Up’.

Bars 61-63 of ‘C Minor Complex’ demonstrates a simple and diatonic use of the Ab

major scale.
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In the second chorus of ‘There Will Always Be You’, Tristano uses a diatonic Ab major

scale over Eb7 and Ab major.

Then in the fourth chorus, the B and A notes are used as a chromatic enclosure approach

to the Bb note, which is the start of a scalar line of Ab major.

Then, in the sixth solo chorus, Tristano uses an Eb dominant bebop scale over Bbmin7.
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Arpeggios

In his solo on ‘Subconscious-Lee’, Tristano plays an ascending F-9 arpeggio on bar 12,

accenting the 9th on beat 3.

At the end of his solo, two arpeggios are used, acting as a melodic sequence. The second

one, a C major 9 arpeggio, resolves the tension of the D minor 7 (flat 5, flat 9) arpeggio. This

could also be thought of as a Dbmaj9 arpeggio with an added flat 9, which resolves down a half

step to a Cmaj9 arpeggio.

In ‘All the Things You Are’, Tristano starts his solo by playing a descending Bmin7

arpeggio over the Bbmin7 chord, then on beat 4, he instantly switches to the inside-sounding

Bbmin9 ascending arpeggio. This example also demonstrates Tristano’s use of chromatic side-

stepping outside and back into the key center.

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In bar 5 of Tristano’s fifth chorus on ‘Line Up’, he plays an ascending arpeggio that spans

the entire extended harmony of the F7 chord. On beat 1, it begins with the 3rd of F, and continues

upward, hitting the 5th, flat 7th, 9th, sharp 11th, 13th and finally the root, which is accented,

outlining the highest point in the line. This accent also marks the start of a descending Gmin7

arpeggio, which is then followed by an ascending Gbmaj7 arpeggio.

Tristano begins the bridge of ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ with an ascending Bb-9

arpeggio.
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In the sixth chorus of ‘There Will Always Be You’, Tristano uses many different

arpeggiations. Over the Ebmaj7 chord, he implies the harmony of the previous bar with a

Db7(#11) arpeggio, accenting the G as the 3rd of Ebmaj7 and as the 5th of C-7. Tristano then uses

arpeggiation based on the B-6(maj7), which could be heard as a downward side-step from the

previous Cmin11 arpeggiation. This results in a uniformed but logical way of outlining the

altered notes of the F7 chord, including the final Bdim7 arpeggio.

The third chorus of ‘C Minor Complex’ begins with a series of arpeggios. Within the

framework of the walking bass line, he clearly outlines the chords C minor, Bb major, Ab major

and finally F#dim7. The directional changes further help to clearly mark the tonality, as well as

keep the line restrained to a certain range.

Approach Tone Enclosures

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In bar 26 of Tristano’s solo on ‘Subconscious-Lee’, he approaches the 5th of C7 by a

semitone above and below. This enclosure is part of a series of triplets.

Tristano’s solo on ‘All the Things You Are’ has many enclosures that encircle chord

tones. In bar 5, beat 3 chromatically encircles the D on beat 4, anticipating the next bar’s tonality

by a quarter note.

In the first bar of the second chorus, Tristano plays a 4-note figure that functions both as a

chromatic enclosure of the F note on beat 3, and as a brief chromatic downward side-step. This

superimposes the tonality of E minor over the F minor chord. This exact line is repeated later in

the same chorus.

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Another interesting enclosure happens a couple bars later when Tristano twice

chromatically encloses the A note on beat 1 of bar 5. The targeted note (A) is actually the 5th of D

major, which he implied as an upward chromatic side-step over Db major. They are played using

4-note diatonic sequences that contrast in direction.

The first four measures of the third chorus of ‘Line Up’ have three enclosures. On bar 2,

Tristano chromatically encloses a C# on beat one, which is the 3rd of the implied A major tonality

over Ab major, another upward chromatic side-step. He then encircles the root of C7 chord on

bar 3, (which could also be heard as an extension of Ab major). The next enclosures on bar four

outline both the 5th (G) of C7 and the 5th (C) of F7.

In the fifth chorus, bars 9-11 Tristano plays a series of chromatic enclosures targeting the

5th of C7 on beat 2, the root of C7 on beat 4, and the root of F minor on beat 2. These enclosures

make up a unique pattern that acts as a sequence that moves downward by fifths.
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The second chorus of Tristano’s solo on ‘There Will Always Be You’ has an interesting

chromatic enclosure in bar 27, when he plays Ab major, diatonically, then side-steps up

chromatically to imply an A major tonality. The last two notes of this descending A major

pentatonic scale, the B and A notes, act as an enclosure to the Bb note on beat 3, which is the 5th

of Eb major. This ‘inside’ note is the release of the tension created by the ‘outside’ sound of the

implied A major tonality.

In the eighth chorus of ‘C Minor Complex’, Tristano uses a chromatic enclosure to

outline the root of C minor before playing it on beat 1. He then goes on to use the major 3rd and

2nd of C to enclose the 3rd of C minor (Eb).

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Chromatic Runs

Much of Tristano’s improvisation, as well as his compositions, have strong elements of

linearity and chromaticism in their melodic lines. These examples show how the chromatic scale

was used by Tristano to accent chord tones or to move from one chord to the next, in a

continuous rhythmic motion.

Bars 15-16 of Tristano’s solo on ‘Subconscious-Lee’ shows a descending octave-long

chromatic scale, landing the 6th, 5th, 4th (which resolves to the 3rd) on downbeats, and continues

descending, chromatically, to the root of C major.

In ‘All the Things You Are’, bar 27 of his first chorus, Tristano’s line descends

chromatically from the 9th (F) of Eb7 down to the C note on beat 4, which is treated diatonically

to the following key, Ab major.

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Bars 21-22 of ‘Line Up’ shows an ascending chromatic scale through F7. Though it is

heard as a single chromatic line, the downbeats do outline the chord, landing on 9th, 3rd, sharp

11th, sharp 5th and flat 7th.

In the first chorus of ‘There Will Always Be You’, bars 29-31, Tristano plays a long

chromatic line through many chord changes. The line ends with an approach tone enclosure to

the 3rd of C7.

In bar 21 of the ninth chorus of ‘C Minor Complex’, Tristano used a fast descending

chromatic line of triplets, accenting the diminished 7th arpeggio within the C7#9 chord. (Db, Bb,

G, E)
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Tristano’s walking bass line also has plenty of chromatic movement, as seen in the end of

the fourth chorus, bars 25-30.

Side-Stepping

Tristano frequently used the common device known as side-slipping, or side-stepping.

This is when the line played clearly implies a different key than the chord and bass notes might

suggest. It is most often done to superimpose the harmony of the key a semitone above or below,

before returning to the actual key of the current harmony. This ‘outside’ sound, along with the

‘inside’ sound of it returning, is a pleasant and catchy tension and release. Tristano makes the

outside key very diatonic (or pentatonic), which solidifies its implied tonality. When shifting in

or out of a given key, he often changes the direction of the line, uses repeated phrase lengths, and

accents notes, playing the phrases in a specific rhythmic pattern. ‘Especially impressive in his

inventiveness in combining it with other musical parameters, mainly the melodic and rhythmic

organization, to enhance the intensity.’ (Shim, 2007)

In bars 11-14 of the second chorus of ‘All the Things You Are’, Tristano uses E minor

triad triplets against a repeated high Eb note. The E minor triads get placed, alternately, between

the more inside-sounding Eb major and F minor triads.

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‘Line Up’ has many instances of side-stepping. Bars 25-26 of Tristano’s sixth chorus uses

directional change, pentatonic notes, and accents which outline the highest notes in the phrase,

creating a separate melody within the line. Bars 27-28 further demonstrate Tristano’s use of

approach tone enclosures, arpeggios, and chromatic runs.

Here, Tristano uses D major pentatonic notes for two beats over Db major, then repeats

the phrase up a semitone, releasing the tension by playing inside the root key.

In bars 13-16 of the third chorus of ‘Line Up’, Tristano plays the tonality of a semitone

higher that the chord harmony, then changes the direction of the line as the tonality steps back

down inside the key. Here, the descending E major and D#-7(b5) arpeggios are diatonic to the

key of B7, giving the sound of an upward side-step against the harmony of Bb7. Tristano then

plays back inside the key with an ascending Fmin7 arpeggio, enclosures to both the 3rd of the

Bb7 chord (D), and root of the Eb7 chord on beat 3 of the previous bar.
 38

Bars 26-27 of ‘There Will Always Be You’ shows an interesting side-step. After playing

two bars inside the key of Ab, Tristano side-steps up a semitone by starting a phrase using the A

major pentatonic scale over the Db7 chord. The last enclosure resolves to the 5th of Eb major on

beat 2. Interestingly, this can be heard as resolving upward from a D major tonality to Eb major,

because D major and A major share many of the same notes.

In the middle of the ninth chorus of ‘C Minor Complex’, Tristano walks a bass line over

F minor, using the minor 3rd (Ab/G#) and major 7th (E), as common tones that act as the root and

3rd of E major. This downward chromatic side-step implies E major over F minor. In the first bar

shown below, Tristano plays an A note on beat 4, implying F major. This gives the sound of the

downward shift in tonality to E major a very parallel and precise effect. The accents on bar 3 and

4 shown below show how Tristano groups short phrases together, often in odd-numbered beats.

Here we have 4 different 3/4 phrases over the span of 3 bars, each beginning on a different beat

within the 4/4 framework. This leads us to another important aspect of Tristano’s
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improvisations: polyrhythmic superimpositions.

Polyrhythm

Lennie realized that by deliberately practicing such exercise patterns, eventually this

aspect of music would be instinctively absorbed and would express itself in improvisation. (Ind,

2005) Peter Ind is referring to Tristano’s intentional ‘creating, practicing melodic exercises built

on scale patterns and superimposing other rhythmic patterns, such as 5/8 (3 plus 2) or (2 plus 3),

7/8 (4 plus 3) or (3 plus 4).’ (Ind, 2005)

Though much of Tristano’s improvisations and composed ‘lines’ are complex in nature,

due to much chromaticism, linearity and harmonic complexity, it’s his rhythmic accents and

asymmetrical groupings of linear patterns and shapes that are what tie it all together, giving his

improvisations their unique character.

In bars 17-19 of the third chorus of Tristano’s solo ‘Line Up’, two phrases can be seen

within a stream of eighths notes. The first phrase directly imposes the tonality of A major over
 40

Ab major. The second bar begins with a 4 note enclosure that targets the Ab note on beat 3. This

Ab note is the beginning of another 6/4 length phrase. Not only does it shift in harmony, the

shape is nearly identical to the previous phrase of 6 quarter notes. It is worth noting the

downward shift in tonality, through the use of enclosures and repetition of the phrase contour.

In bars 11-13 of the fourth chorus of Tristano’s solo on ‘There Will Always Be You’, he

uses a common method seen in his other solos, as well as his compositions. Tristano sequentially,

with the help of accents, groups together similar shapes of the same length in 3/4. This results in

the pulse of the phrase shifting to a different beat within the bar, creating a striking contrast with

the underlying 4/4 framework.

* (note: count the first two notes in each set of triplets as one eighth note, and the third note as

the other eighth note)

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In bars 18-20 of the ninth chorus of ‘C Minor Complex’, Tristano creates a repeating

pattern of four descending notes that are part of a long line of eighth-note triplets. He executes

this fast line with precision, starting with two beats of triplets in three, then five groups of 4 notes

of triplets. This can easily fool the listener into thinking they are hearing a uniform set of 16th

notes.

At another point in ‘C Minor Complex’, Tristano uses multiple concepts of his playing

style. Starting at bar 27 of the fourth chorus, and going all the way through the top of the form

until bar 14 of the next chorus (19 bars total), he plays an ostinato figure made up of a

superimposition of groups of three eighth notes, over 4/4 time. The quarter note bass line he

plays uses chromatic motion and repetition, adding to the mesmerizing effect of the ostinato. The

pattern is actually two different figures alternating, with each having high accented notes,

creating a chromatic back-and-forth effect. This rhythmically contrasts the bass line’s three note

back-and-forth pendulum effect. It takes three bars for the polyrhythmic cycle to repeat. Near the

end of the ostinato, Tristano plays the three bar cycle once up a perfect fourth, then returns,

resembling a blues form.

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In Tristano’s composition ‘317 East 32nd Street’, bars 6-8 of the melody clearly shows his

use of asymmetrical groups of notes within a single line. The phrase starts and ends away from

bar lines, as do many of Tristano’s phrases within his improvisations and compositions. The line

starts on D and continues up the G major scale to the 9th of Bb7 (C). Tristano then uses the F note

as a repeating pedal point and gradually shortens the upward motions in length by one note, until

only two eighth notes are played as the end of the phrase.

(Bauer, 1995)

The melody of Tristano’s 1958 composition ‘Leave Me’ begins with 4 repeating groups

of the same phrase, each 7 eighth notes in length, followed by a descending chromatic scale to

end the phrase on a down beat with a chord tone of Ab major.

(Bauer, 1995)
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Accents

Tristano’s use of accents often function as the beginnings or ends of phrases, as well as to

create a separate melody that works with and in contrast to the underlying line and harmony.

Here is an example of Tristano playing accents that create an upper melody, in this case, a

descending Eb major scale. Bars 11-13 of the fourth chorus of ‘There Will Always Be You’.

Bars 22-24 of the same chorus shows Tristano using the lower notes in the phrase as

accents, creating chromatic, harmonic tension through a counter melody of its own.

Block Chords

Tristano used locked-hand block chords to contrast the long lines in his improvisations.

They would often be harmonically dense and rhythmically intense. Other times he would play
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elaborate chord melodies for whole choruses. Here is an example from bar 21 of the fifth chorus

of ‘Line Up’.

In ‘C Minor Complex’, Tristano plays a syncopated block chord passage for more than

the entire sixth chorus. He plays all the chords on the up-beat of 2 and 4 and uses a rolling effect,

which is similar in sound to earlier stride piano.

Much of Tristano’s solo piano performances have dense chord melodies. He

demonstrates this as early as 1946 in the recording ‘Out on a Limb’. In this example, Tristano

plays a single-line melody in the left hand, which is doubled at the highest notes of the chords

played by the right hand. (Excerpt is Copyright by William H. Bauer.)

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From the album ‘The New Tristano’, Tristano impressively plays chord melody with

‘locked-hands’ style. In his version of ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’. After the bridge, which

he plays single line improvisation over a half-time walking bass, Tristano plays a dimished chord

sequence, followed by the more complex chord structure. Notice the shell voincings in the left

hand, with root position major triads in the right hand, built off the root of one semitone above.
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Select Discography

· Lennie Tristano Trio. New York, October 8, 1946. (Keynote)

· Barry Ulanov’s All Star Modern Jazz Musicians. Radio Broadcast, New York. 1947.

(Spotlite)

· Subconscious-Lee. Lee Konitz. 1950. (Prestige)

· Wow. Lennie Tristano Sextet. New York. 1950. (Jazz Records)

· Live in Toronto. Lennie Tristano Quintet. UJPO Hall, Toronto, Canada, July 17, 1952.

(Jazz Records)

· Lennie Tristano. Lennie Tristano. New York. 1955. (Atlantic)

· Live at the Confucius Restaurant. Lennie Tristano Quartet. New York. June 11,

1955. (Atlantic)

· New York Improvisations. Lennie Tristano Trio. 317 East 32nd Street, New York.

1956. (Elektra Musician)

· The New Tristano. Lennie Tristano. New York. 1961. (Atlantic)

· Concert in Copenhagen. Lennie Tristano. Tivoli Gardens Concert Hall,

Copenhagen, Denmark. October 31, 1965. (Jazz Records)

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References

Battista, M. D. (2012). Lennie Tristano : C-Minor Complex. Raleigh: Lulu Enterprises,

Inc.

Bauer, W. H. (1995). Jazz Lines: Lennie Tristano . Albertson, N.Y.: William H. Bauer, Inc.

Ind, P. (2005). Jazz Visions : Lennie Tristano and His Legacy. London: Equinox
Publishing Ltd.

Jago, M. S. (2015). Jedi mind tricks : Lennie Tristano and Mental Approaches for the Practice of
Jazz Improvisation. Jazz Research Journal, 183-202.

Shim, E. (2007). Lennie Tristano : his life in music. Michigan: The University of
Michigan Press.

Taylor, B. (1982). Jazz Piano : history and development. Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown
Company Publishers.