Trotter Review Volume 2 Article 5 Issue 2 Trotter Institute Review 6-21-1988 George Alan Russell: Jazz's First Theorist Robert E. Moore University of Massachusetts Boston Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review Part of the African American Studies Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, and the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Moore, Robert E. (1988) "George Alan Russell: Jazz's First Theorist," Trotter Review: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 5. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review/vol2/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the William Monroe Trotter Institute at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Trotter Review by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. George Alan Russell Jazz's First Theorist by Robert E. Moore In 1953 George Alan Russell published The George Russell. Certainly Russell has distinguished Lydian Chromatic Concept Tonal Organization. of himself over the years as one of the pre-eminent By virtue of this work Russell carved out a unique composers in jazz. Yet Russell is to be distinguished niche for himself in the history of jazz, his opus rep- from the others on Schuller's list because of his theo- resenting the first theoretical work to come out of retical interests, having produced the first original, the jazz tradition. The purpose of this paper is to de- theoretical work to emerge out of the jazz tradition. fine his place in jazz history and to offer a biograph- Through his theoretical work he has exerted an im- ical sketch off jazz's first and most important theo- pact on jazz that goes far beyond his impact as a rist. My points of departure will be references made composer. Notwithstanding his compositional to Russell in two widely read works— Gunther work, Russell has, since the formulation of the Lyd- Schuller's Early Jazz and Wilfrid Mellers' Music in a ian concept, defined theory as his major interest. New Found Land. Both works stand in need of criti- Although Russell's name is mentioned in most of cal commentary. the larger historical studies of modern jazz, only re- Gunther Schuller in Early Jazz asserts what many cently has he received recognition for some of the take as axiomatic— that jazz, as contrasted with more direct ways in which he has influenced the evo- "classical" music, is a player's or improviser's art. lution of jazz. Recent biographical studies of trum- It is manifest that the basic stylistic and con- peter Miles Davis have revealed that it was Russell ceptual advances in jazz have been determined who showed Davis how to compose and improvise by its great instrumentalist-improvisers — Louis what became labeled as "modal jazz." While the im- Armstrong, Earl Hines, Coleman Hawkins, proviser-performer Davis is often credited with hav- Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, ing initiated one of the major developments in the Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman— jazz of the 1960s through his work on such composi- not by Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Theo- tions as "Milestones" and "So What," it was Russell, lonious Monk, John Lewis, George Russell, utilizing the principles of his Lydian theory, who and Charlie Mingus. 1 showed Davis how to do modal music. One of the Davis biographers, Nisenson, in describing how the While the composer may exert an indirect influence trumpeter composed his landmark composition on the improviser, a more direct influence is pre- "Milestones," notes the following: cluded by the virtual impossibility of an instrumen- talist emulating a compositional conception that is The simple melody was an experiment inspired in itself based on the collective efforts of a number by an evening Miles had spent with the jazz of players. Although Schuller notes a "quasi-com- composer-arranger George Russell, who at the positional conception" undergirding the styles of time was working on his theoretical "Lydian the great improvisers, it is the instrument and the Concept of Tonality." Basically, this was a performance that he considers of primary impor- method for the jazz composer and improviser tance. 2 to use modes rather than the traditional tonal That the improviser has played the major role in chord progressions and tonally responsive melo- the evolution of jazz is not a proposition that this dies. Modes are actually a very old concept in writer would attempt to refute. I do, however, feel western music, dating back to ancient Greece, compelled to raise a question about the adequacy of and modal concepts were used, in different in- Schuller's categories, especially as they apply to one carnations, in the primitive music of Africa figure mentioned in that select group of composers, and in the art music of India. Miles was fasci- 15 nated by Russell's approach. Here was a means significance of his work was its attempt to apply an of breaking free from tonal cliches —while main- Ockham's razor to music theory, to generate a de- taining some amount of restraint. "George," scriptive theory that offers the instrumentalist- Miles told Russell that night, "if Bird were composer the full range of options and possibilities 3 alive, this would kill him." lying within the universe of equal temperament. In the introduction of his book, Russell asserts the fol- Davis has also cited pianist Bill Evans as one who lowing: exerted a great influence on him during his modal period; Evans was in the Davis band during the The Lydian Chromatic Concept is an organiza- 4 modal period. Evans was recommended to Davis by tion of tonal resources from which the jazz Russell, and it would be reasonable to propose that musician may draw to create his improvised Russell's influence on Davis continued through lines. It is like an artist's palette: the paints and Evans who had studied the Lydian concept. colors, in the form of scales and/or intervalic While Davis's interpretation of Russell's concept motives, waiting to be blended by the impro- marks one instance in which a composer-theorist viser. Like the artist, the jazz musician must has exerted an influence beyond that countenanced learn the techniques of blending his materials. by Schuller, it was Davis who provided Russell with The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Orga- the initial stimulus to delve into theoretical con- nization is a chromatic concept providing the cerns. It was a remark made by Miles in the mid- musician with an awareness of the full spec- 19408, that he wanted to learn all the changes, that trum of tonal colors available in the equal tem- sparked in Russell the desire to learn all the scales. perament tuning. There are no rules, no "do's Russell saw this project as one complementary to or don'ts." It is, therefore, not a system, but Davis, given the fact that one of the main tasks of rather a view or philosophy of tonality in the jazz improviser is to convert chord symbols into which the student, it is hoped, will find his own scales, creating melodic lines that convey the sound identity. 5 of the chord. Russell immersed himself in his chosen task dur- ing a long period of confinement for tuberculosis in . Russell carved out a unique a New York hospital in 1945 and 1946. There he niche in spent most of his hours at the piano in the sitting for himself the history of room matching chords to scales, enduring the com- jazz, his opus representing the first plaints of fellow patients who tired quickly of his in- theoretical work to come out of the cessant piano playing. It was during this time that jazz tradition. Russell hit upon the idea that the Lydian scale (e.g., C D E F# G A B) conveyed the sound of a major chord (C E G) better than the traditional major scale (C D E F G A B). The experimentation with the Lyd- From the basic principle formulated during his hos- ian scale was, he notes, inspired by the practice of pital confinement, Russell had moved on to devise a Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, et al, of utilizing the scale that offered the full range of tonal colors, flatted fifth of major chords. These musicians were which could be used in shaping melodic lines as well the creators of the so-called "BeBop" music. as harmonies. Out of the material provided by the Out of the hospital in 1947, Russell composed one Lydian chromatic scale, his book demonstrates how of the first Afro-Cuban jazz numbers, "Cubano Be, one can derive all of the major categories of chords Cubano Bop," for the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, and scales. The upshot of this chromatic view is that employing one of the techniques derived from the all chords and scales built on each of the twelve developing Lydian theory. His introduction was chromatic tones are related, the connecting link be- based on a single Lydian chromatic scale, departing ing described by the circle of fifths. from the traditional practice in which chords pro- One of the practical ramifications of Russell's vide the foundational elements. While Russell con- view is mentioned by trumpeter Art Farmer, who tinued his activity as a composer-arranger in the late studied the concept in the mid-50s. Farmer asserts 40s, the call of his theoretical muse led to his with- that studying with Russell engendered the view that drawing from the music world in the early 50s. He there are no wrong notes, that one might justify the took a day job at Macy's and devoted his free hours use of any note within the parameters of tonality.