Russell was a MacArthur Foundation Award winner, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Emeritus at the New England Conservatory, where he taught for 35 years. Russell is best known as a jazz theorist, and his musical ideas, published in his book The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, led to the modal music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Hankus Netsky, Chair of the New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, said that "In George's mind, the Lydian Chromatic Concept was not so much a theoretical system as it was an approach to life. ‘It comes from Pythagoras,’ he liked to say. ‘It's a reflection of nature.’ It wasn't in any way a ‘jazz’ thing, but a way to appreciate the laws of tension and release, a way of understanding Bach, Ravel, and Stravinsky - and seeing Coltrane, Monk, and Miles Davis as musicians who were part of the same continuum."
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Russell's album, Outer Thoughts (Milestone), which he calls "a uniformly excellent performance." The album is not available on CD, but Jim Determan recommends the following alternatives:
- George Russell: Ezz-thetics (Riverside). Available from Amazon.com.
- George Russell: The Outer View (Riverside). Available from Amazon.com.
- George Russell: The Stratus Seekers (Riverside). Available from Amazon.com.
The George Russell Sextet plays "Round Midnight" (from the 1961 album Ezz-thetics) here:
Robert
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