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Afterword

One year ago: George Russell

By Claire Noland
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George Russell, a composer and theorist who studied the forms and methods of jazz, died one year ago at age 86.

As jazz writer Don Heckman explained, ‘Russell was a rare spokesman for the study of theoretical principles in an art form that emphasizes improvisation and spontaneity.’

Russell’s great legacies are his 1953 treatise ‘The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization’ and the recording that followed, ‘The Jazz Workshop.’

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Watch Russell describe the theory in the YouTube video, and read more from Heckman’s obituary of George Russell that appeared in The Times.

-- Claire Noland

Afterword
Claire Noland

Claire Noland, who joined the Los Angeles Times in 1994, became editor of curated email newsletters in spring 2015. She had been in the Obituary Department since 2006, the last six years as editor. Before that, she was an editor in Sports. A California native and graduate of Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, she worked at the Antelope Valley Press, Los Angeles Daily News and Minneapolis Star Tribune. She left The Times in December 2015.

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