If you are not familiar with George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept, this FAQ section from the website home of The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization can give you a start with the preliminary information in brief question and answer format.

1. What is the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization?
The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization is a theory of music and the life work of George Russell. It has existed in a state of continual evolution since the early 1950s. The most recently released Fourth Edition (2001) is entitled “Volume One: The Art and Science of Tonal Gravity.” This new publication presents the work in a highly comprehensive and organized manner, totally surpassing any previous editions. Most people familiar with this body of knowledge refer to it simply as “The Concept.”

The book is available for online purchase directly from Concept Publishing at THIS LINK.

2. What is the aim of the Lydian Chromatic Concept?
The principal aim of The Concept is to grasp the behavior of all musical activity (i.e. – melody, harmony, rhythm and form) from the most objective viewpoint possible. It seeks to document observations within music’s “genetic code” by charting the framework of laws that act as guidelines for composition, improvisation and analysis. Its purpose is to provide a road map of the musical universe that tells you where all the roads are, but does not tell you which roads to take.

3. What is the primary difference between the Lydian Chromatic Concept and all other theories of music?
Unlike any other theory of music, Mr. Russell’s Concept establishes gravity as the driving force in music. By seeking what music ITSELF is telling us about its own elemental structure, The Concept supplies the necessary means to conceive that a gravitation field of tones exists as a self-organized order of unity. The Concept does not disprove the discoveries and contributions of other musical theories, but rather explains where their truths rest in the context of tonal gravity.

4. What is Tonal Gravity?
Tonal gravity is the heart of the Lydian Chromatic Concept. Simply put, the basic building block of tonal gravity is the interval of the perfect fifth. Every tone within Western music’s equal tempered tuning relates to every other tone by either being close to - or distant from - the center of gravity, which is the tonic (or “DO”) of the Lydian Scale. There are 3 states of tonal gravity: Vertical, Horizontal, and Supra-Vertical.

5. Why is the Lydian Scale of paramount importance in this Concept?
The Lydian Scale was not chosen as the primary scale for this system of music theory because it sounds nice or has some subjective or historical significance. Since the interval of a fifth is the building block of tonal gravity, a seven-tone scale created by successive fifths establishes the most vertically unified harmonic order whereby the gravity falls down each fifth back to the singular Lydian tonic. When seven ascending consecutive fifths (i.e. – C, G, D, A, E, B, F#) are arranged within one single octave, the result is the Lydian Scale.

6. What is the fundamental difference between the Lydian and Major Scale?
As described in the answer to the previous question, the Lydian Scale has one single tonic, otherwise known as the “DO” of the scale. The Major Scale is known as a diatonic (meaning: two tonic) scale. Therefore, the essential difference between these two scales is that the Lydian (a single tonic scale) is in a state of unity with itself, and the Major Scale, with its two tonics, is in a state of resolving.

7. What is a Lydian Chromatic Scale?
The Lydian Chromatic Scale is the most complete expression of the total self-organized tonal gravity field with which all tones relate on the basis of their close to distant magnetism to a Lydian tonic.

8. Are there any historical and acoustical foundations underlying the Concept?
The recently published edition of the Concept goes into great depth and discussion concerning the historical and acoustical foundations underlying the Concept. These ideas are critical to understanding the significance of this theory, and are too involved and elaborate to post on this website. It should be noted that the current book presents these specific subjects far more extensively than in previous editions.

9. Who can most benefit by studying the Lydian Chromatic Concept?
One of the beauties of The Concept is that it is designed for musicians and non-musicians alike. Its contribution is relevant in all stylistic genres of music and from all time periods. It even extends beyond Western music to some ancient forms of non-Western music. Most students of The Concept tend to be composers, improvisers, and people interested in the analysis of already existing musical compositions. Many people outside of music are drawn to The Concept due to its objective view of tonal gravity. George Russell’s indelible mark as a jazz innovator, composer and band leader (along with his work as a theoretician) has established a platform worldwide for this work that is intrinsically tied to the development of jazz dating back to the early 1950s.

10. Does a student of the Concept have to abandon their already existing knowledge of Western music theory?
Students of this work are able to adapt their own musical perspectives to the ideas presented by the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. For example, analysis of compositions by J.S. Bach and Maurice Ravel are included in the current volume to reinforce the all-inclusive nature of tonal gravity.

11. Is the current revised edition dramatically different from the previous editions?
Yes. Generally speaking, the previous editions of the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (dating back to 1953) were focused more on the “how-to” aspect of improvising. The more robust, comprehensive and detailed current volume adds never before published depth and dimension through exhaustive examples of analysis, scales, background information and test examples for the student. Volume Two, the completion of the entire work, is currently in development.

12. What are the extra-musical considerations of the Lydian Chromatic Concept?
George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization stretches far beyond the usual parameters of music theory, having deep roots linked to the science of acoustics, physics, world culture and political history. Its framework is applicable in almost any stylistic genre of music – both Western and non-Western – encompassing the European classical tradition as solidly as the lineage of jazz innovators. On the esoteric side, the “Concept” makes connections with psychological disciplines and spiritual pathways, nurturing a balance between both the internal and external extra-musical elements critical to any artistic process.

13. Are there any connections drawn in The Concept between music and psychology?
No art form or theory is complete without some basis in psychology and spirituality. Artists most often describe the process of creativity in transparent and intangible terms. Most - if not all - music theoretical systems have chosen to ignore the inclusion of this key internal element. While Mr. Russell’s system encourages each student of the “Concept” to explore their own ideas and paths, it freely discusses many potent ideas underlying some specific psychological perspectives and ancient wisdom traditions and the relationships between one’s ‘essence’ and ‘personality’. Ancient psychological systems made analogies between the evolution of a person’s mind and being and metaphorical terms such as scale, harmony, vertical and horizontal.

14. Has the Lydian Chromatic Concept been taught at any established educational institutions?
Mr. Russell played a key role in the famous Lenox School of Jazz, and went on to teach The Concept at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston for over 30 years. He has given seminars in this work around the world and has personally guided countless private students. The Lydian Concept is being taught by accredited teachers at the Universities of Massachusetts and Indiana, the Longy School of Music, and the Josef Hauer Konservatoriums in Austria. The previously released versions of the book have been used to teach the LCCOTO at colleges and universities around the world over the last 40 years.There are currently a small number of instructors in the United States, Europe and Japan who are formally certified by George Russell to teach the Concept.

This is the foreword - written by Andy Wasserman - to the most current, in print publication of George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization; Volume One, The Art and Science of Tonal Gravity (Fourth Edition,  2001, Concept Publishing) :

As you will soon discover for yourself, the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization requires us to think in a new way. While it is inevitable that you will bring what you know to the Concept, you will soon realize the dramatic difference of this musical landscape where tones, scales, chords, and modes resonate within the Principle of Tonal Gravity. In order for this to begin to work within you and within your music, it is strongly suggested that you give these ideas your complete openness and attention, and, even for brief moments, let go of your preconceptions of the theoretical foundations of Western music. The knowledge that appears in the two volumes of the Lydian Chromatic Concept bas been distilled very carefully to allow students of the Concept to adapt their own musical perspectives to this one.

The unified core of ideas at the root of the Concept has the potential to transport music into a realm of deeper meaning. Opening up to those possibilities requires patience, concentrated thought, and dedicated study. Therefore it is important to realize that you cannot assimilate these ideas from too narrow a basis, either intellectually or emotionally. By making the effort to absorb the terminology and structure presented here, your musical foundation can be made stronger and the connections between you and your music more intelligent. Once the unity of the Concept begins to penetrate your practical understanding, everything in it becomes useful. It is then that its message challenges you to inquire musically and psychologically into the things you think and feel. For this reason, it is crucial to embrace the Concept from an emotionally receptive position of seeking something genuine for yourself in a world where most music is far removed from innovation and excellence. To do this requires a willingness to learn that emanates from self-motivation.

The Concept has a unique way of interpreting and translating the things of great value that music can tell us--something about the meaning of organization and gravity. Its purpose is to generate new pathways toward greater freedom in exercising aesthetic judgment and discernment that invoke a more objective fulfillment of musical statement. The focus, attention, and consciousness you put into the study of the Concept will uncover greater meaning and an expansion of your musical understanding, regardless of the stylistic genre of music to which you apply it.

Throughout this course of study you will notice that terms like vertical, horizontal, and the relationship to states of tonal gravity signal an eloquent departure from the major-minor consonant-dissonant system that is commonly taught to students. This specific language, when integrated into your thinking, can bring about personal advancement that will convey insight and innovation to your craft. The ideas are interrelated for a unity like that of a mandala, rather than the compartmentalized, noncontiguous elements that form commonly accepted notions of musical behavior. By its very nature, the Lydian Chromatic Concept will give you a fresh outlook that can aid in bringing life to your musical understanding. This requires you to master a sense of independence and self-awareness. Try to "visualize" the relationships presented in this book by "hearing" its knowledge with an inner ear that is capable of formulating your own singular musical ideas through the experience of an internal focus. This focal point can help you decipher between the superficial, mechanical associations you may be accustomed to making in your compositions or improvisations and the quality of consciousness that allows many levels of subtlety to come into play. Simply to imitate what others have played and composed is not enough. It may be beneficial for you to consider adopting a reciprocal attitude to digesting the Concept whereby the energy you give while implementing its ideas will fuel your passage through unexpected doors of discovery.

Having a specific aim while working with the Concept can he helpful. Whether you are a composer, instrumentalist, improviser, educator, arranger, or theoretician, and even if you come to this book from outside the profession of music, finding an aim as you work will allow you to put this knowledge into action and have it work for you. Use this book as a map to help you aim for that which extends beyond your customary approach. This will require you to examine some basic questions about the meaning behind an organization of musical tones and why you play or write music.

As you absorb this knowledge and become more intimate with its fundamental principles, such as the actuality of a passive "do" which yields to everything in scale that is higher that itself (Chapter II), you can begin to unearth a vision of your innate "response-abilities" within your musical discipline. At its essence, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization creates a self-organized and infinite range of possibilities for us to master.

Andy Wasserman
Used by Permission, © 2002

THE INSTITUTE OF LYDIAN CHROMATIC STUDIES

Seeds have been planted by George and Alice Russell for the creation of  The Institute of Lydian Chromatic Studies (The ILCS) in order to realize Mr. Russell's dream of creating a permanent home for his life's work and a method for preserving that work and furthering it's development in an educational setting.

It's mission is to initially formulate a “school without walls" and act as an educational outreach whose function is to promote awareness about and disseminate accurate content of the world-renowned theoretical work of George Russell: his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. The ILCS “community” with be both national and international. Services and resources will be made available both in person through on-location seminars and on-line through a website, video conferencing, media downloads and podcasting. More information about the ILCS will be posted on www.lydianchromaticconcept.com as this project moves forward.

The following article speaks volumes about Mr. Russell and his life's work as innovator, composer, theoritician, educator and band leader. The Music Division of The Library of Congress commissioned this essay for inclusion in the program for George Russell’s May 1999 concert in the Library’s historic Coolidge Auditorium. It is reprinted here to give you a better idea of the man who dedicated 50 years of his life to creating "The Concept.".  Here is a link announcing the event on the Library of Congress website.

George Russell:  A Lydian Odyssey

George Russell is a singular figure in American music. He is a rarity among major jazz composers, as he is not an influential instrumentalist. Only the likes of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus possessed a comparable ability to write orchestral music that conveys the spark of improvisation. Yet, what truly sets Russell apart is his half-century application of a single radical compositional principle, which he has evolved through the creation of such American masterworks as “Cubano Be/Cubano Bop,” “All About Rosie,” and “Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature.”

It is impossible to discuss the music of George Russell without placing his treatise, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953) at the center of the discussion. Often cited as the great American jazz theory, the Lydian concept has received surprisingly little detailed commentary in jazz publications over the decades, as it defies the reductivist impulses of jazz critics. Composer Toru Takemitsu has stated that the Lydian Concept “is not simply a musical method -- we might call it a philosophy of music, or we might call it poetry.” Therein lies the reason that the Lydian Concept can not be transmogrified into a few buzzwords.

Unlike the rules of serialism or minimalism, the Lydian Concept does not determine the emotional projection of a composition, or even its stylistic orientation; rather, it effectively encompasses everything from pure diatonicism to extreme chromaticism. Russell’s oeuvre is proof; over the course of six decades, he has applied the Lydian Concept to everything from pyrotechnic bebop to beautiful ballads, and from ethereal choral statements to funky struts. Russell uses the Lydian Concept to express himself, not a system. Subsequently, it is Russell’s odyssey as a composer that sheds the most light on his development of the Lydian Concept.

To understand the origins of the Lydian Concept, it is useful to place Russell in the New York jazz scene of the late 1940s, a hot house of musical innovation. In his early ‘20s, the Cincinnati-born Russell had already played drums with saxophonist Benny Carter, and written charts for both Carter’s and pianist Earl Hines’ big bands, when he ceased performing to concentrate on composing. Russell then became part of a legendary circle of musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist John Lewis, and saxophonist Charlie Parker. Members of this group regularly held wide-ranging discussions about music at composer-arranger Gil Evans’ apartment. They also attended concerts and rehearsals conducted by Robert Craft and Dimitri Mitropoulos, giving them insights into works by Stravinsky and Hindemith, among others.

Both Parker and Davis provoked the direction of Russell’s investigations into tonality. Russell was fascinated by Parker’s practice of ending tunes on what Russell not as a flatted fifth, as the bebop harmonic innovation was widely purveyed, but as a raised fourth. This is a crucial distinction that looms large in Russell’s subsequent critique of Major scales. Contemporaneously, Davis and Russell spent hours together at Davis’ piano devising new chords, prompting Russell to think in terms of an overarching tonal system that would allow improvisers full expressive capabilities in new compositional environments.

Yet, of the beboppers, it was with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie that Russell first gained notoriety, through the 1947 piece, “Cubano Be/Cubano Bop,” considered to be jazz’s first modal composition. Routinely credited solely to Russell as jazz’s first modal composition, it was actually a collaborative effort between Gillespie, Russell, and Cuban drummer Chano Pozo. Gillespie wrote the first movement’s 16-bar theme, and teamed with Pozo to devise the montuno and vamp that underpin the second. Still, the massive chords and propulsive rhythm of Russell’s 24-bar introduction in the first movement, as well as his scoring of the piece’s exultant climax, created a new synergy between bold structural design, imaginative orchestration, jazz lyricism and rhythmic excitement. The Lydian Concept aside, these are the hallmarks of Russell’s compositional style.

A 16-month hospitalization for tuberculosis beginning in 1948 gave Russell the opportunity to fully explicate the Lydian Concept. Even after his recovery, Russell curtailed his activity to develop his treatise. By the mid-’50s, his reputation rested on a relatively slim recorded output, primarily clarinetist Buddy DeFranco’s Big Band’s reading of “A Bird In Igor’s Yard,” which fused Stravinsky-like polytonality with bebop, and saxophonist Lee Konitz’s take on the dazzling bop sprint, “Ezz-thetic” (named for champion boxer Ezzard Charles, who Russell knew in Cincinnati).

During this period, Russell focused on the ladder of fifths that produced the Lydian scale (he never uses the phrase, “Lydian mode”). Not only is the ladder of fifths integral to the original church mode, it is also the basis of the pentatonic scale, a ladder of five fifths that is the core scale of many ancient musics. The Lydian scale, he discovered, possessed a tonal gravity absent in Major scales. Almost anyone, Russell contends, would hear the ‘C’ in the interval ‘C’ to ‘G’ as the stronger tone. No matter how many additional fifths were added to the ladder, the original ‘C’ remains the obvious tonic, the gravitational center, of the ladder.

Not so with the Major scale. Its arrangement of whole tones and semitones (t t s t t t s or, as expressed in the tones of C Major: c d e f g a b c’ ) precludes the explicit tonal gravity Russell finds in the Lydian scale. In Russell’s view, the Major scale confirms its tonic tone only upon completion, while the Lydian scale does so constantly. One central component in the Major scale’s method of suspending the revelation of its tonic tone is the use of a semitone as the fourth tone. In the Lydian scale, the fourth is a whole tone above the third. In essence, Russell’s expanded tonality incorporated Parker’s raised fourth.

The second half of the 1950s was pivotal for Russell. Albums released in a RCA series entitled The Jazz Workshop were particularly influential: one led by saxophonist Hal McKusick included Russell’s “The Day John Brown Was Hanged;” another, led by Russell, who had returned to performing (not as a drummer, but as a pianist), included “Ballad of Hix Blewitt.” What is immediately impressive about both compositions is not the deft implementation of the Lydian Concept, but the poignancy Russell brings to his respective subjects (Blewitt was a journeyman saxophonist who suffered the indignity of leaving his false teeth behind in a hotel room while on tour).
The joining of the two works with his classic early ‘60s arrangement of “You Are My Sunshine” in “An American Trilogy” (commissioned in 1997 by the Glasgow International Festival) creates a rich, multiple perspective of the pathos ingrained in the American experience. Complementing the eternal historical baggage of slavery and the Civil War, and the woes of an obscure individual, is the story of a depressed Pennsylvania mining town that inspired the arrangement of “You Are My Sunshine.” Russell and vocalist Sheila Jordan performed the tune for unemployed miners in Jordan’s hometown, earning Russell a citation from labor leader John L. Lewis. Russell’s treatment shoots the usually buoyant ditty through a prism, breaking it down into deep, saturated colors -- a cool groove; a mournful dirge; a blustery outburst -- his subtle use of accelerating and decelerating tempo reinforcing an air of uncertainty. While Russell’s stock was rising in intellectual jazz circles due to the Lydian Concept, a cornerstone of his legacy was cemented by the humanity expressed in the works that comprise “An American Trilogy.”

Russell’s mid-’50s resurgence coincided with the advent of such experimental sub-genres as the Third Stream, a composer-led faction that sought to meld jazz with other musical traditions. He had key supporters in Third Stream principals John Lewis and composer Gunther Schuller. Lewis brought Russell to teach at the influential School of Jazz at Lenox, Massachusetts, for the 1958-59 terms. Schuller aided and abetted in the commissioning of “All About Rosie” by Brandeis University for their seminal 1957 concert of works by composers ranging from Milton Babbitt to Jimmy Giuffre. While the highly theoretical basis of Russell’s music played into the Third Stream’s promotion of an advanced, if not academic jazz aesthetic, “All About Rosie” succeeds on such man-on-the-street criteria as earthy swing and lyricism.

Based on a motif from the southern African-American children’s song-game, “Rosie, Little Rosie,” “All About Rosie” is comprised of three movements. Both the first and third movements contain dazzling writing. The concise first movement alternates between fast 2/2 and 3/2 time, as Russell uses repeated and sequenced phrases rippling through various parts of the orchestra to create a simmering tension that stops short of boiling over. The briskly paced third movement is an excellent example of how serpentine lines remain distinct strands in the intricate weave of his scores. Yet, it is the languorous, bluesy second movement where Russell makes his most portentous statement; initially sidestepping the establishment of a specific tonality, Russell slowly brings several seemingly disparate lines into crisp tonal focus, demonstrating the pan-tonal implications of the Lydian Concept.

March 1959 was a crucial month in jazz history for several reasons, not the least of which was the completion of Russell’s New York, N. Y., a concept album for Decca featuring texts written and recited by Jon Hendricks. Saxophonist John Coltrane’s contribution to the album is noteworthy for his bringing the first session for the album the previous September to a halt for more than an hour to prepare a solo that met the demands of the music. Coltrane also recorded his magnum opus, “Giant Steps,” in March 1959, and the album commonly credited with the popularization of modal jazz, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (which featured pianist Bill Evans, who also performed on the original “Ballad of Hix Blewitt” and “All About Rosie”). Therefore Davis and Coltrane’s roles in the creation of modal jazz can be traced to the Russell connection. Conversely, Russell acknowledges Davis’s role in his 1983 arrangement of “So What,” where Davis used the Dorian mode to improvise over Major scale chords. Russell recasts “So What” entirely in the Lydian scale, bringing their relationship full circle.

While he recorded a series of excellent albums for Riverside in the early 1960s (the last, The Outer View, recorded in 1962, featured Jordan on “You Are My Sunshine”), and performed at the 1964 Newport Festival, Russell spent much of the decade living in Sweden. Russell used the expanded opportunities to teach and compose such major works as “Othello Ballet Suite” (1967) and “Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature” (1968), both commissioned by Norwegian institutions. More importantly, the support he received during his Scandinavian sojourn allowed him to develop the next key component of his compositional approach: Vertical Form. Russell’s idea of Vertical Form relates to the ritual pursuit of African drum choirs to halt linear time through the layering of different rhythmic patterns. Russell used African rhythms to this effect as early as the Jazz Workshop-era piece, “Fellow Delegates.” Subsequently, Russell’s use of Vertical Form worked hand in glove with the tonal gravity provided by the Lydian Concept; the building of rhythmically contrasting phrases resulted in music peeling with exclamatory power. On pieces like the “Electronic Sonata,” Russell seemingly unleashed the atomic power of music, as the energy of the piece mushrooms with each additional strata of material.

Utilizing a jazz orchestra, a chorus, and nine additional singers, the 1970 mass, “Listen to the Silence” (commissioned by the Norwegian Cultural Fund) is the most daring of Russell’s Vertical Form compositions of this period. It is noteworthy that this was the first major piece Russell completed upon his return to the US in 1969 to assume his current position with the New England Conservatory of Music. Russell stacked sung and chanted texts by Dee Brown, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others, with sectional writing that created jarring cross rhythms. As the mood of piece veers between hushed calm and intense clangor, the texts create stark juxtapositions between the themes of the Viet Nam War and the ethnic cleansing of the American West, making “Listen to the Silence” a harrowing work of conscience. In recent years, the opening orchestra theme has been extracted for use as the signature piece of Russell’s Living Time Orchestra. The theme served as a coalescing call-to-arms in the original work; that quality has been retained in its new role.

The Vertical Form works of the ‘60s and early ‘70s also signaled the introduction of rhythmic elements gleaned from popular music into Russell’s work. Russell avoided the after-beats on ‘2’ and ‘4’ that make rock music rhythms so predictable by using shifting meters and rhythmic patterns. Instead, the infectious grooves he created on works such as the aptly titled “Living Time” (a 1972 album-length work commissioned by Bill Evans) invariably undermine the foot-patting listener, who soon finds himself off beat. The African roots of Vertical Form and Russell’s rhythmic conceptions are clearly joined in the 1983 extended work “The African Game;” just as the rhythms of “Electronic Sonata” reflected the contemporary innovations of African-American funk, the buoyant African rhythms propelling “The African Game” mirrored the rhythmic impetus of Afro-Pop.

Jointly commissioned by the Swedish Riksconcerter and the Arts Council of England, “It’s About Time” is a 1995 work that further delineates the interrelationships of rhythm and Vertical Form within the Lydian Concept. The two parts of “It’s About Time” begin somewhat deceptively; the first movement with an almost radio-friendly groove, the second with a ballad laced with world-worn lyricism. Yet, in both parts, Russell deploys familiar strategies -- blues vamps, displaced rhythmic accents, glancing staccato brass riffs, rumbling low-end motives, knotty saxophone and synthesizer figures -- to build kaleidoscopic masses of sound, culminating in ecstatic, densely packed finales. “It’s About Time” is not an overtly profound work, but given its mature expression of the expanded tonality and structural capacities provided by the Lydian Concept and Vertical Form, respectively, it should be placed in the first tier of Russell’s compositions.

Russell’s Lydian odyssey takes a sharp turn into uncharted waters with the premiere of “Dialogue.” This piece for violin, piano, and two synthesizers is Russell’s first composition to feature the violin. It is his first work intended for live performance that fits into late-century parameters of chamber music (while it could conceivably fit into an contemporary chamber music program, Russell’s 1968 “Electronic Organ Sonata No. 1” is a tape construction). Originally commissioned by the Library of Congress through the McKim Fund as a duo for violin and piano, Russell soon found that additional keyboards were required to execute the material. The work is in two movements, but, unlike many of his major works, which are divided into the obviously defined “Events,” Russell intends the transition between movements in “Dialogue” to be discreet, if not imperceptible. The folkish thematic core renews a rich strain of Americana in his work, one which stretches back to works like “The Day John Brown Was Hanged” and “All About Rosie.” “Dialogue” brings aspects of Russell’s work full circle, while creating a new context in which the Lydian Concept can be realized.

Theory and Practice: George Russell Goes for the Modes

by Jason Gross

published on  June 3, 2003 in The Village Voice, New York City, N.Y.

When Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor were honing their skills as sidemen in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the composer-arranger George Russell was already changing the course of jazz with his music and the theory that grounds it. Yet while the cognoscenti may have heard about his Lydian Chromatic Concept and its influence, Russell remains a cipher to most jazz fans. This is surprising, for he has pioneered a fresh approach to playing jazz that inspired several legendary musicians to realize some of their finest work. Even today, though his hearing has diminished (Russell blames his many years on bandstands), his schedule hasn't; it encompasses teaching, touring, and the continual honing of his theory, which is at once scientific and spiritual.

Discussing his career in a Central Park West hotel in the autumn of 2002, he occasionally apologized for his careful deliberations: "I got a lot up here," he explained, pointing to his brain. Many times he referred to a book on the table, a book he's been writing and rewriting for over 50 years. The cover is illustrated with a jagged mountaintop against a cloudy sky. It's the fourth edition of his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, an imposing 268-page volume made even more imposing by the subtitle: "Volume One: The Art and Science of Tonal Gravity." Even when delving into his childhood, Russell returns to the book: "I always had an inner voice that I developed in the Concept."

And so the Cincinnati native (born 80 years ago this month) began on his musical path. He started with drums, which took him from a Boy Scout band to nightclub gigs to a college band, before landing in Benny Carter's group and moving to Manhattan. When Max Roach proved more versatile, Carter canned him in 1944. Russell took the dismissal in stride, and decided that he'd focus on composition instead.

Russell found himself at the center of a creative hot spot. With the post-war jazz movement in full bloom, he was soon rubbing elbows with everyone from Charlie Parker and Miles Davis to Bill Evans and John Coltrane. And what did these exalted figures discuss? "Mostly women! It was about music, too. The question was always, 'Where do we go from here?' There was no looking back. The whole atmosphere was wonderful." He had a particularly significant conversation with Davis. When Russell asked him what his aim was, Davis said, "I want to learn all the chords." Russell (who assumed that he already knew the chords) kept that in mind. It would ultimately provide the means for him to realize the Concept.

During this time, Russell wrote the groundbreaking Latin-jazz classic "Cubano Be/Cubano Bop" for Dizzy Gillespie's big band (1947) and the jazz-classical pastiche "A Bird in Igor's Yard" for a Buddy DeFranco ensemble (1949); the latter, Russell's attempt to combine the influences of Parker and Stravinsky, was considered so daring that the label refused to release it for more than two decades.

Just when he was beginning to achieve recognition as a major young composer, tuberculosis sidelined Russell—at one point, he was hemorrhaging so bad he was given last rights. He spent 15 months recuperating in a Bronx hospital, but his determination never waned. "I said to myself, there's a way out of this. I kept dwelling on what Miles said, how he wanted to learn all the chords, wondering how you'd go about that. So I started out with the major chords." As Russell repeatedly ran through scales on the hospital's solarium piano, other patients threw bananas at him. "It'd drive me nuts too!" he confessed. "But in the end, it saved my life."

Out of his obsession came the Lydian Concept. Though spoken of reverently for its influence, many found it an intellectually rigorous, occasionally impenetrable theory—not unlike Ornette Coleman's harmolodics, many years later. Russell scrupulously examined centuries-old music theories, including church modes, which provided the basis for most early composition. A mode is basically a scale distinguished by its tonic and dominant notes; but whereas a scale is identified with one key, a mode denotes the characteristics of a particular scale transposed to any key. By the 15th century, the Ionian mode in the key of C (with its tonic C and dominant G) had been established as the primary scale for music in the Western world.

For Russell, the Lydian mode (with, in the key of C, its tonic F and dominant C) was a more logical candidate to become the primary scale because it suggests a greater degree of unity between chords and scales. Russell argues that a major scale, for example C, consists of two tetrachords that embody two tonalities, not one. But if you adapt the major scale to Lydian mode (in the key of C that would be a C major scale with F-sharp instead of F), it removes the duality of conflicting tonics, and more fully satisfies the tonality of the major chord. With one tonic used for each respective scale, Russell reasoned that a greater variety of chords could be stacked. This offered a new path for adventurous musicians: Standard chord progressions need not dictate the course of an improvisation, as each note is equidistant from a single tonic center. Notes could flow more freely beyond the strictures of a song's chords.

In discussing the Lydian Concept, Russell cites players who exemplified different approaches to improvisation. "Coleman Hawkins played 'vertically,' using a systematic style of working through a chosen chord structure—there was instant unity formed between a chord and its melody. John Coltrane inherited what Hawkins did and ventured way out beyond it. Now, Lester Young was playing 'horizontally,' over the chords, using time, forward movement to determine his playing. Then you have supra-vertical players that embrace both styles, like Bill Evans." It was Russell's intention to offer, as he wrote in an early edition of The Lydian Chromatic Concept, "a view or philosophy of tonality in which the student . . . will find his own identity."

Once his idea evolved, Russell realized, "This is not meant to be kept a secret. It proves that gravity exists in the universe as a force. I have to let this go." In 1953, he published the first edition of the book. Miles and Coltrane in particular took his work to heart and helped bring modality to jazz's center stage; it was soon taken up by '60s rock bands, including the Grateful Dead, and jam bands. Russell was praised for the Concept's far-reaching nature by Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Gil Evans, and the man who inspired it all: "Miles once introduced me, saying, 'This is the motherfucker who taught me how to write!' "

By then Russell had shifted from composing and arranging for others to leading and recording his own bands. He did so with style and sophistication, hiring such distinguished players as Dolphy and Evans (then unknown) for his Smalltet. His most prodigious output of studio releases began in the mid '50s and lasted through the early '60s. In those years, he crafted a remarkable string of lyrical, emotional albums, including Jazz Workshop (1956), New York, New York (1958, featuring Coltrane), Jazz in the Space Age (1960), Ezz-Thetics (1961), and The Stratus Seekers (1962). Yet despite the admiration of musicians and critics, they were often overlooked in later years. To some, Russell himself was daunting—an intellectual theorist and composer at a time when the romantic figure of the soloist overshadowed every other aspect of jazz. No achievement in jazz is more deserving of rediscovery and reassessment than Russell's.

Russell's distinctive skills as a writer-arranger are evident in all his work; he conceives music as a play with well-defined scenes. Of 1957's "All About Rosie" (based on a children's song), he says, "The first part is fast and stern, while the second is soulful and then the third part is really cooking. I told the band to think about the tempo, the modes, the emotions there." Although surface aspects of Russell's approach changed when he began using electric instruments and musicians who were raised with the modalism he had reintroduced, little changed in terms of Russell's meticulous methods. It's About Time, from 1995, is no less carefully structured. "I wrote out the solo for saxophonist Andy Sheppard and told the drummer not to play on the 2-4 beat as it's usually done. The first movement is all rhythm, the second is the band itself, and the third movement is one of the most beautiful things I've written. It goes from lyrical to thunder and develops into a Miles ending—it always brings the house down."

In the early '60s, Russell found himself in total disagreement with what he calls "the lawlessness" of the emerging free jazz scene: "I didn't feel that I fit in to what was going on."

He left for an extended stay in Europe in 1965, garnering extraordinary acclaim and support for his big-band concerts. Gratifying as that was, he returned home in 1969, when, as he puts it, "America seemed to be searching for its identity," and jazz was out of favor. He took a teaching post at the New England Conservatory at Gunther Schuller's invitation, a job that he still holds 34 years later. "It's security for me, and I like working with such serious and committed students."

Teaching didn't stand in the way of his other activities. He never stopped composing or forming ensembles to play his ingenious music, including such ambitious genre-bending projects as Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature (1968), The African Game, which was nominated for a Grammy (1983), and An American Trilogy (1992). To help him realize those and other pieces, he formed the 14-piece Living Time Orchestra in 1978, which has performed at the Smithsonian, Newport Jazz Festival, and Carnegie Hall, as well as the Village Vanguard and other clubs. The group toured Europe last year, and triumphed at the Umbria Jazz Festival; it is now headed for London's Barbican Centre. New York is another story. Russell was stung when Jazz at Lincoln Center canceled plans for a 70th birthday concert because he uses electric bass. Understandable maybe in 1952, but in 1992? "They've traveled back to the bad old days—they believe that they are in 1952," laments Alice Russell, his wife of 26 years and assistant manager.

Though he's received fellowships from the NEA, Guggenheim, and the MacArthur Foundation, he remains most proud of his Lydian Concept. The first volume of the greatly expanded new edition appeared in 2001; the second volume now awaits publication, and the third is nearing completion. "It still evolves. It's ongoing, still in progress. If someone asked me what I have to show for my life, I've got this to show," Russell says, pointing to the book. "I hope that the Concept will be remembered as my gift and that I was someone that brought music closer to unity."

The following is an outline of a book currently in development by Andy Wasserman encapsulating his 30 years of work on the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization and the inspiration he received through his work and personal interaction with George Russell.

The Magnetic Essence of Music

philosophical reflections on what the music itself is telling us about the nature of the Universe

in relation to George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization

by Andy Wasserman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1- DEDICATION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

2- PREFACE : What the LCCTO is telling us about music and the pursuit of psychological unity

3- INTRODUCTION: a word about George Russell—the heart and depth of his Life's Work

PART ONE

"The Ray of Creation"

CHAPTERS

1- Scales of Being: Essence and Personality (Lydian and Major)

2- Quantum Physics and the Unified Architecture of Tonal Gravity

3- Ancient Perspectives : The Verticality of Non-Western musical cultures

4- Lydian Chromatic Technology : an open-ended tool for fresh language systems

5- Intervals in Hyperspace

6- The Vertical Providence of the Lydian Tonic

7- Gospel Music and other Music of the Spirit: shape-shifting the New Man

8- The Legacy of Innovation & Self-Evolution for Composers and Improvising Musicians

PART TWO

"Psychological Commentaries on the alliance between the

Lydian Chromatic Concept and the writings of Dr. Maurice Nicoll"

CHAPTERS

1- Two Kinds of Food

2- Living Time: Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions in Music and Life

4- The Artist's Birthright : Attunement to Higher Centers

5- The Enneagram of the Lydian and Major Scales

APPENDIX

1 - A journal of my personal musical journey through the secret life of music

2 - A word from George Russell

3 - Glossary

4 - Index

5 - Bibliography/Recommended Reading

OUTLINED SUMMARY OF BOOK CHAPTERS

1- DEDICATION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To George and Alice Russell

2- PREFACE : What the LCCTO is telling us about music and the pursuit of psychological unity

overview of the general themes of book, such as the invisibility of things, what the music is telling us, this book is about a few core ideas concerning personal transformation, a book about understanding versus information, etc.

3- INTRODUCTION: a word about George Russell—the heart and depth of his Life's Work

a few pages on George's personal vision and accomplishments in his field. emphasis on his commitment to fulfill the destiny of the LCCTO.

PART ONE

"The Concept's Ray of Creation"

the overall purpose of this section of the book is to elaborate on the basic precepts of the Concept, substantiating the historical background and connections between the Concept and philosophical ideas in general. this includes the exploration of quantum physics, non-western culture's perspective of music, introductory points of the Work Ideas. this section of the book will ultimately illustrate the tremendous importance of the Concept in world thought and history, and set the stage for why it must be taken seriously, especially in light of personal evolution and esoteric psychology.

CHAPTERS

1- Scales of Being: Essence (Lydian) versus Personality (Major)

explanation of the relationship between vertical and horizontal, Lydian and Major, and Essence and Personality. general comparison between musical scale and scale of being. music as a 'metaphor' for psychological thought.

2- Quantum Physics and the Unified Architecture of Tonal Gravity

the laws of quantum physics that relate to the laws and states of tonal gravity. physics as seen from a philosophical perspective, and music's expression of the laws of physics. introduction to the 3 states of tonal gravity and how they operate in the LCCTO.

3- Ancient Perspectives : The Verticality of Non-Western musical cultures

the ethnomusicalogical perspectives of musicians from cultures who have some of the oldest language and measurement systems, such as India, China, African societies like the Dogon, Indonesian (Bali and Java). Their structure of tuning systems, and perspectives of music being synonymous with science, religion, philosophy, the natural world, cosmology, astrology, language and mathematics. all of the above and its connections with the superstructure and fundamental principals on which the LCCTO is founded. also relationship of LCCTO and Pythagorus, as well as Egyptian knowledge of scale, acoustics, and proportion.

4- Lydian Chromatic Technology : an open-ended tool for fresh language systems

the LCCTO as a technology which can be used as a tool for self-organized evolution as a musician or philosophy. the Concept as it relates to an all-encompassing, non-exclusive system, applicable to any style of music, and open for adaptation for future language systems in music. the philosophical implications of such an open-ended architecture and its place in world thought. popularity and acceptance of the Concept around the world, regardless of language or stylistic genre.

5- Intervals in Hyperspace

exploration of the multidimensional nature of the Concept and music for that matter, with emphasis on the six dimensions of time, parallel universes, and Hyperspace (as defined by Michio Kaku in his book "Hyperspace") and its relation to the depth and breadth of the LCCTO.

6- The Vertical Providence of the Lydian Tonic

a summation of chapters 1-5 with a more detailed view of the Concept as a paradigm for a unified cosmology of interdependent dimensions. Why the passive "DO" and inner gravity is so significant. The Chinese "li" idea and going down the ray of creation, and how this manifests in music.

PART TWO

"Psychological Commentaries on the alliance between the

Lydian Chromatic Concept and the writings of Dr. Maurice Nicoll"

CHAPTERS

1- Two Kinds of Food

discussion of higher centers and the right food for each. the LCCTO is food allowing higher dimensional energy to manifest. more on Essence and Personality (i.e. false personality).

2- Living Time: Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions in Music and Life

elaborate on many musical oriented and LCCTO-based comments from Nicoll's "Living Time."

3- The Legacy of Innovation & Self-Evolution for Composers and Improvising Musicians

this chapter will be geared more specifically for musicians, explaining why most do not have a clue as to what they are doing in music or what music means. will paint a scenario for 'finding oneself' on the path of the musician seeking a truly individual path of expression to compose and/or improvise.

4- The Artist's Birthright : Attunement to Higher Centers

why it is so important to try to actualize the ideas presented in this book: a step towards conscious living and its expression in music, or any art form for that matter.

5- The Enneagram of the Lydian and Major Scales

my enneagram with an newly edited explanation. with implications for thought.