Stratusphunk: The Life and Works of George Russell

Stratusphunk - George Russell was a unique figure in jazz. He was a theoretician a composer of note a working musician and an educator. He began his lifes work developing the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization in the mid-forties. One of a rare breed of thinker-musicians through his ideas and music Russell had a remarkable influence on the development of jazz after 1950. From his early composition with Dizzy Gillespie of Cubano-Be Cubano-Bop through the changes wrought by modal jazz as a consequence of his ideas to his impact on the Scandinavian and European scenes his achievements are among the most outstanding in the music.His life story weaves its way through contemporary jazz intersecting with the lives of many of its most colourful characters. Charlie Bird Parker Dizzy Gillespie Miles Davis John Coltrane Bill Evans Gerry Mulligan John Lewis Gil Evans Charlie Mingus and Carla Bley were not just Russells contemporaries. They were his peers his colleagues and his friends. He touched their lives and music and in turn was encouraged by them.Originally published in 2010 under the title George Russell: The Story of an American Composer Duncan Heinings biography of George Russell appears in a newly revised paperback edition for the first time.