a special message from NJPAC CEO John Schreiber

Honoring a Newark-born jazz legend

Newark has given the world so many musical heroes: Sarah Vaughan. Frankie Valli. George Clinton. Wayne Shorter.

One musical great who hails from Newark, however, may not be quite as widely recognized as those iconic performers.

But I hope Newarkers and jazz fans alike will get to know him through this year’s TD James Moody Jazz Festival.

That musician is Scott LaFaro, a renowned jazz bassist who did groundbreaking work with the Bill Evans Trio. We are incredibly lucky to be able to honor Scott’s work in a unique way at this year’s festival.

Scott’s instrument — a double bass made two centuries ago, in 1825, by the renowned American luthier Abraham Prescott — has been loaned to NJPAC for bassists to play at a half dozen festival performances, including by our Board member and Jazz Advisor, Christian McBride, on November 21, and by Gregory Jones for the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition on November 23.

It’s a beautiful instrument, a work of art in itself. Our Executive Vice President and Executive Producer David Rodriguez, who is also a jazz bassist, tells me that the LaFaro bass is renown for having a “sustain” twice as long as that of younger basses and a rich, resonant sound.

Scott was born in Newark in 1936, the son of a big band musician. As a child, he played the piano, the bass clarinet and tenor saxophone. But at 18, just before entering Ithaca College, he took up the bass — and stepped into jazz history.

“Scott was known to practice eight or ten hours a day,” David says. “A great bassist like Scott will spend half their waking hours with their arms around their instrument, working in partnership with it to create a sound that’s meaningful.”

Scott was in his early 20s when he became part of the Bill Evans Trio — “the most formidable trio of its time,” David says. Working with Evans, Scott developed a contrapuntal approach to the bass — he “interacted with the soloist and the melody, instead of just providing an ongoing rhythm. When he played with Evans, the trio was having a conversation — their performances were a collaboration in sound.”

By the summer of 1961, Scott had played with many jazz legends; he’d performed or recorded with Stan Getz, Ornette Coleman, Chet Baker and Benny Goodman, and had plans to record with Miles Davis. In June, with the Bill Evans Trio, Scott recorded two live albums at the Village Vanguard which are still considered masterpieces.

But in early July, days after a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Scott was killed in a car accident in upstate New York. He was 25 years old. He had only been playing the bass for seven years — but Scott’s genius changed the way we make, and listen to, jazz. Bill Evans was so distraught by Scott’s passing that he stopped playing for a time, unable to continue without his musical partner.

The bass was traveling with Scott, and was seriously damaged in the accident. But in the 1980s, with the support of Scott’s family, the American luthier Barrie Kolstein restored the instrument, and in 2014 he gifted it to the International Society of Bassists (ISB), who now make it available for select performances.

Most recently, the bass had been in residence at Finlay + Gage Musical Instruments in Maplewood — and, for the past few days, it’s been ensconced in David’s office between concert appearances.

“For bassists everywhere, Scott LaFaro’s unique sound and incredible musicianship have been a deep source of inspiration. It’s both humbling and exhilarating to be in direct contact with his instrument,” Christian McBride tells me.

“Bassists are always custodians of their instruments, not owners,” David says. “We always realize that they were played by others before us and enriched by the sounds the hands of others contributed. The hands and thoughts of other bassists will make their contributions well after we go. So when someone plays the LaFaro bass, they’re playing through the notes that were played on that bass in churches in New England, in symphonies in Boston in the 1800s and in the Village Vanguard by Scott.”

“A bass is not like an abacus or a computer,” David says. “Basses carry the voice and the soul and the passion of all the people who played them. When you play a bass, it’s a conversation with the instrument, and with all the people who have played it before.”

What’s especially exciting to me is that some of our students will have the opportunity to join that conversation. In 2026, NJPAC will host the biennial Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass — named for another great jazz bassist, “The Judge” Milt Hinton and now produced by the Arts Center thanks to Milt’s friends and our wonderful supporters, David Berger and Holly Maxson. The students at this weeklong intensive for teenage bassists will get to play it during the camp.

“Having Scott LaFaro’s bass at the 2026 Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass will have a profound effect on the young bassists that attend,” David Berger told me. “It offers them a rare opportunity to play an exceptional and valuable instrument that belonged to a jazz legend, but it also gives them a personal way to connect with jazz history and culture.”

“Typically, student musicians would never have a chance to play an instrument of this quality — but equally important, they would never get a chance to play a bass with this legacy, that has accumulated all the notes, all the genius and the innovation that have gone through the belly of this bass over the centuries,” David R. says.

I’m grateful to Scott’s family, the ISB and Finlay + Gage for making it possible for NJPAC to put this extraordinary instrument on our stage and into the hands of talented young people.

And I hope more Newarkers will now think of Scott LaFaro, too, when we contemplate with pride how much music this remarkable city has brought into the world.