"Jazz is not a style. To me, jazz is a feeling!’ With these words Lennie Tristano began to transmit his conception of the art form to me, a person who had traveled across the continent to study with him. All through the years of my association with Lennie, he found inexhaustible ways to express this theme—that the source of the music is feeling; the actual content of the music is released from the open expression of feeling itself. Lennie believed that all study of the aspects of music and the mastery of an instrument should be as inclusive and comprehensive as possible to enable the musician to be free from constraint so that the feeling could pour out in a continuous streaming.

The feeling expressed on this record has the force of a natural phenomenon. This is the first recording of its kind, where Lennie plays throughout with a rhythm section, in a trio setting. We can witness the consistent expressive power and beauty of the personal meaning of this man’s being.

As I write these notes, I am listening to this music. But I am always listening to it, actually or in my mind. This is music that can find its way into you and become a part of you.

Once it’s there, you reside with the stunning greatness of its content. Each improvised piece takes on magnitude as a whole. Within that, each phrase is its own masterpiece. Within that, each note conveys completely the music’s meaning.

This recording was done in an environment that was very close to Lennie—the legendary studio where he helped so many to find their way to the music they had within them through his teaching, and where he spent so many unending hours playing through the night into the next day in informal sessions. The selections on this record were taken from tapes that Lennie made at these sessions during a two-year period of time, 1955—1956. With him are two wonderful musicians. Tom Weyburn’s playing on this record has genuine warmth and swing. Peter Ind’s playing should establish him as one of the true great ones among bass players in the history of jazz. The three of them sound happy together, doing what they love to do.