090: Growing Into A Mighty Oak, with Andy Wasserman (Lydian Chromatic Concept)

Recently on the show we did an episode on something called the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (LCCOTO) with Andrew Bishko from our team. Andrew introduced me to this when he wrote a tutorial about the Lydian scale for our website, and in the process of putting that article together we came across a man called Andy Wasserman, one of just a handful of people in the world who is fully trained and certified to teach the Lydian Chromatic Concept.

So we were really keen to invite Andy onto the show to share a bit more about this - but as you’ll be hearing, Andy is actually a highly remarkable musician, composer and educator and we could have easily done a whole series of interviews with him!

Andy is a professional pianist, composer, arranger, performer and producer, in genres as diverse as Jazz, World Music (meaning West African, Asian, Middle East, Native American, Latin & Afro-Cuban, South American), Fusion, Funk, Hip-Hop, Electronica, Blues, New Age, and Gospel. You will have heard his music on TV and radio. And he’s had a fascinating journey to become the musician he is today.

We tried to reign ourselves in and focus on just a few topics, so in this conversation you’ll be hearing about:

• The four music mentors that helped Andy become the musician he is today, and the specific impact each had

• Andy’s view on talent and what we can learn from paying attention to the music that resonates with us

• And of course the Lydian Chromatic Concept created by his mentor George Russell, renowned composer and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant. It’s a framework for understanding music, which Andy has spent decades helping to develop and teach.

It's a bit of a mouthful of a name, but as you'll hear the Lydian Chromatic Concept is, in a way, quite simple - in the sense of being fundamental and universal. It’s not something we could ask Andy to actually teach in a podcast episode like this but we talk in depth about what the Concept is, the way it can transform how you hear and play music, and how to go about learning more about it if you want to experience that transformation for yourself.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 090

Links and Resources

• Andy Wasserman Official Website

• Piano Lesson City: Andy Wasserman’s online one-on-one custom private lessons via webcam

• Andy Wasserman’s YouTube Channel

• All About Jazz website’s Andy Wasserman page

• Jazz Monthly Interview of Andy Wasserman

• George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept Tribute page at AW.com

• George Russell Official Website

• Official LCCOTO website and Forum (Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization)

• Jazz Profiles: Six articles on life, career, and music of George Russell by Steve Cerra

• About the Lydian Chromatic Concept

• The Lydian Scale: See...