Jazz composer/thinker Russell dies

Here's one for jazzman George Russell, who died Tuesday at 86. He wasn't one of the better-known performers, but his long shadow made works such as Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue" and John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" possible.

An excerpt from the Boston Globe:

Considered one of the most creative innovators and profound thinkers in the history of jazz, Mr. Russell wrote ‘‘Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization’’ in 1953. The treatise, esoteric in title and ground-shifting in effect, eventually transformed the manner many jazz musicians approached their work ... before ‘‘Lydian,’’ jazz soloists worked primarily under a framework of progressive chords, weaving their improvisations around and through a repeated chordal theme. The effect could be constricting ...

Which means he was quite a thinker in the jazz scene.