Scott LaFaro bass. He played in groups at the College Spa and Joe's Restaurant on State Street in downtown Ithaca. Beginning in 1955, he was a member of the Buddy Morrow big band. He left that organization to work in Los Angeles. LaFaro spent most of his days practicing his instrument. He practiced with a clarinet book to improve his facility. Bassist Red Mitchell taught him how to pluck strings with both the index and middle fingers independently. For much of 1958 he was with Victor Feldman's band. In 1959, after working with Chet Baker, Stan Kenton, Cal Tjader, and Benny Goodman,
Benny Goodman racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups. He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music. Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman (1873–1926), came to America in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and became a tailor. His mother, Dora Grisinsky, 1873–1964), came from Kovno. They met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Goodman's birth. With little income and a large family, they moved to the Maxwell Street neighborhood, an overcrowded slum near