There’s an interview with Don Friedman, the pianist who appeared on Charles Lloyd’s 1964 debut Discovery! on Marc Myers’ website Jazz Wax about how a Scott LaFaro tune called ‘Gloria’s Step’ got its name. Seven years before the Lloyd release, Friedman in 1957 found himself living in a New York apartment he then began to share with bassist Scott LaFaro. “The guys I had roomed with,” Friedman says, “had moved out. It was on 80th St. and York Ave. Scotty was there only for a few months. He soon moved down to the Lower East Side with Gloria, his girlfriend. They never married. Gloria was a lovely girl and a dancer. She and Scotty remained together until his death in early July 1961. The song’s name originated because he knew the sound of Gloria’s footsteps when she came up the stairs to their apartment, not because she was a dancer.” The LaFaro composition, which appeared on Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Bill Evans’ classic 1961 album, now has new lyrics written by songwriter Theo Jackson the copyright holders of the tune Orpheum Music, a division of Concord Music Group, have approved and published as ‘Gloria’s Step – vocal version’. Jackson performed the song at the 606 jazz club in London back in the spring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rjQvUOewck

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