Lennie Tristano on Twelve-Tone Improvisation

"... I even tried a bit of twelve-tone composition and struck up a correspondence with the pianist Lennie Tristano, the most 'advanced' jazz musician of that time [the early 1950s], in which I helpfully pointed out that the twelve-tone method obviously also held the key to the future of jazz. (Tristano gently replied that I seemed not to have too much acquaintance with jazz improvisation, and was kind enough to invite me to come and talk with him. We shared a turkey sandwich one Thanksgiving evening.)"

William H. Youngren, "Schoenberg, Rosen, and the Common Listener," 1978.