By Terry Perkins

When you're the son of a music teacher and have four older brothers who all play jazz around the house while you're growing up, there's a pretty good chance you might think about becoming a professional musician yourself. And when you add a geographical factor that relates to a tradition of jazz musicianship, there's even more of an impetus to follow a musical path.

And that's exactly what happened to Joe Farnsworth, drummer for Bebop Generations. "I was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and my Dad taught music and my four brothers all played instruments," recalls Farnsworth. I shared a room with my oldest brother, and he had a nice set of drums in the room. So when he went to school and I was too young to go, I'd sit down at the drums and just hit them. It seemed like a much easier way to play music than the sax and trombone, which two of my other brothers played. I thought, why go through learning all those scales and how to make a note sound just right when you could just sit at the drums and hit 'em?

But what really excited Farnsworth about playing drums was hearing recordings by Buddy Rich, the Count Basie band and other jazz bands and hearing the drummer play the ride cymbal. "The sound of the ride cymbal always sounded like a party to me," he recalled. "It just sounded like so much fun!"

So Farnsworth began taking drum lessons in 4th grade, and as he grew older, he continued to progress. But it wasn't until he heard a Miles Davis record featuring Tony Williams -- who also grew up in the Boston area -- that he really decided to focus on a career as a jazz drummer.

"I remember buying this record in the ninth grade by Weather Report called Live in Tokyo, and I really liked it," recalls Farnsworth. "Then I saw a record by Miles Davis called Live in Tokyo, and because of the Tokyo connection, I figured it would sound the same. Naturally it was a whole different style of jazz, but when I heard Tony Williams play on that record, I never went back."

Farnsworth ended up taking lessons from a Boston drummer named Alan Dawson, who at one time had also taught a young Tony Williams -- also from the Boston area -- how to play drums. By the end of high school, Farnsworth was playing professionally with his brothers, and decided to continue his musical education at William Paterson College in New Jersey -- primarily for its close proximity to the New York City jazz scene.

Some of my brothers were already living in New York and playing music," he recalls, "so I was going into the City every chance I had to try and play somewhere." Farnsworth also became a student of Art Taylor, who had worked with everyone from Miles Davis and Bud Powell to Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane.

On his forays into Big Apple jazz clubs, Farnsworth encountered bassist John Webber, who had already gained a foothold in the jazz scene through work with musicians like Junior Cook and Bill Hardman. The two musicians began performing with New Orleans-born sax player Jesse Davis on a regular basis at a small club called Augie's.

Eventually, Davis moved on after signing a recording contract with the Concord jazz label, and Farnsworth inherited the job of organizing musicians for the Friday and Saturday night sets at the club. He began asking older musicians such as Junior Cook and Cecil Payne to sit in at Augie's, and also invited a fellow student at William Paterson -- a tenor sax player named Eric Alexander.

"Eric came to William Paterson a year after me," recalls Farnsworth. "And it took awhile to get to know him. But we bacame good friends, because we both wanted to play strong and straight ahead. We both liked to play fast. And I guess I've been playing with him ever since."

Through Junior Cook, Farnsworth met baritone sax player Cecil Payne, and soon Payne was sitting in at Augie's on a regular basis as well. In the meantime, Alexander, who had moved to Chicago and begun playing with jazz organ player Charles Earland, returned to New York and also began sitting in at Augie's.

The combination of the youthful Alexander on tenor sax and the veteran Payne on baritone seemed to be a natural. And when Alexander began recording for the Delmark label, it wasn't long before Payne was recording for Delmark as a leader as well -- with Farnsworth, Webber and pianist Harold Mabern turning up regularly on all the recordings.

'It just seemed to make sense to get serious about making it an official band," recalls Farnsworth. "Cecil's manager came up with the name Bebop Generations, and since Cecil was a couple of generations older than us younger guys, and Harold was in between, it made sense."

The concept seems to be going over well with jazz audiences. Bebop Generations performed for a week for large, enthusiastic crowds at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, and the group recorded a live album that's scheduled to be released in a few months. "It's a nice combination," concludes Farnsworth. "Harold and Cecil bring such great musicianship and experience to the band that we can't help learning something every time we play. And I think our energy and enthusiasm rubs off on them a little bit."