Home » Jazz Articles » Art Farmer
Jazz Articles about Art Farmer
Ron Carter & Art Farmer: Live at Sweet Basil
by Scott Gudell
If one wanted to capture a 'who's who' snapshot of the jazz icons of the mid-'70s, into the '80s and beyond, one of the best ways to start was to see if they had added their name to the list of artists who recorded and/or released a 'Live at Sweet Basil' collection. The New York City club debuted as a restaurant in 1974 and, within a few years, artists including Art Blakey, Gil Evans, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Mal Waldron ...
Continue ReadingArt Farmer: Portrait of Art Farmer
by Richard J Salvucci
When a recording that is over six decades old sets a listener to thinking many different things, it is clearly something special. Art Farmer was something special. With a bump or two along the way, virtually everyone--except perhaps Art--knew it too. He and his twin brother, bassist Addison Farmer, began their careers in Los Angeles in the '40s, where the Central Avenue bop scene was an especially vibrant and creative one. As if total immersion there was not enough, Art ...
Continue ReadingArt Farmer: Work of Art
by Jon Block
My favorite (jazz) album is The Art Farmer Septet (1956 Prestige PRLP 7031 of 1953-54 sessions previously released on 10" disks). It features the arrangements and compositions of Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce and Quincy Jones. It still makes me move and groove, from the first clave click on the steaming hot Afro-Cuban “Mau Mau" all the way through to Gryce's equally toe-tapping “Tiajuana," the playing is absolutely stellar. In addition to Art, Quincy and Gigi, the album offers a rich ...
Continue ReadingDial "S" for Sonny
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist Sonny Clark was culturally marginalized in much the same way as his contemporary Elmo Hope—both heroin-addicted jazz musicians in the 1950s: at the time, and romantically, a cliche. Both pianists have been sorely lumped into the “Bud Powell school of bop piano" which superficially may seem accurate until one considers the evolutionary continuum of jazz piano that places both Clark and Hope conceptually and stylistically beyond Powell. Clark was born in Georgia and raised outside of Pittsburgh. ...
Continue ReadingThe Ten Most Essential Art Farmer Albums
by Peter J. Hoetjes
Bassist Keter Betts, who played with Art Farmer briefly during the 1970s, described him best: “He was a gentleman's trumpet player, not a rebel trumpet player." At 25 years of age, Farmer was given the opportunity to travel Europe with Lionel Hampton's jazz band. He had spent the past few years wandering Los Angeles as a struggling musician with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and the chance for adventure was a welcome one. Upon his return to the ...
Continue ReadingRemembering Art Farmer
by Lazaro Vega
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in November 1999 and is part of our ongoing effort to archive pre-database material. This interview was originally broadcast at the time on Blue Lake Public Radio; portions of this interview appeared in an advance article published by the Grand Rapids Press. Lazaro Vega: How long is this tour in the U.S.? Art Farmer: My tour is going until the 31st of October, and then ...
Continue ReadingSonny Clark: Dial "S" For Sonny
by Greg Simmons
Original copies of Blue Note 1570--Dial “S" For Sonny--are among the rarer Blue Note records, often changing hands for thousands of dollars for even a mediocre copy. That's an awful lot of scratch for a fifty-six year old piece of pressed vinyl and a cardboard sleeve. Fortunately, there are better ways to hear pianist Sonny Clark's debut recording for the fabled label. The Music Matters series of two-disk, 45 rpm vinyl records is winding down after close to one hundred ...
Continue Reading
