Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Art Farmer: Live At Stanford Jazz Workshop

238

Art Farmer: Live At Stanford Jazz Workshop

By

View read count
Art Farmer: Live At Stanford Jazz Workshop


"The Professor" Art Farmer presented a set of straight-ahead jazz for the 25-year old Stanford Jazz Workshop last summer along with tenor saxophonist Harold Land, San Francisco area pianist Bill Bell, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Tootie Heath. Although Farmer now resides in Vienna, the ensemble shares a working knowledge of hard bop common to many artists regardless of geographical area. Coming up on the Central Avenue scene in Los Angeles in 1945 and working with the bands of Johnny Otis, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, and others, Farmer developed a bop-oriented style that retained the trumpet's lyrical flavor; he eventually settled on the flugelhorn in 1962 with its richer sound. Much later, noted trumpet designer David Monette created the flumpet for Farmer; it combines a brassy trumpet sound with the warmer flugelhorn sound. He now performs exclusively on the flumpet.

Monk's "I Mean You," "Eronel" and "Straight No Chaser" are familiar to most straight-ahead artists as well as to fans. Each of these tunes are presented with spirited solos from flumpet, tenor sax, and piano; on "I Mean You" the ensemble takes it one step further by trading fours and by standing back while Rufus Reid turns out an inspired and imaginative bass solo. Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa" starts with a powerful piano/bass riff, brings in the flumpet / sax octave unison, and finds Harold Land stretching out for a fine example of his high-energy + contrasting space = one exciting solo adventure. Tadd Dameron's ballad "If You Could See Me Now" is all Art Farmer with the ensemble backing; Farmer plays it open and high, sweet and lyrical. "The Professor" continues to say it like it is. Recommended.

Personnel

Art Farmer
flugelhorn

Album information

Title: Live At Stanford Jazz Workshop | Year Released: 1997 | Record Label: Monarch Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Hold On
Mark Winkler
The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle
Ben Thomas Tango Project
Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.