Rare And Obscure Argo Recordings (VIII)

Art Farmer

Art

For all the insistent cannonade of "new names" in jazz, relatively few players actually do become thoroughly and firmly established so that their reputations are secure throughout all the dust storms of changing jazz fashions.

Art Farmr, or example, has arrived. He is no longer a "promising" player. Over the past few years, he has demostrated a maturity of personal style and a consistency that make him unmistakably one of the major trumpet players.

Because of his total lack of complacency and his pride as a prefessional, Art will certainly continue to grow, but he has already accomplished the most difficult task for any jazzman — the attainment of a wholly individual voice.

This album, moreover, is the fullest and most complete evocation yet of Art Farmer as a soloist.

Art had been thinking about and planning for this set for a year before he went into the studio. "I wanted", he explains, "to do a very intimate session. I wanted it do sound as if I were just sitting and talking to someone with the horn, talking to just one person. The feeling was to be as if the horn were in the room, right next to the listener".

Over a long period of time Art picked tunes he liked, including several that are rarely if ever performed in jazz context. "I wanted it to be free though", he adds, "without tight, set arrangements. It was when we got into the studio that we worked out the form for each tune".

It's customary in a liner note to emphasize that the leader of the given album exploded in euphoria at how well the date came out. At it happens, Farmer is indeed very pleased by the session, but in his case approval is a rare phenomenon. Art is incorrigibly self-critical.

In the past, I've been associated with him in the production of albums and in writing the liners for some of his sets. Invariabily, he has pointed to places that could have been improved, tunes that should have been redone, and other imperfections in performances that many other trumpet players would have prized. This time, however, he feels he accomplished what he set out to do.

*Nat Hentoff (liner notes)*

During a career that spanned close to a half century, Art Farmer was well-known for his consistency as a soloist and a bandleader. This series of studio sessions from 1960, with pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Tommy Williams, and drummer Albert Heathe, find the trumpeter in great form, with the usually impeccable accompaniment one expects from Flanagan. Many of the rich ballads featured, including "So Beats My Heart for You", "Goodbye Old Girl", and "Younger Than Springtime", have fallen out of favor in the early 21st century, but Farmer's impeccable performances of these chestnuts sound timeless. A slightly jaunty take of Benny Golson's "Out of the Past" and a spirited rendition of "The Best Thing for You Is Me" also merit attention. *Ken Dryden*

A beautiful album of understated brilliance — one of Art Farmer's early shifts into the sublime, and an easily-blown batch of trumpet tracks that always takes our breath away! There's a sense of relaxed freedom here that's really tremendous — a difference from some of Farmer's more arranged, or more hard-blown moments of the 50s — and a real move into notes that are airier and more open — almost effortless at times, and played like nobody else! The group's a quartet — with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Tommy Williams on bass, and Albert Heath on drums — and the tracks are all in the four to five minute range, with Art crafting lyrically soulful lines over the top. Titles include "Who Cares", "Out Of The Past", "Younger Than Springtime", "That Ole Devil Called Love", and "Goodbye Old Girl".  *Dusty Groove, Inc.*

1 - So Beats My Heart For You

(Ballard, Henderson, Waring)

2 - Goodbye, Old Girl

(Adler, Ross)

3 - Who Cares

(George and Ira Gershwin)

4 - Out Of The Past

(Benny Golson)

5 - Younger Than Springtime

(Rodgers, Hammerstein II)

6 - The Best Thing For You Is Me

(Irving Berlin)

7 - I'm A Fool To Want You

(Herron, Sinatra, Wolf)

8 - That Old Devil Called Love

(Roberts, Fisher)

Art Farmer (trumpet), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Tommy Williams (bass), Albert Heath (drums).

Recorded at Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City, September 21, 22 and 23, 1960.

Rare And Obscure Argo Recordings (VI)

Benny Golson

Take A Number From 1 To 10

Benny Golson is already strongly established as one of the most consistently fresh and personal composer-arrangers in jazz. What this uniquely challenging album accomplishes — in addition to re-emphasizing his writing capacities — is to focus on Benny's equally individual power and warmth as a player. 

It is by far his most impressive achievement on record as a tenor saxophonist as he ranges from an unaccompanied solo to the leadership of a 10-piece band. 

When I first became particularly aware of Benny's playing in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band five years ago, I was struck by the invigorating fact that he was one of the very few of the younger players with a big, full tone and a surging lyricism. Although modern in conception, he recalled the richness of Don Byas and the sinewy linear imagination of Lucky Thompson. For a time in recent years, Benny's playing style became less distinctive. There were explosive, multi-noted passages and less concern than before with melodic improvisation.

Now, however, Benny has decided on the direction he prefers; and this album heralds not only the return of his basic, warmly lyrical style but also marks its strengthening. He hasn’t lost in any degree his adventurousness, but all elements in his work are now part of an integrated, thoroughly distinctive whole.

The format of the album is unlike any that  Benny — or any other player — has attempted before. Beginning with one instrument, Benny's, an instrument is added on each track culminating in the exciting 10-piece arrangement, Time. The idea was conceived by Benny's manager, Kay Norton, as a frame for Benny's talent as an instrumentalist as well as a composer-arranger.

"It's not a gimmick", Benny emphasizes. "I did all of these with a strong conviction and feeling, because I wanted to try them. I'd  never recorded before all by myself or with a duo or a trio. And on the last three numbers, there were several techniques I wanted to develop for the first time on records".*Nat Hentoff (liner notes)* 

A record with a gimmick – but one that's totally great, and really unique for the time! The "1 to 10" in the title is the way that the album spins out – as track 1 features Golson blowing solo tenor, track 2 features him in duet, track 3 a trio – and so on, until track 10, which features a ten-piece group! One of the best things about the record is the way it really lets you focus on Golson's tone and phrasing – as even some of the bigger group tunes have a nicely laidback feel that's really dominated by Benny's solo work – and in a way, the record's a nice bridge between the more tightly arranged Golson sessions of the late 50s, and some of his looser sides of later years. Players include Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller, Freddy Hubbard, and Albert Heath – among ohters – and titles include the Golson originals "Little Karin", "Swing It", "The Touch", "Impromptune", and "Time", plus versions of "You're My Thrill", "Out Of This World", and "I Fall In Love Too Easily". *Dusty Groove, Inc.*

Side 1

1 - You're My Thrill

(Lane, Washington)

2 - My Heart Belongs To Daddy

(Cole Porter)

3 - The Best Thing For You Is Me

(DeSylva, Henderson, Brown)

4 - Impromptune

(Benny Golson)

5 - Little Karin

(Benny Golson)

6 - Swing It

(Benny Golson)

Side 2

7 - I Fall In Love Too Easily

(Styne, Cahn)

8 - Out Of This World

(Arlen, Mercer)

9 - The Touch

(Benny Golson)

10 - Time

(Benny Golson)

Benny Golson (tenor saxophone); Art Farmer [#10], Bernie Glow [#9, #10],

Freddie Hubbard [#5 to #7], Nick Travis [#8 to #10] (trumpets);

Willie Ruff  (French horn [#8 to #10]); Bill Elton [#8 to #10],

Curtis Fuller [#6, #7] (trombones); Hal McKusick (alto sax [#8 to #10]); 

Sol Schlinger [#8 to #10], Sahib Shihab [#7] (baritones saxes);

Cedar Walton (piano [#4 to #7]); Tommy Williams (bass [#2 to #10]);

Albert Heath (drums [#3 to #10]).

Recorded at Nola's Penthouse Sound Studio, New York City, December 13, 1960 (#1 to #4),

December 14, 1960 (tracks #5 to #7) and April 11, 1961 (#8, #9, #10).