LP-738

The Art Farmer Quartet - Perception

Released 1964

Recording and Session Information

Art Farmer, trumpet, fluegelhorn; Harold Mabern, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Roy McCurdy, drums
Nola Studios, New York City, 25-27 October 1961

11424 Tonk
11425 Change partners
11426 Nobody's heart
11427 Ponsu
11428 The day after
11429 Lullaby of the leaves
11430 Kayin'

Track Listing

Punsu	Art Farmer	25-27 October 1961
The Day After	Tom McIntosh	25-27 October 1961
Lullaby Of The Leaves	B. Petkere & Jos. Young	25-27 October 1961
Kayin´	Art Farmer	25-27 October 1961
Tonk	Ray Bryant	25-27 October 1961
Blue Room	L. Hart & R. Rodgers	25-27 October 1961
Change Partners	Larry Coleman & Jos. Darion	25-27 October 1961
Nobody´s Heart	L. Hart & R. Rodgers	25-27 October 1961

Liner Notes

"I think of Art as 'Mr. Melody'. He has an uncanny gift for melody, and for the ways of weaving it in and out of harmonic progressions effectively, as though he were creating another composition himself. Art has a big, round, warm sound all his own, which makes his ballads seem to sing. Art doesn't compose very many tunes, but when he does, they are so meaningful...he has a vast knowledge of scales and modes, which is evidenced in his playing. I predict that before long, Art will be one of the biggest jazz trumpeters we have ever known."

Those comments were made back in 1960 by Benny Golson, shortly after he had become Art Farmer's partner in the direction of the Jazztet. Except that the word fluegelhorn may now be substituted for trumpet, all of Golson's remarks apply to the Farmer of 1964. Another important change can be made in the original text: that last sentence can safely be switched from the future to the present tense.

For the benefit of those who may have jumped on the Farmer bandwagon a few years late, a brief summation of his background may be in order. Born Arthur Stewart Farmer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, August 21, 1928, he was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1945 he and his twin brother, the late Addison Farmer, moved to Los Angeles. With the exception of a 1947-8 hiatus in New York, Art remained a West Coaster for most of the next seven years, working with the bands of Horace Henderson, Floyd Ray, Johnny Otis, Benny Carter and the combo of Wardell Gray. In 1952-3 he spent a year in the memorable Lionel Hampton band that included Clifford Brown and Quincy Jones in its trumpet section; some records made in Sweden with a small group during that time were among the first to bring him national attention among jazz audiences.

Settling in New York in 1953, Art formed a group with Gigi Gryce, an alumnus of the same Hampton band. After a year or two off and on with Gryce, he joined Horace Silver's early quintet in 1956. Two years later he began an intermittent association with Gerry Mulligan that lasted several years and included a couple of motion picture assignments (I Want To Live), (The Subterraneans). After three years as co-leader of the Jazztet, Art struck out on his own again in late 1962; most recently he has been heard leading a quartet that features guitarist Jim. Hall.

During the Jazztet years, Farmer doubled between trumpet and fluegelhorn. Lately, however, he has completely abandoned the trumpet for public appearances, relegating it to practice sessions at home.

"The fluegelhorn gets the sound I want more consistently than the trumpet," he told Gene Lees in a Down Beat interview. "I like to hear the low notes. I talk in a low voice, and I like to play like that...if you want to shout and scream, then fluegelhorn is not the instrument."

If shouting and screaming is your musical meat, then this is not your album.

Art's personality is reflected in his approach to music just as surely as his softly modulated speaking voice is reflected in the sound of his horn. This is an unpretentious, mainly introspective session Of the kind that has led too often to comparisons between Art and Miles Davis. Analogies of this kind are a common ailment among jazz critics, who tend to throw names around as if to imply that every soloist has to have a stylistic genealogical tree. Farmer's is a typical case of a style that has undergone such labored analysis, while in fact the only need is for an examination of his work in its own terms. What you hear when you listen to these sides is not a Davis-influenced luminosity or a Hackett-inspired lyricism, but rather a Farmer-fashioned individuality.

Art's rhythm section is composed of men with impressive credits in the contemporary scene. Harold Mabern, whom I heard a while back as a member of Miles Davis' group, was also featured in the Jazztet during its later days and has been heard on records with Jimmy Forrest and others. As Harvey Pekar once observed. "He is a relatively unsung pianist who extracts a full, warm sonority from the instrument; he uses long, complex phrases on the up-tempo tunes, yet his work retains an aura of calm."

Roy McCurdy, a drummer so dependably effective that he has been referred to as Sturdy McCurdy, was also a member of the Jazztet and has been heard with Sonny Rollins and other combos around New York. Tommy Williams is best known for his work during the past couple of years with Stan Getz.

Punsu establishes the attractive mood of the set immediately. A simple but charming theme. it provides a framework for a long, beautifully flowing Farmer solo as vell as for a Mabem excursion that demonstrates the above-cited ability to avoid violence. Tommy Williams' chorus, too, is unspectacularly effective.

The Day After is an exquisite illustration of Art's ability to distill into a brief performance all the essence of his melodic creativity. Listening to this track, a non-musician friend of mine commented: "It seems as though he can even make a major chord sound minor."

Lullaby of the Leaver is an unorthodox treatment of the 1932 pop standard. After an opening chorus on which, except for the release, Art is accompanied only by Williams' walking bass, he yields the spotlight immediately to Tommy for a solo chorus. An unexpected and valuable-added touch is the casual commentary by Art during the second half of the bass and piano choruses, almost as if his horn were performing the comping role of a rhythm section member.

Kayin' was named for Art's manager, Miss Kay Norton. A brightish-tempoed theme on the regular 32-bar pattern, it recalls his confident comment about the mood generated with his horn: enjoy the feeling I get when I'm putting air through the fluegelhorn; the sound is natural and good, so I can stop worrying about how I sound and just worry about what I want to play and how to play it."

Tonk, not to be confused with the old Ellington-Strayhorn piano duet specialty of the same name, is based on an A-A-A-B structure in 16-bar stanzas plus an eight-bar release that is actually a variation of A. McCurdy's brush fills and general support are a bouyantly helpful element.

Blue Room, a Rodgers & Hart standard that goes all the way back to 1926, is introduced in a characteristically speculative Farmer mood, with occasional comments from Tommy Williams. In strong contrast is Change Partners, the most extrovert track of the session. McCurdy's support is a dynamic plus factor in this renovation of the 1938 Irving Berlin song.

The closing track, Nobody's Heart, offers a succinct compendium of virtues: a standard tune ideally suited to Art's idiom, a rerninder of his essentially melodic nature, a delightful interlude of quiet chording by Mabern, and, most impressive of all, the unaccompanied Farmer passages that open and close this low-key performance.

So many angry voices are being heard in jazz at present that the equanimity of an Art Farmer may seem anachronistic to the uninitiated. The truth. of course, is that the new and harsher sounds no more cancel out such values as Farmer's than James Joyce invalidates Dickens, or Baldwin Langston Hughes. As long as there is room for beauty and lyricism in jazz, such voices as Farmer's will newer be silenced.

LEONARD FEATHER

LP-678

Art Farmer - Art

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

The Art Farmer Quartet
Art Farmer, trumpet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Albert "Tootie" Heath, drums
New York, September 21-23 1960

10439 I'm a fool to want you
10440 Out of the past
10441 That ole devil called love
10442 The best thing for you is me
10443 So beats my heart for you
10444 Goodbye old girl
10445 Younger than springtime
10446 Who cares?

Track Listing

So Beats My Heart For You	Ballard, Henderson, Waring	September 21-23 1960
Goodbye Old Girl	Adler, Ross	September 21-23 1960
Who Cares	George and Ira Gershwin	September 21-23 1960
Out Of The Past	Benny Golson	September 21-23 1960
Younger Than Springtime	Rodgers, Hammerstein	September 21-23 1960
The Best Thing For You Is Me	Irving Berlin	September 21-23 1960
I'm A Fool To Want You	Herron, Sinatra, Wolf	September 21-23 1960
That Ole Devil Called Love	Roberts, Fisher	September 21-23 1960

Liner Notes

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

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

Because of his total lack of complacency and his pride as a professional, 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 to 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 a jazz context. "I wanted 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. As 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. Invariably, 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.

"One thing that helped a great deal," he adds, "is that Benny Golson and I have been working very regularly with our lazztet for the past year. As a result, I had a chance to try a lot of things I wanted to try from night to night. Some worked out; some didn't. But it's very important to get that chance to explore yourself and your horn from night to night before an audience. That added knowledge paid off when the time came to make this album."

The experience of being a co-leader with Benny Golson in che growingly successful Jazztet has been a further stimulus to Art, musically, after working so many years as a sideman with such musicians as Gerry Mulligan and Horace Silver.

In addition to mulling over the tunes, Farmer took great care in the selection of his rhythm section. "Tommy Flanagan's approach to the piano," says Art, "is quite like mine to the horn. He's a reflective player, and he's always lucid."

Albert (Tootie) Heath and Tommy Williams are members of The Jazztet. Tootie is the youngest of the three Heath brothers (Percy and Jimmy being the rest of the trio). He has worked with J. J. Johnson, among others, and for several years I've heard him discussed with respect and affection by New York jazzmen who are much diffcult to impress than the flintiest of critics.

"I enjoy working with Tootie," Farmer says flatly, "more than with any other drummer. He's an exceptionally sensitive drummer; he doesn't bomb you out of the place. He's very conscious of dynamics and can play just loud enough to do all that he wants to do. There are several other drummers I like, but when they come to the thing they do best, they invariably come on a little too strong. Tootie never does."

Tommy Williams, already firmly endorsed by musicians who have heard him, is one of the most impressive bassists of the past several years. He used to play alto, piano, and guitar, and Art feels that Tommy's experience on these other instrumnts have made him particularly attuned as a bassist to a hornman's phrasing. "And," notes Art, "his own phrasing on his solos is remarkable. If a horn player isn't careful, Tommy will be saying more than he does. He's constantly varying his attack, and makes the instrument much more expressive and personal than most other bassists."

The man in the foreground here, however, is Farmer. Off the stand Art is laconic and introspective, although he has a dry, pungent sense of humor and a fierce sense of independence. Farmer, therefore, is simultaneously gentle and strong of purpose.

His playing accordingly is often poignantly lyrical but it is never lachrymose, sentimental, or flabby. He is part — and one of the most satisfing exemplars — of that jazz tradition that has combined extraordinary sensitivity with equally intense musical integrity and inner-directedness.

His performances here are so clear and fully formed that little comment is needed. This is music that reaches the listener immediately without the need for detailed exegesis. I should note, however, how superbly engineer Tommy Nola has reproduced a thoroughly natural intimacy and aliveness of sound. It is, in fact, as if the quartet were in the room and yet the presence of all the instruments has none of the exaggerated larger-than-life-size heavy breathing so beloved by some other engineers.

And, to underline the obvious, there is the Art Farmer tone. It's not only that he gets a full, vibrantly-warm sound but also that his sound is never overly round. "I don't like a shrill sound," Art explains, "but I also like a sound with some backbone to it. I like a real trumpet sound." And that's what he has.

Farmer's sound and phrasing, moreover, change through many gradations to meet the expressive needs of each piece. In So Beats My Heart For You, he's bright and briskly buoyant. The attack is crisp and the mood optimistic. Goodbye, Old Girl, a strangely neglected song from Damn Yankees, was suggested to Art by trombonist Tommy McIntosh of the Jazztet. Art practically sings the song on his horn in a that is both wistful and appreciatively nostalgic. As in all his performances in the album, the solos are constructed with a flowing sense of inevitability, as if the lines could have unfolded no other way. Who Cares? is assertively declaratory with Art indicating how fluently assured he has become in his control of the horn.

Out of The Past is by Benny Golson. "It's one of his best, I think," says Art. "I don't know how he came by the title, but that title puts a picture in my mind, a picture with a bittersweet quality." Art's performance is penetratingly evocative. By never overstating the emotions of the piece, Art creates — at a medium tempo besides — a deeply expressive feeling of yearning. Characteristically, the notes are chosen with consummate taste and economy. "You have to pace yourself," says Art. "I want each note to count; I don't want an endless chain of notes. Similarly, I don't usually like to play 10 or 20 choruses. I'd rather play two good ones."

Younger Than Springtime is performed with thoughtful, singing tenderness. Here, as elsewhere, note how Art shades his attack in the way a superior singer would. In addition to his feeling for dynamics, there is an intense clarity and fullness of sound and the technical capacity to really sustain a note when necessary.

In The Best Thing For You Is Me, Art pursues his campaign with blithe confidence. I'm A Fool To Want You is for me one of the most affecting ballad performances in recent recorded jazz. The impact is so personal that one feels as if be were reading a diary the writer had forgotten to lock. And yet there is no pathos in the performance. This is the essence of jazz lyricism — intimacy without self-pity.

The final Old Devil Called Love projects the wry romanticism of which Art is also capable. Art is a highly intelligent participant in the tragi-comedy of existence. He is too reflective and experienced to be conned by the shiny shibboleths many of us juggle in place of values. Art is an unusually aware man and musician, but his acute perceptiveness has made him neither brittle nor bitter. There is a rare capacity for direct emotion and spontaneous tenderness in the mar, and his music is the man.

Art meanwhile continues to study and learn. He is back again with the teacher, Maurice Grupp, with whom he first studied 15 years ago. "I want to get a better tone and more technique on the horn so I can do more things." Having already reached a level of excellence that few jazzmen can equal, Art is incapable of coasting. But, as this album vividly demonstrates, his current achievement is large — and memorable. This is a set that grows with repeated hearings.

Nat Hentoff

About The Cover
The portrait of Art Farmer on the cover is by the distinguished artist, Ernest Fiene. Born in Germany in 1894, Fiene emigrated to the United States in 1912, and became citizen 16 years later. He has had no less than 20 one-man shows in New York City in oil, tempera, water color, etching, and lithography in addition to other one-man shows in museums throughout the country.

Fiene has exbibited in most of the major national and international exhibitions, and has been shown throughout Europe in addition to Japan, Israel, South Africa, Canada, and South America. He has had many commissions, has illustrated several books; and among his numerous awards have been a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pennell Purchase Prize, and the First Pennell Award Of the Library of Congress.

Fiene's work is represented in a sizable nutnber of the leading museums and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago.