Tal Farlow [1921-1998] The Complete Verve Mosaic Records Booklet Notes by Howard Alden

© Introduction Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

I thought I’d share this portion of my research for the Tal Farlow chapter in my forthcoming Profiles in Jazz: Writings on Jazz and Its Makers Volume1 as the completed chapter will be too long to format on the Substack blog.

As Richard Cook remarks in his Jazz Encyclopedia: “Farlow's superfast technique was all the more remarkable in that he didn't even pick up a guitar until he was 21. [The] Nine Verve albums for Norman Granz parse his style as completely as it ever would be set down, and although the same easy facility can sometimes dull the listener's interest, much of his best work is in there. A tall man with huge hands, he never lost his fluency on the guitar, and there's a more autumnal feel to his later music.”

Of course, aside from their stylistic significance, having the Tal/Verve annotated with the skillful insights of an accomplished guitarist such as Howard Alden adds another dimension to their enjoyment. These notes also provide a wonderful encapsulation of some of the significant milestones in Tal’s career.

© Copyright ® ,Mosaic Records MD7- 224, copyright protected; all rights reserved; used with permission from Michael Cuscuna of Mosaic Records.

TAL FARLOW

“There have been few jazz guitarists more influential and universally loved than Tal Farlow. Several generations have already been inspired by his almost completely self-taught guitar inventions, in which he combined many prominent influences and his own creativeness into a fresh, personal and amazingly multifaceted approach to the instrument. His large hands and fingers, combined with his open ears and agile mind, coaxed logical yet stimulating chord voicings and intricate melodic lines almost effortlessly from his guitar, earning him the nickname "The Octopus" from his many admirers. He also cultivated one of the warmest, well-balanced and richest electric guitar sounds ever heard; the perfect medium for his myriad ideas to flow through. The complexity and sophistication of his playing could intrigue the most intellectual ears, but the innate warmth, humor and melodicism appealed to the most naive listener.

"The first time I heard Tal Farlow I was about 15 years old and knew then that this was a sound that I had to learn about. Incredibly shaped lines, chord voicings, humor, and a swinging feel that was truly a delight to listen to. The octopus lives forever!" -guitarist Jack Wilkins 2004

Another feeling that seems to be unanimous amongst everyone who knew him or ever met him even briefly, is how genuinely humble, unpretentious, easygoing and warm he was; a real gentle-man in the truest sense of the word.

"I was able to play with Tal at a jazz festival in New Jersey in 1996 (the New Jersey Jazz Picnic at Waterloo Village). I was really nervous about playing with him (I had first heard Tal in 1960, my father played me his record of "And She Remembers Me" where he plays the melody in fourths), but after talking with him for about ten minutes he put me completely at ease, he was so friendly and easygoing." -guitarist Jimmy Bruno 2004

Tal was born Talmadge Holt Farlow on June 7, 1921 in the industrial town of Greensboro, North Carolina. He was exposed to music at an early age through his parents, who were both amateur musicians: his father played guitar, banjo, ukulele, violin and clarinet, and his mother played piano. When Tal was eight his father showed him a few chords on a mandolin tuned like a uke (the first four strings of a guitar an octave higher); apart from those instructions he was completely self-taught. His father also pursued electronics as a hobby, in which Tal became interested also. At first music was just a hobby to Tal. While still a teenager he apprenticed with a local sign writer, acquiring a skill which would serve him well throughout the years, freeing him from relying on music exclusively for his livelihood. He also started playing a full-size, six-string guitar at this time.

Tal heard Art Tatum on the radio, and became fascinated with jazz, especially Tatum's harmonies and chord substitutions. Most of the local music was country or hillbilly stuff that wasn't that challenging to him, so Tatum's playing really intrigued him, and whetted his appetite for more sophisticated harmonic movement. Shortly thereafter, he heard a broadcast of Benny Goodman with electric guitar pioneer Charlie Christian. Like so many others at that time, he was profoundly moved and excited by the possibility of playing horn-like melodies, and collected every record with Christian on it that he could find, listening endlessly and learning the guitar solos note for note. Using his knowledge of electronics he built his own guitar pickup using an old pair of radio headphones, got a $20 Sears and Roebuck amplifier, and was ready to go, playing around Greensboro with a local clarinetist, emulating the Goodman/Christian sound. The radio also enabled him to hear the tenor saxophone of Lester Young, another strong influence on his playing, particularly since he was now able to play horn-like melodic lines on his electric guitar. He got a lot of experience playing with all sorts of local dance bands, often being recruited for his ability to play bass lines as well as chords and lead lines, thus developing many facets of his playing.

During World War II Tal played for a lot of USO dances, and was heard by many musicians in the military who were passing through (the Army Air Force had a basic training center in Greensboro). Guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli remembers hearing about this amazing guitar player from a piano player friend who was in the Army Air Force at the time. Pianist Jimmy Lyons heard him and encouraged him to move up North and pursue a jazz career. Still he was perfectly content to play part time and continue in the sign painting business during the day. Eventually during a gig in Virginia, he was heard by pianist/vibraphonist/singer Dardanelle Breckenridge, who asked him to play with her group. He did play with her for a short time, then returned to his sign painting in Greensboro. Then in 1944, he joined her trio again playing gigs in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and finally winding up in New York City.

A six-month gig at the Copa Lounge in New York gave Tal the opportunity to hear lots of great jazz first hand. At the Copa, Dardanelle's trio was appearing opposite Nat Cole's trio, which exposed Tal to guitarist Oscar Moore's great soloing and comping, and the way that he integrated it so effectively with Nat's piano playing and singing. He would go to the clubs on 52nd Street to hear all the new music that was going on there; Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Oscar Pettiford and Bud Powell among others. He absorbed as much of the melodic and harmonic ideas of bebop as he could and worked on the technique to play them on the guitar. However, in 1945 he yet again returned to Greensboro and his sign painting business.

In 1947 he ventured out, making some trips to Philadelphia to play, although occasionally returning to Greensboro. Often he would play at the Jam Session club in a trio with club owner and clarinetist Billy Krechmer and pianist Freddie Thompson. With this instrumentation, Tal was able to utilize his ability to provide bass lines. He also played with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco (along with John Levy on bass and Milt Jackson on vibes), with whom he would record years later. In 1948 he spent some time with another vibist, Marjorie Hyams (formerly with Woody Herman, later to play with George Shearing's quintet), replacing Mundell Lowe in her trio to play at the Three Deuces in New York. Here they played opposite Charlie Parker, giving Tal the opportunity to hear him and absorb his ideas night after night. Later that year he took over from Chuck Wayne in yet another trio, this time with pianist Teddy Napoleon and bassist Bob Carter, at Lou Terraso's Hickory Log club. Bucky Pizzarelli was playing with the Vaughn Monroe band across the street from the Hickory Log at the Strand Theater, and he and the other band members would go listen to Tal between shows whenever they could.

Returning to Philadelphia in 1949, Tal formed a trio with pianist Jimmy Lyons and Buddy DeFranco's brother Lennie on bass. They went to New York in search of work, but the strict musician's union requirements at that time meant that in order to get a Local 802 card, they couldn't play music gigs in New York for six months. Tal was able to fall back on his sign painting skills to make ends meet, working for Goldsmiths Brothers department store (He still crossed paths with Charlie Parker, who was unaware of Tal's day gig and came to the store one day to find Tal working up on a ladder, much to his surprise). Tal was still able to visit the jazz clubs and soak up the bebop scene. By the time the six-month wait was over, the other members of the trio had gone off in their own directions.

In 1949, Tal lived in an apartment building on West 93rd Street in Manhattan. Also in the building were budding jazz guitar greats Jimmy Raney and Sal Salvador. Naturally there was much exchanging of ideas between these three, and the building became somewhat of a Mecca for jazz guitarists, attracting frequent visitors such as Johnny Smith and John Collins. Sal's father had a grocery store in Boston, and would regularly send "care packages" of food to Sal, which the others were only too glad to help him consume.

"In 1944-451 was in the service stationed outside Philadelphia. I used to go to this little night club in town located in an alley named Ransted Street (true). It was owned by a wonderful jazz clarinet player named Billy Kretchmer. I used to sit in occasionally and one day Billy introduced me to a tall skinny, lanky kid and told me that that kid was a terrific guitar player!! Coming from Kretchmer, that really sank in.

In 1946 I joined the staff at NBC in NYC. It was around that time that I met guitarist Sal Salvador and Sal introduced me to this tall, lanky roommate, Tal Farlow. I used to go up to their apartment and hang out and that's when I first heard Tal play and I remembered what Kretchmer had said about the tall lanky kid... Kretchmer had understated Tal!!

Not too long after that, Tal became part of the Red Norvo Trio and the rest is history. The trio was playing in a swanky East Side night club called The Embers. A fellow guitar player and I went to hear Tal and this guitar player said to me, "No wonder he can play so good, look at those long skinny fingers !" Well, I thought for a few moments and I said, "No, that's not right... Segovia had fat fingers and Django could only use two on his left hand." I said, "That kind of playing doesn't come from the fingers, that kind of playing comes from the heart and soul."

GOD never put a nicer soul on this planet than my very dear friend Tal Farlow." - guitarist Johnny Smith April 2004.

After the wait to get his union card was over, Tal started working with a trio led by pianist Marshall Grant, doing society gigs in Southampton on Long Island, as well as around New York City. Once again, playing in a drummer-less trio gave him the chance to further develop his rhythm and accompaniment skills, and built up his repertoire of a wide variety of classic standards and show tunes by the likes of Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.

The great vibraphonist Red Norvo was working in New York with a sextet, including Mundell Lowe. Red wanted to be closer to his family in California, and thought that by cutting down to a trio, he'd be able to get more bookings on the West coast. He tried the trio out with Mundell on guitar in Philadelphia, then stopped in New York for a stay at Bop City, before heading west. Mundell didn't want to leave the east coast at that time, so he promised Red he would find the right player to take his place. Red had heard Tal play with Marshall Grant and thought he would be just the man, but didn't know his name. Mundell, unbeknownst to Red, had also decided that Tal would be the right replacement, and told Red not to worry about tracking down the player he had heard with Grant, but to come over for dinner where he would meet Tal Farlow. When he got there, he realized they had both been talking about the same man! Tal had nothing tying him down at the time and was only too glad to have the chance to play and travel with Red. It was the second time he would replace Mundell in a vibraphonist's trio (the first time with Marjorie Hyams).

Red Norvo had been a master of small group swing, an innovator in "chamber jazz" years before, and also embraced bebop, having organized a record date that featured Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1945. He often played lightning fast tempos, and paid close attention to creating interesting settings and textures for the tunes he played, seeking to get the most variety out of the three instruments of the trio. Tal struggled with the fast tempos for a while, being more inclined to the relaxed melodic phrasing of Lester Young, but quickly rose to the challenge, acquiring stunning guitar technique far exceeding any of his contemporaries.

When I played with Red in 1979 he told me how much Tal had shaken up the guitarists of the time. The great Barney Kessel, like many of the Charlie Christian disciples of the time, played with mostly down-strokes, but after hearing what Tal was able to do with alternate (down-up) picking, had to completely rethink his right-hand technique.

The Norvo trio was a perfect place for him to exhibit all the skills he had developed in his previous trio experiences, and Red set very high performance levels for him to rise to. After initially having Red Kelly on bass (the result of a confusion with another Red, Red Mitchell, who lived in the same apartment building), the trio picked up Charlie Mingus in Los Angeles on the recommendation of Jimmy Rowles. Mingus was "between engagements" at the time, delivering mail, and like Tal, rose to the challenges that Red set, himself setting new standards for bass playing. Red told me many times about what an amazing sound and beat Mingus provided for the trio, and how no one else had been able to play his fast tempos quite the same. The Red Norvo Trio with Farlow and Mingus recorded some twenty-one titles for Albert Marx's Discovery label in 1950 and 1951 (later issued on Savoy), including their pointillistic treatments of bebop themes, carefully tailored settings of standards and some forays into latin rhythms. They also recorded about thirty tunes for Standard Radio Transcriptions (shorter performances for radio airplay only).

Tal played with Norvo's trio for several years, including engagements at The Embers in New York and a television appearance that was one of the first color broadcasts (Gibson provided Tal with a nice bright red guitar for the occasion). After Mingus left the trio (because of racial issues brought out by this very television broadcast, and documented in Mingus' book Beneath The Underdog [Tal disputes the racial overtones and claims that both he and Red had Local 802 NYC union cards and Charles didn’t which is why he couldn't perform on the TV special.]), Red Mitchell joined on bass, and stayed with the trio for several years.

"I first heard Tal when he was appearing at the Haig on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, with Red Norvo's trio, opposite Gerry Mulligan's quartet with Chet Baker on trumpet. I was playing with Spade Cooley at the time. Several of us from Spade's band went to see him and we were completely blown away, it was just mind boggling! Later on, Red's trio (with Tal and Red Mitchell on bass) was playing at a restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard. I would go listen to them, and got to know Tal -I'd sit and talk with him about various things. One of the things we'd talk about was fine-tuning the sound out of the guitar and amplifiers. Tal utilized his knowledge of electronics to modify and tweak his amplifier to get the sound he wanted, and gave me a lot of good advice. One time at this same gig, a customer was heckling Red, smarting off and being quite obnoxious. It was really getting to Red, and he was getting more and more upset and flustered. Tal leaned over to him and said "Red, time wounds all heels", immediately breaking the tension.

I also remember being in the parking lot of the musician's union in LA; Tal had joined Artie Shaw's small group after being with Red for awhile, and they were rehearsing in one of the ground floor rehearsal rooms. Bob Harrington and I stood there in amazement listening to them making up all these wonderful arrangements on the spot-it was a marvelous experience.

He would always write to my wife Lilly and I over the years. I last saw him in Las Vegas at the Four Queens, a couple of years before he passed away. He was so warm and friendly, so inventive, and most importantly, a great human being." - former Norvo guitarist Jimmy Wyble February 2004

In 1953 Tal participated in several recordings for Blue Note as a sideman; a couple of almost "third stream" style sessions with saxophonist Gil Melle's quintet and a more straight ahead bop session with trumpeter Howard McGee's quintet, including Gigi Gryce on alto sax and flute and Horace Silver on piano. In October of that year Tal was asked by Artie Shaw to be a part of his newly formed Gramercy Five. He went with Red's blessing-Red knew that it would be a great opportunity that shouldn't be passed up. One of Tal's old building mates, Jimmy Raney, took his place with the trio. Artie's group played in Boston, then had a long residency at The Embers in New York. The group had some great players, including Hank Jones on piano and Joe Roland on vibes. However, Tal was not that enthusiastic about the music they were playing, and left after six months (not before participating in several recording sessions which have been issued and reissued over the years on the Clef, Verve and Music Masters labels). Joe Puma took Tal's place. At the same time, Jimmy Raney was ready to leave Norvo, so Tal was able to rejoin the group.

The year 1954 saw Tal being sought out for many more recording sessions as a sideman; he recorded with the Oscar Pettiford Sextet, a group led by Clark Terry, and singer Ada Moore. He was also part of some Norvo recordings with larger groups, quintet and septet sessions with such prominent west coast players as Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, Pete Jolly, Monty Budwig and Chico Hamilton (the following year he would record with Anita O'Day as well as Buddy DeFranco).

After recording as a sideman for Blue Note, Tal was asked to record his first album as a leader in 1954, six tunes for a 10" LP entitled The Tal Farlow Quartet, with Don Arnone in a supporting role playing second guitar. Soon after this, Norman Granz signed Tal up for a series of recordings for his record label (Norgran, then Verve), which documented his remarkable playing in his most active and prolific years, 1954 to 1959. It is these recordings that are presented in the collection. In my humble opinion, after repeated listening to these recordings (some of which I was lucky enough to hear first when I was thirteen years old), that they are indeed the Holy Grail of jazz guitar.”

[The drummer on the following take is Joe Morello.]