You have to get over the pain. Foam rubber, it muffles the sound. I don't want my practicing to bother anybody. In my apartment in New York I can't practice the way I can here in Vienna. My goal has always been to tell a story with my instrument in a way that people can understand and - the way great vocalists like Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra did it.
Farmer is considered the personification of the flugelhorn.
Other musicians would simply play trumpet on a flugelhorn, he says. I'm drawing on tradition. I don't think the style of jazz is the most important thing. The important thing is what the music has to say, its emotional depth. I want to play music that inspires people spiritually and emotionally.