Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow
There were several fine jazz guitarists--Billy Bauer,Jimmy Raney, and Johnny Smith among them--who emerged in the late '40s and early '50s only to leave the spotlight within a few years. Tal Farlow, who died in 1998, stood out even among this gifted group, a brilliant musician who chose to spend much of his life working as a sign painter in North Carolina, playing locally and occasionally returning to the recording studios. On this 1956 session, Farlow led a trio with pianist Eddie Costa and bassist Vinnie Burke. The style of the group--without horns or drums--might be described as "chamber bop," relatively quiet music that swings mightily with complex and mutually supportive interaction, rhythmic verve and fluid invention. Farlow spins out stunning, seemingly effortless, lines of melody, both on bop tunes likeCharlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite" and standards such as "Like Someone in Love." His overlapping exchanges with Costa--who possessed aBud Powell-like fluency--are inspired.--Stuart Broomer