Art Farmer

Arthur Stewart (Art ) Farmer (August 21, 1928 in Council Bluffs, Iowa; † October 4, 1999 in New York) was an American jazz trumpeter. He also played flugelhorn and Flumpet, a combination of trumpet and flugelhorn.

Life and work

Early years

Art Farmer, the 1963 deceased twin brother Addison was a renowned bassist, grew up in Phoenix (Arizona ) and first learned violin and piano. Trumpet and sousaphone he first played only on special occasions ( flags appeals ) and in a marching band. At 15, he began playing in a dance band trumpet. Farmer moved with his brother to Los Angeles, where she learned the jazz scene know and played in the band of Horace Henderson and Floyd Ray's Jump tape. He also went on tour with Johnny Otis.

With Otis ' band in 1947 for the first time he came to New York and played as a freelance musician with Clifford Brown, Lester Young and others, He also studied at this time with Maurice Grupp. In 1948, he starred in Kansas City in the band of Jay McShann, then returned to Los Angeles and played in the bands of Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, Roy Porter and Dexter Gordon. In January 1952 the first recordings were made with Wardell Gray for the Prestige label. It also Farmers composition Farmer's Market has been added.

In 1953 he became a member of the Big Band Lionel Hampton and went with this 1953 tour. This year also saw his first session took place for prestige; it was the 10 -inch LP Work of Art, with arrangements by Quincy Jones, who has worked as a pianist.

The hard bop era

Then Farmer formed its own formation with saxophonist Gigi Gryce, which existed from the end of 1954 until mid- 1956 ( Nica 's Tempo, 1955); later he also played with Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey / Jazz Messengers Horace Silver, Quincy Jones ( This Is How I Feel About Jazz ) and from 1958 in the quartet of Gerry Mulligan. With it, he was on the soundtrack for I Want to Live and The Subterraneans (1958 ) involved. At the same time he sat down with experimental jazz directions apart, as with Teddy Charles, Teo Macero, and George Russell, which earned him the reputation of being able to play everything, listen to George Russell's The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop. In the 60 years gained in 1959 by him and saxophonist Benny Golson with ao Curtis Fuller and McCoy Tyner founded Jazztet legendary celebrity. After its demise, he headed various quartets, as until 1964 with Jim Hall, with whom he 1963 album Live at the Half Note grossed. He then worked with Steve Swallow, Steve Kuhn and Ron Carter and changing drummers.

The years in Europe

1966 Farmer spent the first half a year in Europe; he recognized the growing importance of European jazz. 1966/67, he had - back in the USA a formation with Jimmy Heath, then toured for several years through Europe and eventually moved in 1968 to Vienna, where he worked with the Austrian Radio Orchestra. In addition to the jazz music he played baroque and classical trumpet concertos, such as a soloist in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and Haydn's Trumpet Concerto. During the same period he worked with the Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band and the Fritz Pauer Trio. In 1994 he received the "Golden Medal of the city of Vienna ."

In Vienna he remained for ten years, but did incidentally several trips to the USA, performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1973 and 1974 and had in 1976 a short-lived formation with Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne ( album On the Road ). He also participated on panels with sidemen such as Yusef Lateef, Jeremy Steig 1976 Joe Henderson / Jim Hall 1978.

From 1974 until his death in 1999, he appeared regularly at the Vienna Jazzland - first often with different local formations and then for many years with his own European Quintet ( Harry Sokal sax, Fritz Pauer p, Paulo Cardoso b and Mario Gonzi dm ). With this formation created in 1981, the album Foolish Moments with Pauer 1987 Duo Azure.

In the 1980s there was a revival of Jazztets with Curtis Fuller and Benny Golson, emerged with which several albums. In addition, he formed a quintet in the long saxophonist Clifford Jordan played; were included award-winning albums like Blame It On My Youth (1988 ) with him. Here, Art Farmer showed in his later work as an outstanding interpreter of ballads.

Among his longtime musical partners, Gerry Mulligan, Slide Hampton, Ron Carter, Jim Hall, Jerome Richardson, Wynton Marsalis Geoff Keezer, Annie Ross and Lewis Nash are worth mentioning. Although he was considered a big band musician (wrongly) for many years, there are more than 50 of Farmer 's recordings under his own name.

His style

While in the early hard bop phase rather sharp, almost " crowing " sound ( Jörgensen / Wiedemann ) was predominant, reminiscent of various older trumpeter as Buck Clayton, he finally made ​​the flugelhorn to his main instrument and took place towards the end of the 1950s a shift to a compound of the vocabulary of the Bop with the poetry and the weightlessness great melodist of the rank of Lester Young. He is about a " melodic, swinging and lyrical quality," said Art Farmer. "I try to play pieces as a singer would sing, - a very good vocalist Billie Holiday ."

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