Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow [Original recording remastered]

Tal Farlow | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 26, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000HXFM
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,848 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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 like Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite" and standards such as "Like Someone in Love." His overlapping exchanges with Costa--who possessed a Bud Powell-like fluency--are inspired. --Stuart Broomer

Product Description

Japanese reissue of the jazz guitarist's 1957 album. Verve. 2004. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some real surprises on this fine album, March 16, 2002

By 

Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow (Audio CD)

Very few guitar players move me. Joe Pass I admire but am not moved by. Considering this album was made nearly half a century ago, I was more than surprised by the quality of the playing, its freshness and its ability to move me. Incredible support provided by a rock solid bass player and Eddie Costa is a revelation on piano. An excellent jazz album of guitar music up there with Jim Hall. It was standard procedure by Norman Granz to fill most albums with standard warhorse melodies such as "Gone with the Wind" but there is one original - Meteor - by the leader and master musician Talmadge Holt Farlow who also manages to make the standards fresh. A terrific album, and one of Verve's "By Request" series.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Master at his work, February 20, 2005

By 

Jorge Barbarosa "the_bassist" (the back 9) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow (Audio CD)

Several reviews have covered in minute detail the excellence of this project. I have to agree, plus I have to express my sincere gratitude to those engineers who are bringing matieral of this caliber back into circulation via remastering and digitalizing. It's wonderful to be to enjoy the sounds of the masters during their heyday, plus listen to alternate takes, and other bonus material from the sessions. Thanks and hats off to a bunch of dedicated "philes" of the process.

Respectfully
gb

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Near-forgotten master of jazz guitar: buy this if you can..., November 18, 2003

By 

William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow (Audio CD)

Mr. Farlow came along years before Wes Montgomery, and never achieved Wes's level of mass appeal. Listen to this 1956 album, however, and you will be amazed. This expanded CD has 63 swinging minutes of guitar, piano and bass, but the trio sounds like a quintet at least. The old standards are recognizable, the tunes written without lyrics are interesting, and the absence of horns or drums isn't noticed at all. I wanted this when it was an LP but never got my hands on it. I have coveted it on CD the last few years, looking for a bargain price, but finally settled on something close to full retail. It's worth it. Enjoyable all the way through, I could see how a real guitar lover might declare this to be his favorite jazz disc ever. I expect to hear this one a lot over the next year or two, and to be fully satisfied. Read the other reviews posted here for "why" it works, and "how" Tal was so good. As a non-musician, all I can say is "This one is great fun and what 50's jazz was all about."