Martin Committee: Art Farmer

From: Downbeat Magazine

A trumpet great whose career spanned more than a half-century, Art Farmer would probably be more widely known if not for the fact that he resided in Austria for three decades. His burnished sound often has the quality of aching loneliness, particularly since he took up the flugelhorn as his primary instrument in the early '60s.

Born on Aug. 21, 1928, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Farmer was reared in Phoenix and moved to Los Angeles in 1945 with his twin brother, Addison (a bassist who died in early 1963). During the late '40s, Farmer worked with the bands of Jay McShann, Johnny Otis, Gerald Wilson, Roy Porter and Benny Carter on the West Coast. In the early '50s, he worked with Wardell Gray, then toured with Lionel Hampton (1952-'53), recording in Europe with Clifford Brown and other Hampton sidemen, including Gigi Gryce.

Moving to New York City shortly thereafter, he worked with Gryce (1954-'56), Horace Silver (1956-'58) and Gerry Mulligan (1958-'59), as well as appearing on albums with them and such bandleaders as George Russell and Quincy Jones. He became a co-leader of the Jazztet with Benny Golson, a group that remained together from 1959-'62 and was revived in the early '80s. Following the first Jazztet, Farmer worked in a quartet format with Jim Hall, then Steve Kuhn in the 1962-'65 period.

He traveled to Europe in the mid '60s for solo tours and worked with Jimmy Heath at home, before taking a job with the Austrian Radio Orchestra in 1968. He toured around the world, often returning home for club dates and recordings. In his later years he took up the flumpet, a hybrid blending qualities of the trumpet and flugelhorn.

Farmer died on Oct. 4, 1999.

Among his notable recordings are Modern Art (United Artists); Big Blues (a CTI effort with Hall); Blame It On My Youth (Contemporary with Clifford Jordan); and Silk Road (Arabesque). -Will Smith

Art Farmer music at Amazon