Cover of the Craft Recordings reissue of Portrait of Art Farmer (courtesy of DL Media Music)
Regular readers probably know by now that I have been following, somewhat selectively, releases of remastered Contemporary jazz albums by Craft Recordings. The most recent of these is Portrait of Art Farmer, a quartet album released in 1958. The quartet that trumpeter Farmer led consisted of Farmer’s twin brother Addison on bass, pianist Hank Jones, and Roy Hanes on drums.
The album is a relatively modest one. It consists of eight tracks, the longest of which is six and a quarter minutes, with the shortest a little longer than four minutes. Three of the tracks are Farmer originals, “Back in the Cage,” “And Now …,” and “Earth.” The other contributing composers are (in order of appearance) Benny Golson (“Stablemates”), Ray Noble (“The Very Thought Of You”), George Russell (“Nita”), Arthur Schwartz (“By Myself”), and Burton Lane (“Too Late Now”).
Those familiar with my tastes in jazz can probably guess that I have enjoyed Jones’ keyboard work as much as I enjoyed Farmer’s stylizations, both as a composer and in his improvisations. The same can be said for some of Farmer’s exchanges with Hanes. Put another way, this album provides listening experiences involving some of my favorite jazz icons!
In reviewing my archives, I realize that my past encounters with recordings of Farmer have been relatively limited. My last encounter seems to have been about two years ago this month, when Farmer was one of the performers on Gerry Mulligan’s Night Lights album. At that time I described the album as one of “subdued understatement;” and Farmer had just the right chops for that style. Indeed, that description permeates the entirety of Portrait of Art Farmer, albeit from an engaging diversity of points of view.
At a time when the “news of the day” makes us want to hide under the bed, the eight tracks on Portrait of Art Farmer make a persuasive effort to lure us back into the “real world.”
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