Track Listing

1. Taking a Chance on Love - Tal Farlow
2. Yardbird Suite - Tal Farlow
3. You Stepped Out of a Dream - Tal Farlow,
4. They Can't Take That Away from Me - Tal Farlow,
5. Like Someone in Love - Tal Farlow,
6. Meteor - Tal Farlow
7. I Love You - Tal Farlow
8. Gone With the Wind [#] - Tal Farlow,
9. Taking a Chance on Love [Alternate Take][#] - Tal Farlow,
10. Yardbird Suite [Alternate Take][#] - Tal Farlow,
11. Gone With the Wind [#] - Tal Farlow,

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18256 in Music
• Released on: 1999-01-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .17 pounds

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

Customer Reviews

Some real surprises on this fine album
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.

A Master at his work
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

Near-forgotten master of jazz guitar: buy this if you can...
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."