Album Review: Joe Farrell Quartet (1970)

CD cover of Joe Farrell Quartet, originally released in 1970, complete with Cheapo Records price sticker. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Jazz saxophonist Joe Farrell in concert, 1985.

I bought the 1970 album Joe Farrell Quartet on a whim. It was in the “recent arrivals” section at Cheapo Records a couple of weeks ago. I looked at it, saw the striking cover art that was a trademark of Creed Taylor’s CTI Records, and decided to take a chance on it for $4.95. I couldn’t even tell you what instrument Joe Farrell played or see who was playing on the album with him. 

When I opened the CD up, I discovered that Joe Farrell played the tenor and soprano saxophones, the flute and the oboe. Playing on this album with him was a lineup of great jazz musicians: John McLaughlin on guitar on two tracks, Chick Corea on piano, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. All of these musicians except for Farrell had recently spent time with Miles Davis’ bands. 

Looking up Farrell, I learned that he recorded two albums with Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison for Blue Note, and that he was in the group Return to Forever with Chick Corea. (I’ve never really gotten into fusion, so that explains some of my ignorance about Joe Farrell.) I also discovered that I knew one album of Farrell’s, the 1976 album he made with guitarist George Benson, titled Benson & Farrell. That album features a great cover, which is made up to look like a pack of cigarettes. 

I’ve always loved the covers of the albums that Creed Taylor produced on A&M and CTI. One of the first jazz albums that I ever listened to was Wes Montgomery’s 1967 album A Day in the Life, which featured an ugly/beautiful cover of cigarette butts stamped out. My Mom had that LP in her collection, and I was just drawn to it. The album also had a gatefold sleeve, which was fairly rare for 1960’s albums. I wanted to know, what did this album sound like? Turns out, it sounded great. Creed Taylor knew how to catch your eye with an album cover, and he still caught my eye with Joe Farrell Quartet, even if it’s on the diminutive CD rather than the LP. I still can’t really tell what the red object on the album cover is. A stoplight?

Joe Farrell Quartet was Farrell’s first album as a leader. Recorded on July 1^st and 2^nd, 1970, the album featured all original compositions—one by McLaughlin, two by Corea, and four by Farrell. Sonically, the album is a mixed bag, ranging from relatively straight-ahead songs to quiet gentleness to a free jazz freak out. 

The opening song, McLaughlin’s “Follow Your Heart” is my favorite song on the album. It sounds somewhat melancholy, as though it’s the theme song for some 1970’s TV show about a gritty, hard-drinking private detective. Features excellent solos by Farrell and McLaughlin. 

“Collage for Polly” is a brief assemblage of sounds that never quite coalesces into a song. You have to listen to it on headphones to really hear all the sonic details. 

“Circle in the Square” is a galloping excursion that finds Farrell on the soprano saxophone, entering John Coltrane territory as he wails. Features some simpatico comping by Corea under Farrell’s first solo. DeJohnette never solos, but he’s drumming up a storm in the background, pushing the soloists on. 

“Molten Glass” features Farrell on flute, and it’s a pretty, jaunty song. I feel like a song called “Molten Glass” should sound more like a 1960’s Blue Note groover, but that’s just me. Corea’s solo is all tinkling sparkles, full of effervescence. 

“Alter Ego” is another brief song, just under a minute and a half. It’s inconsequential and doesn’t add much to the album.

“Song of the Wind” is a duet between Farrell on flute and Corea on piano. This wind is gentle as a spring breeze, softly ruffling the hair of a woman sitting on a hill, overlooking a meadow on a sunny day. She exhales, sighing audibly. Her thoughts remain an enigma to us. 

“Motion” is the free jazz freak out. DeJohnette pounds the beat, rushing Corea’s solo along at the beginning. McLaughlin does some dive-bombing runs on his guitar. It doesn’t do a lot for me, other than rattle my nerves and force me to listen to something melodic. 

Joe Farrell Quartet is an interesting album, and it shows the promise of Farrell’s multi-instrumental approach. Thankfully Farrell appeared on many records before his death from leukemia in 1986 at age 48.

Album Review: Bill Evans Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, with Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette (2017)

Front cover of Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, with Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez, and Jack DeJohnette. Recorded in 1968, released in 2017.

Back cover of Another Time. From left to right, Eddie Gomez, bass, Jack DeJohnette, drums, and Bill Evans, piano.

Jazz pianist Bill Evans’ career has been thoroughly chronicled, both through the many recordings he made during his lifetime, and also the numerous recordings that have surfaced since his death in 1980. And yet, like so many other great musicians, more music by Bill Evans just keeps surfacing. 2017’s Another Time: The Hilversum Concert features Evans with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette. For many years, it was thought that this particular trio had only made one recording together, the live concert Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival, recorded on June 15, 1968. However, in 2016 another recording featuring the trio was released, Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest, recorded on June 20, 1968. Another Time was recorded just two days after the session for Some Other Time. Both albums were released on the Resonance label, which has done a superb job of packaging these recordings, including informative liner notes, interviews with both Gomez and DeJohnette, and rare photos. 

Eddie Gomez worked with Evans for 11 years, from 1966 until 1977, and made many recordings with him. DeJohnette, on the other hand, was with Evans for just six months—he left the group later in 1968 to join Miles Davis, and he was featured on Davis’ landmark fusion albums Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson. 

One of the things that made Evans’ trios so interesting was the way that he allowed the bass player to act as a second soloist with him. This was the case from his best-known trio, with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, until the end of Evans’ life.  While many piano trios of the time were meant to focus specifically on the piano player, Evans sought a more equal musical partnership. Although Evans worked in many different groups throughout his career, the majority of his work was in the piano trio format. 

Although there is some overlap in song selection between the three albums featuring Evans, Gomez, and DeJohnette, all told, the trio takes on 31 different songs across the albums. Even though there is some repetition, with players of this quality it doesn’t really matter, since they’re able to make the songs sound fresh each time. 

The concert on Another Time was recorded by the Netherlands Radio Union, and the sound quality is excellent. The music is sprightly and bright. Although some of the songs like “Emily” and “Nardis” will be very familiar to Evans fans, they are done so well that it’s hard to quibble with having another version of them. 

Bill Evans had a superb sound at the piano. His playing was always melodic, and deceptively easy-sounding, but never veering into easy-listening or clichéd cocktail jazz, and his sound was never heavy or jarring. In the liner notes, there’s a great quote from Evans explaining his style of playing, from a 1978 interview with Bert Vuijsje: “I try to play good things that are beautiful to me and then I think other people will find them beautiful too.”

The critical rap on Evans early in his career was that he “couldn’t swing.” This was a frequent criticism of white jazz players during the 1950’s and 1960’s, probably due to the fact that so many white players like Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, and Evans himself, were often lumped into the “West Coast Jazz” scene, which was often seen as the opposite of the African American players in New York City, who came out of the bebop school and later branched off into hard bop, soul jazz, modal jazz, and a dozen other things. But all of those white players learned from bebop—they were simply moving in another direction, and they all could swing when they needed to, Evans included. 

Eddie Gomez is an inventive accompanist and soloist, and his playing compliments Evans’ style very well. Gomez was only 22 years old when he joined Evans, and he was 23 when Another Time was recorded, but he plays with an assurance belying his young age. Jack DeJohnette was 25 at the time of this recording, but he was already a marvelously swinging drummer. DeJohnette could swing as hard as needed, but it never feels like he’s pushing the music. He never overpowers the other players, and he’s quite adept at brush work. 

The concert starts with the expressive exuberance of “You’re Gonna Hear From Me,” a title that is especially apt for a concert opener, since that’s exactly what the audience gets to do for the next 48 minutes—hear from Bill Evans. “Very Early” starts out softly, delicately, with Evans stating the melody before DeJohnette comes in on brushes. Then it gains steam and a minute in there’s a joyful release as Evans starts his swinging solo. “Very Early” also features Eddie Gomez’s first solo of the concert. Gomez never loses the bright, easily swinging feeling of the song. 

The Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley show tune “Who Can I Turn To?” is next. The song was a hit for Tony Bennett, and Evans and Bennett recorded the song during sessions for their second album Together Again, but the song wasn’t released until years later when the album was put on CD. When sung, the song is always a big ballad, but here it quickly turns swinging after Gomez and DeJohnette enter. Gomez turns in another nice solo, and Evans lays out for a while as Gomez solos, with just DeJohnette keeping time behind him. 

“Alfie,” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, is another show tune—almost. It was inspired by the 1966 film of the same name that made Michael Caine a household name in the United States, but the song wasn’t actually included in the UK version of the film. (It was added to the end credits of the US version of the film.) It was a hit for Cilla Black, Dionne Warwick, and Cher, and recorded by many other singers, including Jack Jones, Andy Williams, and Tony Bennett. “Alfie” is the closest the concert comes to having a ballad, and it’s filled with Evans’ romantic, expressive playing. 

“Embraceable You” is Gomez’s solo feature, just as it was a week earlier at the Montreux concert. In the liner notes Gomez says, “Quite honestly, I never felt comfortable with ‘Embraceable You’…I didn’t feel like I needed a feature.” From listening to the song, Gomez certainly doesn’t sound uncomfortable with the song. 

Next we have “Emily,” written by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer for the 1964 film The Americanization of Emily. The song was recorded by Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones, Andy Williams, and, you guessed it, Tony Bennett. First recorded by Evans in 1967 for his second album of overdubbed solo piano, Further Conversations with Myself, the song became a staple of his concerts. The three note phrase that begins Evans’ version, “Em-i-ly,” repeats throughout his version, just as it does in non-jazz versions of the song. The song always seemed to bring out Evans’ lyrical romanticism, and this lovely version of “Emily” is one of the highlights of the album for me. 

“Nardis” was another staple of Evans’ live performances. Written by Miles Davis for Cannonball Adderley, and never recorded by Davis, it was a song that Evans returned to repeatedly with his various trios over the years. The song was a chance for the trio to stretch out, and at eight and a half minutes it’s the longest song of the concert. “Nardis” features DeJohnette’s only solo of the concert, a rumbling exploration that still manages to hold the listener’s interest throughout. 

“Turn Out the Stars” was another song that Evans often performed live. An Evans original, it came out of a solo improvisation during his 1966 concert Bill Evans at Town Hall. Like much of the rest of this concert, it’s lightly swinging, and you can hear on this song how in sync Evans and Gomez were.

Written by Evans for his first album, “Five” was a song closely associated with him, although I haven’t heard many live recordings of it. A brief concert closer, listen closely for Evans’ quotes from Miles Davis’ “The Theme” and Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo.” 

If you’re a fan of Bill Evans, you should pick up Another Time—it’s full of excellent music, and it gives us another look at a short-lived trio of his.