Art Farmer

Art Farmer was a jazz multi-instrumentalist who straddled two of the great periods in jazz music: be-bop, and avant-garde/modern, bringing his trumpet and flugelhorn power to each style. Art and his brother Addison were both keen musicians from early in their lives, finding influences in gospel and blues music. Art dropped out of school early and moved to Los Angeles as swing and big band jazz were being superseded by the faster, more abstracted, and harder be-bop style. Already influenced by such be-bop luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Webster, and future legend Miles Davis, Farmer soon found his place playing live in LA. Farmer's technique, however, was not honed and his early playing led to a scarred lip which meant that he had to heal, listen and learn while working as a hotel caretaker among other paying jobs. By 1948, however, he was able to commit his music to vinyl record for the first time. By the early 1950s Farmer had relocated to New York City and the harder East Coast sounds, signing to Bob Weinstock's Prestige Records home to artists such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk. However, he was also at this time branching away from straight bop, taking part in experimental workshops with French pianist and composer Edgard Varèse in 1957. Forming his own band, Jazztet, in 1959, Farmer continued to explore and expand on both his jazz and blues influences. The band split in 1962 with Farmer touring Europe within a trio comprised of guitarist Jim Hall and bass player Steve Swallow. Europe was to loom larger and larger in Farmer's musical journey as in the USA jazz gave way to rock music. This was so much so that in 1968 he moved to Vienna, Austria. He continued to write, record and perform in Europe and the United States throughout the 1970s and 1980s, collaborating with saxophonists Clifford Jordan and Dexter Gordon, among others. By the 1990s Farmer was splitting his time between Vienna and a second home in New York City where he continued to gig up to his death in 1999.