Art Farmer: Yesterday’s Thoughts (2005 – Test of Time Records)

Possibly better-appreciated in the latter period of his life and after his death, Art Farmer, along with Clark Terry, was instrumental in bringing the flugelhorn, a mellow cousin of the trumpet, to the fore. Appearing on literally hundreds of recordings and releasing over seventy albums under his own name, he may have been the perfect definition of the journeyman musician—well-known in music circles, but a name that tended to elude the larger record-buying public for many years. Still, with a lyrical style that set him apart from many of his stratosphere-reaching contemporaries, Farmer has aged incredibly well in retrospect.
Yesterday’s Thoughts is part of the fledgling Test of Time record label’s commitment to making recordings, originally released by the Japanese East Wind Music label in the ’70s—and previously only available as expensive import LPs—accessible to North American audiences. Like the first two releases on the label—Andrew Hill’s Hommage and the Great Jazz Trio’s At the Village Vanguard—Yesterday’s Thoughts has been remastered using the Direct Stream Digital process (DSD), and the result is a sound that as closely resembles what the musicians heard in the studio control room as is possible.
With an all-star cast featuring pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Billy Higgins, this outing may be identified by the liner notes as a ballad recording, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The opening track, Michel Legrand’s “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, does set the pace for a relaxed session, and the Benny Golson title track is a tender piece indeed; but there’s plenty of variety on the date, from the medium-tempo bossa of Jobim’s “How Insensitive to the at-ease swing of Mercer/DePaul’s “Namely You and Dietz/Schwartz’s “Alone Together, plus the more energetic Walton original “Firm Roots.
What makes the whole session sound so effortless may be the behind-the-beat approach of virtually everyone on the session. Farmer may demonstrate the most laid-back phrasing this side of Dexter Gordon, with Walton, Jones, and Higgins following close behind. And the sense of swing is unassailable; even on the two ballads there’s that indefinable quality that makes everything dance. Walton’s lightly funky bop approach lends a brighter element to an otherwise soft and mellow session. Even when the group takes off, as it does on “Firm Roots, there’s a complete lack of anything resembling an edge, with Higgins’ touch in particular feeling gentler than usual.

Easy on the ears, Yesterday’s Thoughts captures Farmer at particularly busy time in his career—during ’76 and ’77 he’d release no fewer than six albums under his own name. But in Farmer’s case, boosting quantity didn’t mean sacrificing quality, and Yesterday’s Thoughts is a welcome addition to the Farmer back catalogue: an album that, in its own quiet way, reaffirms Farmer’s strength as a rich-toned, melodic player who may only be receiving his proper due retrospectively.
John Kelman (All About Jazz)

Tracklist
1. What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life
2. How Insensitive
3. Namely You
4. Alone Together
5. Yesteray’s Thoughts
6. Firm Roots

Personnel:
Art Farmer (flugelhorn)
Cedar Walton (piano)
Sam Jones (bass),
Billy Higgins (drums)

Original Release Date: 1976  –  Label: Test of Time Records
Realesed on CD: 2005

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Kenny Drew: Undercurrent (1960 – Blue Note)

The only Blue Note recording under pianist Kenny Drew’s leadership and the last to be released under his name for a thirteen-year period, during which time the pianist would relocate to Europe, Undercurrent is a strong outing by the gifted pianist, composer and session leader. In the latter capacity, his job is greatly facilitated by a frontline of saxophonist Hank Mobley  and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, whose instant compatibility had been established just weeks earlier on Mobley’s sterling Roll Call  (Blue Note, 1960). Moreover, the rhythm team of bassist Sam Jones  and drummer Louis Hayes had become one of the more efficient power plants in jazz because of its nightly duties with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet during the same year as its best-selling At the Lighthouse (Riverside, 1960), which included the hit single “Sack O’ Woe.”
Undercurrent has nothing as viscerally infectious as the Adderley tune but is an admirable program of Drew originals, ranging from the modal, streaming title piece to the self-descriptive “Funk- Cosity,” a sort of fleshed-out variation on Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’.” “Lion’s Den” is a welcome change of mood and pace, moving to a major key and an alternating pedal tone/straight-ahead harmonic-rhythmic pattern. Next is the beboppish “The Pot’s On,” an elliptical melody that yields to the reassuringly warm inventiveness at which Mobley has few if any peers. “Groovin’ the Blues,” an ordinary but appealing line, would be an engaging finger-popper were it not such a close twin of “Funk-Cosity,” and the closer, “Ballade,” is a once-through set piece, an appealing romantic melody stated with formal grace and simplicity.
If none of the tunes is strikingly original or memorable, the same might be said of Drew’s otherwise superlative post-Powell piano work. Certainly among the highlights is the opening title tune, set up by an electrifying 38-second introduction: drums and bass walk off eight bars at a flaming tempo, Drew adds a running baroque figure for the next eight, tenor and trumpet harmonize in thirds for the next sixteen then play in unison over a pedal tone for eight more, finally re-harmonizing in thirds for the last eight before Mobley’s tenor is suddenly ejected into the jet stream for the first solo. The latter player is simply wondrous on this and each of his solo turns, as consistently rewarding as he is risk-taking, and clearly in command during the same year that produced his masterpiece, Soul Station (Blue Note, 1960). Hubbard, the comparative newcomer, isn’t as fluent as Mobley but complements his frontline companion with a more aggressive, even puckish approach, alternating between repeated percussive motifs and a soaring, passionate lyricism.
Given the size of the ensemble, the quality of the musicians and the blowing room for each of the soloists, it’s perhaps small wonder that Undercurrent falls just short of a personal triumph for the leader (though arguably essential to any Mobley fan). But as a democratic and exemplary Blue Note session with strong hands vigorously played by five proven winners, this RVG remaster deserves a place alongside more heralded recordings during a truly golden age in the music.
Samuel Chell  (All About Jazz)

Track List:
1. Undercurrent
2. Funk-Cosity
3. Lion’s Den
4. Pot’s On
5. Groovin’ the Blues
6. Ballade

Personnel:
Kenny Drew (piano)
Freddie Hubbard (trumpet)
Hank Mobley (tenor sax)
Sam Jones (bass)
Louis Hayes (drums)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 11, 1960
Original Release Date: December 11, 1960  –  Label: Blue Note Records

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