Collection: Art Farmer

Born Arthur Stewart Farmer on 21 August 1928 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, an hour before his identical twin brother Addison Farmer (bassist). Influenced by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, and especially Freddie Webster for sound, Farmer left school to tour with Johnny Otis. He moved to Los Angeles in 1945 with twin brother Addison, playing with Horace Henderson, Floyd Ray, Jimmy Mundy, Johnny Otis, Jay McShann, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, and Dexter Gordon. He recorded "Farmer's Market" with Wardell Gray. In 1953 he settled in New York and played in the Lionel Hampton band alongside Clifford Brown, Quincy Jones, and Gigi Gryce. He had his first recording session as leader on 2 July 1953. He worked with Gigi Gryce (1954-56), Horace Silver (1956-58), Gerry Mulligan (1958-59), Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus.

Farmer co-founded the Jazztet with Benny Golson in 1959, which ran until 1962 and reformed in 1982. In the early 1960s he switched from trumpet to flugelhorn, seeking a warmer, mellower sound and helping to establish the flugelhorn as a soloist's instrument in jazz. He co-led a band with guitarist Jim Hall until 1964. In 1968 Farmer moved to Vienna and joined the Austrian Radio Orchestra, continuing to tour internationally. In 1989 he helped create a trumpet-flugelhorn hybrid called the flumpet with instrument maker David Monette. In 1994 he received the Austrian Gold Medal of Merit and a Lifetime Achievement Concert was held at Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1999 he was named an NEA Jazz Master. Farmer recorded more than 50 albums under his own name, a dozen with the Jazztet, and dozens more with other leaders. His playing is known for its lyricism, warmth of tone, and sensitivity. He died on 4 October 1999.