Tal Farlow - Tal (1981 Japanese Verve Mono Vinyl LP)

Tal Farlow - Tal | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese Verve Records Mono Reissue (18MJ 9019, Polydor K.K.)

• A drumless trio session from the guitarist Down Beat critics voted the best in the world in 1956, recorded the same year with pianist Eddie Costa and bassist Vinnie Burke at the peak of Farlow’s powers, just before he walked away from the music.
• Eight tracks of standards and bebop, including Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”, Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays”, a six-minute “Broadway” and Clark Terry’s “Chuckles”, with Costa’s percussive piano and Burke’s walking bass providing all the drive the music needs.
• 1981 Japanese mono reissue in the Best Jazz Collection Verve / ザ・スペシャル1800 series, manufactured by Polydor K.K. Originally released on Norgran MGV-8021.

Tal Farlow didn’t pick up a guitar until he was twenty-one. Within a few years he was playing with Red Norvo and Charles Mingus. By 1956 he was considered the best jazz guitarist alive, with hands so large he was nicknamed “Octopus” for the way they covered the fretboard. Tal, recorded on June 5, 1956, is the album that makes the clearest case for all of it. The format is ruthlessly simple: guitar, piano, bass, no drums. Everything depends on the interplay between Farlow and Eddie Costa, a pianist from Atlas, Pennsylvania, whose attack was unusually percussive for a jazz player. Vinnie Burke’s walking bass fills the rhythmic gap that a drummer would normally occupy. The three of them recorded The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow a week or two earlier in the same configuration. Both albums are considered among Farlow’s finest, but Tal has the edge for its economy. Norman Granz produced. The material is all standards: “Isn’t It Romantic”, “There Is No Greater Love”, Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”, “Yesterdays”. Clark Terry’s “Chuckles” is the one non-standard composition.

Two years after this session, Farlow moved to Sea Bright, New Jersey, and more or less retired from performing. He became a sign painter. He played locally and showed up at Newport in the summers, but he didn’t go back into a studio until a 1969 Prestige date called The Return of Tal Farlow. In 1960, Gibson approached him to design a signature guitar model, making him one of only three jazz players (alongside Johnny Smith and Barney Kessel) to receive one. Costa never got to make that kind of long story. He was killed in a car accident in Manhattan in 1962, at thirty-one. These 1956 sessions with Farlow are some of the best recordings he left behind. This copy is the 1981 Japanese mono reissue on Verve, pressed by Polydor K.K. as part of the Best Jazz Collection Verve limited edition series.