Happy Birthday Art Farmer!
Arthur Stewart Farmer, August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999.
I would like to say a special Happy Birthday to one of my personal mentors, Art Farmer. Art began performing as a jazz trumpeter in the 1940’s and 50’s. He, along with Clark Terry, was influential in bringing the flugelhorn into the sounds of jazz. He also later played what I just learned was called a Flumpet, a combination trumpet and flugelhorn designed for him by David Monette.
In the mid 40’s he started playing professionally in Los Angeles, California with the bands of Johnny Otis, Roy Porter, Benny Carter and Jay McShann and others. Many of these groups also featured his identical twin brother and bass player Addison Farmer. In 1953 he joined the Lionel Hampton orchestra, playing alongside trumpeters Clifford Brown and Quincy Jones. During his career he played with many of the jazz greats, including Gigi Gryce, Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Benny Golson and McCoy Tyner, among others. Art played in a trio with Jim Hall and Steve Swallow during 1962-64. In 1968, Art moved to Vienna where he joined the Austrian Radio Orchestra, worked with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band and toured Europe with his own groups. In the 1980s Farmer began to visit the United States more often and remained greatly in demand up until his death on October 4, 1999.
Art played beautifully lyrical and inventive passages that really produced a unique complimentary quality to his bop oriented music. Art left us with a large number of quality recordings to enjoy.
