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Tal Farlow

Tal Farlow was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and was brought up in a musical atmosphere. His father played several musical instruments, including some of the fretted ones, while the piano in the house was played by his mother and his sister, who became a fine classical pianist. Tal trained as a signwriter and continued with this work throughout his life in parallel with his music.

He listened to the radio and heard outside broadcasts of the big bands of the day, bands like Artie Shaw, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman. It was then that he first heard Charlie Christian playing and started to copy the solos. During the war, he was stationed in Greensboro. He worked there with a lot of musicians who had come from up north.

It was sometime after this, while Tal was working for the vibraphonist Dardanelle, that he worked the Copacabana Lounge in New York. While he was there he regularly visited 52nd Street to soak up the sounds of some more of his favourite musicians, namely Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and some of the other members of the bop era. When Jimmy (Lyons) returned, Tal and bassist Lennie de Franco (Buddy's brother) all set off to New York to get their local 802 union cards.

Shortly afterwards Tal worked with the Marjorie Hyams trio. Again it was with vibes. For a while they worked at the Three Deuces opposite Charlie Parker's group, which featured Miles Davis and Al Haig. Tal seemed to have an affinity with vibraphone players - he worked with Milt Jackson when he joined Buddy de Franco's group and then, at the end of 1949, he finally joined Red Norvo's trio when he took Mundell Lowe's place. While in New York, Tal lived in an apartment house on West 93rd Street. It seems to have acted like a honey-pot on the jazz musicians in town. Guitarists Jimmy Raney and Sal Salvador lived there and others like Johnny Smith and John Collins would call by to join the frequent jam sessions held there. Various other musicians lived there from time to time, including Phil Woods, Joe Morello and Chuck Andrews. Tal probably never envisaged the success he was about to have, when he joined Red Norvo's trio. At first Tal struggled to keep up with Norvo's very fast tempos but soon improved his technique so much that he became one of the fastest guitarists in the world at that time. Within a year they were recording and soon became one of the most popular groups of the fifties, and the ideas Tal used brought him to the forefront among jazz musicians. He won the Down Beat New Star Award in 1954 and the Critics Poll in 1956.

Tal left Red in 1953, to join Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five for six months, but returned to work with him for a further year straight afterwards. When Tal left Red for the second time, he formed his own group with Eddie Costa on vibes and the bassist Vinnie Burke. Over the next three years this trio made a number of very successful records and Tal won several awards. Apart from his tremendous speed of execution he had developed a very rich sense of harmony for which his very large hands were a tremendous asset being able to stretch to play chords which most players could not reach. He also developed great facility in playing artificial harmonics and a number of other devices such as tapping the strings to give a very realistic imitation of bongo drums. The trio played regularly at the Composers Club in Manhattan until Tal married in 1958, and moved out to Seabright, New Jersey. Apart from going back to sign painting, he carried on playing with various musicians.

During the 1970' Tal has been in and out of things. He participated in several albums produced by Schlitten, including the late Sonny Criss' 'Up, Up And Away' for Prestige and Sam Most's 'Mostly Flute' for Xanadu. There were two Farlow albums on Concord, and Tal did play the Newport and Concord festivals, touring a bit with a Newport group.

In the 1980s Tal became much more visible. He made half a dozen recordings for the Concord label and began playing much further afield again - including Europe and even Japan. His playing had developed and was now more lyrical with richer harmony than ever before although perhaps with a little trade off against outright speed. He would often deputise for one of Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, or Charlie Byrd in the "Great Guitars" band when needed.

Tal continued to play concerts world wide until the mid 1990s when he slowed down a little although he still remained very busy in his native country with concerts and workshops. In 1997 he was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. He continued to teach but sadly was unable to play in public any more and he passed away in 1998.
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Tal Farlow: Tal Farlow Guitar Genius: The LA Sessions

Read "Tal Farlow Guitar Genius: The LA Sessions" reviewed by Nic Jones

by Nic Jones
November 27, 2006

The word “genius" is used far too much, but Guitar Genius is an apposite term for a performance by Tal Farlow, and its use is fully justified with regards to this two-disc set.

Farlow was apparently blessed with unusually large hands, which on a practical level enabled him literally to reach places that were beyond a lot of other guitarists. But this would have counted for nothing if he had not allied such an attribute with equally exceptional harmonic and ...

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Album Review

Tal Farlow Trio: The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow

by Mike Neely
July 1, 2000

The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow not only presents Farlow at his swinging best but also features the brilliant pianist Eddie Costa in one of his too few recordings. In many ways this is a duet recording with Farlow and Costa playing off of each other above a traditional bass accompaniment. In this case “play" is no casual adjective, the chemistry between Farlow and Costa is extraordinary with lively intertwining solos and double voicings demonstrating their intuitive rapport.

Bassist Vinnie ...

Album Review

Tal Farlow & Red Norvo: On Stage

by Jim Santella
January 1, 2000

This reunion between Tal Farlow and Red Norvo was recorded at the 1976 Concord Jazz Festival and originally released in 1981. Now available on CD, the session marked their first time together in many years. Along with Charles Mingus, Farlow was a member of the Red Norvo Trio of 1949. Mingus stayed for only a brief time, but the guitarist stayed with him until 1953. Then the two went their separate ways; Farlow preferring to stay home and perform at ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Tal Farlow

Source: Michael Ricci
June 7, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Tal Farlow's birthday today!

TV / Film

Tal Farlow Doc and 10 Tracks

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 9, 2022

Tal Farlow is widely considered the father of the modern jazz guitar. His commanding attack and speed had much to do with the large size of his hands. As for his robust sense of swing and rich jazz-chord voicings, they were unbeatable. Born in 1921, Farlow was self-taught and deeply influenced by Benny Goodman's guitarist Charlie Christian. His first major recording session was as a member of the Red Norvo Trio in 1950, featuring Norvo on vibes and Charles Mingus ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Tal Farlow

Source: Michael Ricci
June 7, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Tal Farlow's birthday today!

TV / Film

Documentary: Tal Farlow

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 12, 2021

Self-taught, guitarist Tal Farlow was what's known as a big player. Influenced by Bud Powell, he could cover a great deal of ground on the neck of his electric guitar with his large hands. When he began recording as a leader in April 1954 for Blue Note, he had already been recording as a sideman for nine years. Two of those years were spent as a member of the Red Norvo Trio, with Norvo on vibes and Charles Mingus on ...
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