MOSAIC RECORDS BOOKLET

Guitarist Howard Alden has recorded with everyone from Ruby Braff and Wild Bill Davison to fellow Mosaic contributors Dick Sudhalter and Loren Schoenberg. His duets with George Van Eps must be heard to be believed. On the subject of friend and idol Tal Farlow, he expounds passionately about the man, his life and his music.

In the age of microsizing, every Mosaic Records Box Set booklet is still 11 x 11 inches to allow our customers to appreciate all the extras we put into printing them (and for easier reading).

SOUND QUALITY

All the music in this set was transferred from the original masters in 24-bit resolution and mastered by Malcolm Addey.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photo Copyright © Protected
Tal Farlow
Francis Wolff and Chuck Stewart are among the photographers represented.

SAMPLE RECORDING SESSION

November 15th & 16th, 1954

Tal’s second record date for Norman Granz was recorded in Los Angeles with LA-based musicians, using the piano of Gerry Wiggins instead of a second guitar. He again draws mostly from the classic American songbook, with one original and an ad-lib blues thrown in. They start out with a Rodgers and Hart’s I Like To Recognize The Tune. After setting up the rhythm of the melody with Chico Hamilton’s brushes, Ray Brown plays the melody of the first eight, then Tal comes in for the second eight. His sound is richer and mellower than on the previous date for Granz. He spins four choruses supported by Wiggins’ comping, slowly building in intensity, before taking it out with a short ending. Then comes a bright Strike Up The Band, starting and ending with the ominous sounding verse. Again Tal is the only soloist.

For Autumn In New York, Tal tunes his fifth (A) string down an octave, extending the bass range of his guitar as low as the seven string guitar used by George Van Eps. This enables him to play a rubato and harmonically rich solo chorus first, playing two more choruses with the rhythm section. This track attracted so much attention that some re-releases of this album were entitled Autumn In New York rather than the original The Artistry of Tal Farlow.

And She Remembers Me is an original very loosely based on I’ll Remember April. On the blowing, Tal improvises on the exact chord changes of that tune, propelled by Chico Hamilton’s tasteful brushwork. He ends the tune with a long improvised cadenza before coming to a stop. Then back to Rodgers and Hart for Little Girl Blue. This is given a gentle chordal reading, with some harmonics brushed with the palm of the right hand occasionally thrown in. On the rubato solo guitar interlude, we become aware that Tal is using the guitar with the fifth string down an octave again, providing some rich chordal sounds. Another Rodgers and Hart classic, Have You Met Miss Jones? follows, featuring a couple of choruses from Gerry Wiggins inbetween Tal’s articulate up-tempo blowing.

Gerry Wiggins set’s the mood for Tal’s Blues with two swinging choruses before Tal comes in with a nice mixture of laid-back, funky guitar phrases and double time figures. We hear from Ray Brown also before Tal returns for more, eventually settling into the riff that closes the performance. The session ends with Cherokee, played at a breakneck tempo, starting with just Tal and Ray, and ending that way as well.