Discographies are never complete. They are always works in progress as new sessions and corrections to existing ones come along, sometimes months or even years after the original publication date.
A recent example of this phenomenon occurred when my friend and collaborator Lynne Mueller brought to my attention an Art Farmer CD in her collection of which I had no knowledge. There are always mixed emotions when a discovery like this is made, gratitude for being able to make the discography more complete, but embarrassment for having missed the item despite hours/days/months of searching for every possible session that Farmer participated in. Since his career spanned 50 years and, at this point, includes over 500 sessions, I guess I could forgive myself for a couple of omissions. But this one was a bit surprising.
The CD in question is The Art Farmer Quintet Live at Jazzland, a 2000 release from Koch Jazz in Austria. Recorded in Vienna in January 1998, the ensemble features two frequent European collaborators of Farmer, saxophonist Harry Sokal and the late pianist Fritz Pauer (1943-2012) who contributed two of his own compositions, “Fairytale Countryside” and “Cherokee Sketches.” Although recorded towards the end of his life (he died October 4, 1999), Farmer’s playing is strong on the six tracks included on the CD.
For an album by one of the most respected of modern jazz trumpeters, this one is unexpectedly under the radar. As of this writing (August 25, 2018) it is not found in The Jazz Discography, Discogs, Apple Music or Spotify. It does have a Wikipedia Page (in Italian) and is listed in Rate Your Music, Amazon (UK but NOT USA) and several Japanese sites. Five of the six tracks can be auditioned on YouTube.
I suspect the reason why, 18 years after its release, it is so hard to find and poorly documented involves limited distribution. At any rate, it is now part of Farmer’s discography, part 4.
Has anyone come across this CD?
Leave a Reply