(Cool, Guitar Jazz) [CD] Tal Farlow - Tal (SHM-CD Mono) - 1956 / 2016, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tal-farlow-mn0000790227/biography
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
Nearly as famous for his reluctance to play as for his outstanding abilities, guitarist Tal Farlow did not take up the instrument until he was already 21, but within a year was playing professionally and in 1948 was with Marjorie Hyams' band. While with the Red Norvo Trio (which originally included Charles Mingus) from 1949-1953, Farlow became famous in the jazz world. His huge hands and ability to play rapid yet light lines made him one of the top guitarists of the era. After six months with Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five in 1953, Farlow put together his own group, which for a time included pianist Eddie Costa. Late in 1958, Farlow settled on the East Coast, became a sign painter, and just played locally. He only made one record as a leader during 1960-1975, but emerged a bit more often during 1976-1984, recording for Concord fairly regularly before largely disappearing again. Profiled in the definitive documentary Talmage Farlow, the guitarist can be heard on his own records for Blue Note (1954), Verve, Prestige (1969), and Concord. He died of cancer July 25, 1998, at age 77.

Shortly before the release of this album, a singular honor was placed-on Talmage Holt Farlow, guitarist extraordinaire. He was named the No. 1 guitarist in jazz today and-significantly—the No. 2 guitarist in jazz history, second only to the man who served as his inspiration years before, Charlie Christian. Following on the heels of Farlow's triumph in the Down Beat Critics Poll for 1956 this latter honor was even more pervasive since this one was a poll of more than 100 of the foremost jazz musicians taken by Leonard Feather, the critic and jazz encyclopedist. "I was floored," Farlow himself exclaimed when the results were announced. "What more of an honor can any musician ask for?"
In virtually every artist worthy of the name there exists—no matter how many honors or awards come his way—a constant process of self-analysis, leading in turn to dissatisfactions that in their turn lead to strides of improvement. The artist, in short, is never satisfied with his own work. In the case of Tal Farlow, there was a day when he found himself incapable of playing his instrument fast enough—this would be when he first joined forces with the Red Norvo trio in the waning weeks of 1949. This obstacle was a sturdy one, but Farlow managed to conquer it in time. Now in this album, Farlow will tell you, the sound he coaxes from his instrument is not quite along the same lines as on preceding records. What he is striving for now, in his own phrase, is "articulation." That is to say, he is trying to give each note he plays its due-and this without losing any speed or rhythmic flow.
"I'm working for just a little more of a staccato sound," Farlow explains, "with each note getting its own sharp attack and earning its own individuality. This is the next stage, you might say, in the progress I want to make as a musician."
With a little hard listening, the change in the Farlow approach is discernible enough although it is a very subtle difference, indeed. In any case, Farlow is heard in this album with his own trio, one which he formed at the start of 1956 to play at the Composer (at 68 W. 58th St., New York City) and which, as this is written, is there yet. Along with Farlow, there is Eddie Costa, a pianist out of Pennsylvania, formerly with Joe Venuti, and a musician with quite an attack of his own (see "Yesterdays" for an example of strong bodied, engagingly percussive piano) and Vinnie Burke, a onetime guitarist himself who, after the loss of a finger in a shop accident, turned to bass and since has worked with, among others, Tony Scott, Joe Mooney, Sauter-Finegan, and the Marian McPartland group. As for Farlow, he is—so far as memory recalls—the only jazz man to be produced by Greensboro, N. C., where he was born June 7, 1921. Tal's father had tried his hand at the guitar, banjo, violin and ukulele and soon Tal was fingering a guitar. However, he took no lessons and hasn't to this day. The guitar was a hobby for Tal Farlow, sign-painting his vocation. (Farlow was still painting signs for a living as recently as 1948 while he awaited his union card in New York). In the early 1940s the Army Air Forces set up its Basic Training Center No. 10 in Greensboro and the USO, which started a program of dances for the airmen, issued a call for musicians. It was then that Farlow turned his hobby to profit and began to spend less time in his sign shop. Later, Farlow went up to New York where he was to work with the Marge Hyams unit, the Marshall Grant society band and the Red Norvo trio where, with the exception of a six-month interval with Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, he remained until forming his own trio.
The songs here are largely in the standard genre, excepting a jolly romp by trumpeter Clark Terry entitled "Chuckles," and on one of them—the Rodgers-Hart evergreen, "Isn't It Romantic"—Farlow pulls off something unusual in jazz. After the first chorus dedicated to the melody, in the second chorus he plays harmonics. By means of a different fingering system, the strings are divided rn half, as it were, and this results in the sound rising an octave with a more bell-like tone.
The artists: Tal Farlow, guitar; Eddie Costa, piano, and Vinnie Burke, bass.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/tal-mw0000649501
AllMusic Review by Michael G. Nastos
Tal Farlow was hitting his stride in 1956; he was named by Down Beat magazine critics as the very best jazz guitarist in the world, and for all the right reasons. Where other similar players of his day combined rhythmic chords with linear melodies, Farlow preferred placing single notes together in clusters, varying between harmonically richened tones based on a startling new technique. His spider-like fingers handled the guitar in a way no other player could match, and this physical approach set Farlow apart from all others. The evidence is clearly heard on this trio recording sans drummer, ably helped by the wonderful pianist Eddie Costa and bassist Vinnie Burke. At his core a bopper, Farlow fairly flies through this stack of standards with astounding dexterity, and makes it all sound so easy when in fact it is not. At his most relaxed "Isn't It Romantic" is surprisingly polite, but Farlow plays with the guitar, plucking strings and letting them briefly resonate with a sound that is compellingly arresting. But he's completely astounding on the hardest swingers like the stunningly fast Clark Terry tune "Chuckles," where he and Costa play in tandem, and Farlow actually picks a few chords. Of the other upbeat selections, "There Is No Greater Love" is fully articulated, "How About You" speeds along but is not rushed one iota, and "Anything Goes" is even faster, displaying certain detectable Asian elements from Costa. As virtuosic as Farlow's musicianship is, the sharp attack he employs is heard even on the most dour, introspective track "You Don't Know What Love Is" as he slows in an atypical ballad mood. Even the classic heartbreaker "Yesterdays" flows free of waste or pressure, even as it is swift, it is also effortless. The witty, wise and clean Farlow uses counterpoint with Burke opposite Costa, trading licks on the melody of "Broadway," and leaves the listener wanting more. As there are few Tal Farlow recordings in the marketplace, this one remains timeless, brilliantly played and conceived, and belongs in every serious mainstream jazz lovers collection.

Tal Farlow – guitar
Eddie Costa – piano
Vinnie Burke – bass