Music Monday: Joe Farrell

People who read this blog know a bit about what I listened to this week. In fact, I live blogged some of it on Thanksgiving. 

The last few days, though, I’ve been enjoying the three albums by saxophone (and woodwind) player Joe Farrell albums recorded with CTI in the early 1970s. These albums embody Farrell’s jazz identity even as he explored a wide range of genres, collaborations, and ensembles.

The Joe Farrell Quartet’s first studio album, Joe Farrell, with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin as well as Jack DeJohnette on drums and Dave Holland on bass dances along the trailing edge of hard bop and the dawn of post-bop. It’s a fantastic embodiment of early 1970s jazz:

This album leads almost perfectly into what some critics regard as his masterpiece. Chick Corea’s electric piano and Airto Moreira’s drums pushes the album toward fusion in a way that John McLaughlin’s guitar didn’t, but it also feels like its feet are firmly set in the ragged edges of hard bop. Maybe these categories are meaningless, but the album is still wonderful:

Finally, Farrell finally feels like he’s found a new voice with Herbie Hancock on electric piano with Stanley Clarke on bass and John DeJohnette on drums. Farrell uses flute and soprano sax to stay well above the soundscapes being laid down by Hancock, Clarke and DeJohnette. 

The CTI production on all these albums tends toward the lush which I enjoy, but create an unmistakably 1970s vibe to these albums. Farrell’s saxophone tends to be pushed forward in the mix so that it really pops out. At times, this is almost too much especially when his soprano saxophone is etching deep grooves in the rhythm section, but you won’t forget how his tone carves through the texture of these tracks.