Outback - Joe Farrell | Jazzbo Notes

Mar

29

Outback - Joe Farrell

≡ Category: 1970s, Essential, Hard Bop, Music Reviews, Post Bop |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

The last couple of CDs I reviewed before this were very demanding musically, with abstract melodies, intentionally ambiguous harmonies, and cryptic improvisations. Frankly, writing about them gave me a bit of a headache. I was starting to worry that I was getting soft in my old age, losing my sophistication. Who knows, maybe I am, but it’s sure a relief to review a recording like Outback.

The tunes are mostly pretty conventional, even mainstream, but with playing this gorgeous and transparent, it would be churlish to complain.

All of the players (Farrell, woodwinds and saxes; Elvin Jones, drums; Chick Corea, electric piano; Buster Williams, bass, Airto Moreira, percussion) coax uniformly lovely sounds out of their instruments — no harsh squealing, distortion or buzzing here. Buster Williams in particular has a luscious, warm, round tone on the acoustic bass. Every note has a singing quality. You almost have the feeling you could hum along with the solos (an illusion, but a pleasant one).

The high point of the session has got to be Farrell’s tune November 68th, which features a chromatic harmony scheme and a 12/8 time feel, courtesy of Elvin, which gives the tune an irrestistable forward momentum. Farrell churns out chorus after chorus of soaring improvisation on tenor from a seemingly bottomless well of ideas, gutsy and visceral, but always lyrical. Corea shows how the electric piano can be a deeply personal instrument in the right hands, egging on Farrell with well-placed rhythmic accents and contributing crystalline, impossibly elegant melodic lines during his own solo.

As was not uncommon with many of the great recordings from this time period, we have Miles Davis and Elvin Jones to thank for the indirect aggregation of this dream band. Farrell had played in Elvin’s bands. Buster Williams had played on Miles’ Sorcerer. Corea and Airto had played together on Miles’ Bitches Brew. Thanks to Elvin and Miles, these guys all knew each other and the art of jazz is infinitely the better for it.

Incidentally, Corea, Airto, and Farrell would all later participate in Return to Forever’s classic Light as a Feather session, which is temperamentally very similar to Outback.