Search - Art Farmer :: Blame It on My Youth

Prize of my collection

Galen | 04/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the prize of my collection. I have been thrilling to this cd for over 5 years now and when I put it on I dont want to hear anything else for days afterwards. Every performer plays masterfully and the balance between the instruments is so perfectly recorded that you can hear each with perfect clarity at all times. Truly Helen Keane should be counted as member of the group. This cd doesnt break ground, it is not provacative, it is just jazz played better than anything else recorded. Just buy it and you will wish they had recorded more than 3 cds together like the rest of us fans of this cd."

Impeccable work of art

Ricard Giner (cootie@cootiesjazz.co | Brighton, UK | 06/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Blame It On My Youth is a major work of art. It perfectly integrates composition, improvisation and studio recording technique. There are no Art Farmer originals, they're all judiciously selected pieces, carefully ordered to produce a cohesive whole and bringing out beautifully crafted interpretations from the musicians. The sound, the tempo and the material fall unambiguously into the hard bop category, but the nature of the treatment is undeniably contemporary: it makes a virtue of academic precision but it maintains a distinct emotional engagement, suggesting that the musicians' feelings about the music involve tenderness, awe, and a charmed curiosity.The tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan contributes one arresting up-tempo composition, "Third Avenue", which is followed by a slower Benny Carter number, the utterly luxurious "Summer Serenade". The whole event is held together magisterially by Victor Lewis, a brilliant, eclectic drummer whose contribution to the architecture of album is central. Blame It On My Youth provides not just increasing pleasure on every listening, it also provides some hope, against the sceptics, that jazz has still a lot of life left in it."

Smooth jazz from a group of masters

R. J. Marsella | California | 11/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Art Farmer combines one of the most beautiful of trumpet tones with a tremendous song selection while backed by absolutely brilliant players to create a CD that is immensely pleasurable to listen to. Clifford Jordan and Art Farmer together can create melodic lines that compare to some of the greatest trumpet -sax duos in bop history. There is something more than just technical vituosity at play here though. This CD has a mood setting quality that proves that the best jazz involves a level of musical interpretation that is bigger than the sum of it's parts."