Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Blu-spec CD of the Month - "Art Farmer: Crawl Space"

Blu-spec CD of the Month
Art Farmer: "Crawl Space" (CTI/King KICJ 2503)

Rating: 
**** (musical performance & sonic quality)

Produced by Creed Taylor
Arranged by Dave Grusin & Fritz Pauer
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder @ Van Gelder Studios (Englewood Cliffs, NJ) in January, 1977
Cover Photo: White Gate
Album Design: Sib Chalawick & Carole Kowalchuck

Featuring: Art Farmer (trumpet & flugelhorn), Dave Grusin (Fender Rhodes electric piano), George Mraz (bass), Will Lee (electric bass), Steve Gadd (drums), Eric Gale (guitar), Jeremy Steig (flute)

One of Farmer's best sessions for CTI. I only don't give it 5 stars because of Grusin's boring title track. But the other tunes are top class. There's a beautiful ballad by Austrian pianist Fritz Pauer ("Siddharta") and two lovely medium-tempo songs on which Dave Grusin performs delightful solos on Fender Rhodes: Farmer's "Petite Belle" and Grusin's own "Chanson." Farmer sounds impeccable throughout the album, soloing with perfect articulation over a tight rhythm section.

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