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Tenor saxophonist, but also a soprano player and flautist of a certain caliber, Joe Farrell, born Joseph Carl Firrantello, is one of those figures who slipped too quickly into an oblivion, and who deserve more attention from fans of good music.
Between the late sixties and the early seventies, he was one of those musicians who, starting from a substantial jazz background (Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Big Band, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea's Return To Forever, Charles Mingus), aimed to expand their lexicon by introducing into their music stimuli from adjacent languages of funk, soul, and rock, embracing the motto "let's do something different". The records recorded by Farrell for CTI, the label of the legendary producer Creed Taylor and recorded under the aegis of sound wizard Rudy Van Gelder, while not miracles, are small, delightful pearls of that hybrid of musical genres that at the time could not yet be called "fusion". A hybrid still immature if you will, but no less fascinating for that reason.
Out of sheer personal taste, I chose to review "Upon This Rock" from 1974, but the previous "Penny Arcade" and the following "Canned Funk" also have excellent credentials. Firstly, Farrell finds a great collaborator in his guitar alter ego Joe Beck - no relation to the much more famous Jeff, although in terms of mastery of both jazz and rock, there's no joking here either... On bass, we find the solid Herb Bushler, completing the rhythm section are Jim Madison and Steve Gadd alternating on drums, and Don Alias on percussion. Herbie Hancock joins the party in the delightful "I Won't Be There", whose graceful Latin movements and frenzied flute solos might recall the atmosphere of Jaco Pastorius' debut album.
The seventies sound fans will find plenty to sink their teeth into: ample duration, two tracks per LP side, vintage guitars, daring sound convolutions in the written parts, and bleeding, funky improvisations. At every turn, one might almost see the sleek sedan of Starsky and Hutch coming around the corner...
Joe Beck often overdubs multiple guitar lines, over which Farrell moves with good taste and energy. Sax and guitar pass the baton with seasoned mastery, Beck takes a couple of noteworthy solos, alternating refined jazzy fingerings with more acidic and distinctly rock moments. The atmosphere is often saturated and electrifying, and the scarce forty minutes of the record fly by in the blink of an eye. You'll want more...
An interesting character, Joe Farrell. Someone who had the luxury of telling Chick Corea to get lost when the latter proposed he join the crass Scientology sect. Someone who left us far too soon, unfortunately, taken by drugs at just 49 years old.
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