JOE FARNSWORTHTime to Swing

WYNTON MARSALIS KENNY BARRON PETER WASHINGTON

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1. The Good Shepherd (Farnsworth) 7:38

2. Hesitation (Marsalis) 5:09

3. Darn That Dream (Van Heusen / DeLange) 7:30

4. Down by the Riverside (Spiritual) 5:29

5. One for Jimmy Cobb (Farnsworth) 6:09

6. Lemuria (Barron) 4:38

7. Prelude to a Kiss (Ellington / Gordon & Mills) 7:11

8. Monk’s Dream (Monk) 7:39

9. The Star-Crossed Lovers (Ellington & Strayhorn) 5:31

10. Time Was (Luna de la Fuente, Prado Paz & Russell) 4:48

JOE FARNSWORTH � TIME TO SWINGKENNY BARRON piano PETER WASHINGTON bass JOE FARNSWORTH drums

featuring WYNTON MARSALIS trumpet (tracks 1 - 4)

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Recorded Live on December 17, 2019at Sear Sound Studio A, New York

Produced by Paul Stache & Damon SmithRecording, Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Chris Allen

Studio Assistant: Justin BergerPhotography by Jimmy & Dena Katz

Design by Damon Smith & Paul Stache

Kenny Barron appears courtesy of Impulse!

Today, I am a very grateful man. First and foremost, thanksbe to God. I want to thank Kenny Barron, Peter Washington, and Wynton Marsalis for making this music. I am forever indebted to them. Thanks to the great Billy Hart for writingthe liner notes and a special thanks to Paul Stache and Damon Smith at Smoke Sessions Records for making this record a reality. I also want to acknowledge and thank two of my teachers, Alan Dawson and Art Taylor. Special love to my parents, Roger and Anne; to my boys, David, Michael, and Christopher; and to the rest of my family for all of their help and support. And, lastly, thanks to all the jazz lovers around the world!

Joseph Farnsworth

John Coltrane said, “The term ‘classical music’ means the music of the composers and musicians of the country, more or less, as opposed to the music that people dance or sing along with, the popular music…There are different types of classical music all over the world.”

Joe Farnsworth has come to be a standard bearer, someone who understands whatever you want to call it: the jazz tradition, or America’s classical music, or a sociological experiment expressed through sound. For years, I’ve been hearing Farnsworth playing with a variety of musicians, and he is always playing the right way. With Cedar Walton, Farnsworth played perfectly for Walton. With Pharoah Sanders, Farnsworth played perfectly for Sanders.

Farnsworth has technique. A lot of technique. Farnsworth has invited me to play on concerts to feature two drummers, and I always need to put my best foot forward.

But, anybody can be a great instrumentalist. Anyone can acquire technique, you just need to practice. The difference is in musician-ship. You can be a great instrumentalist, but there are very few who have the wisdom and understanding to become significant musicians. I believe you have to play with people who have that in order to gain it.

I asked Farnsworth where he got his wisdom and understanding from, and he explained that he played a lot with Junior Cook and spent years practicing with Jimmy Lovelace. Then it all made sense to me. Cook and Lovelace were real musicians, people who under-stood the jazz tradition (or whatever you want to call it) from the inside. He credits Junior as being the first musician who talked to him about playing in 2/4, utilizing dynamics, playing “in the pocket,” and playing time like Kenny Clarke.

Farnsworth has assembled quite a trio and a quartet here. I’m impressed, and everyone I’ve mentioned this record to has been impressed as well. Everyone wants to hear it.

On piano is Kenny Barron. For me—and I should be clear, all this is just one person’s opinion—for me, there is a certain ranking of classical pianists. Hank Jones, Barry Harris and Tommy Flanagan are the top. Then there’s Cedar Walton, then Kenny Barron and I was considering Mulgrew Miller. (There may be a few others, but not many.) The level of detail these classical pianists understand is immense. All of them always sound perfect. They are musicians who are specialists in the things that “work.” These are the piano players who know all the songs and can play them at any tempo or any key. Others haven’t covered the same ground because they wanted to be more original or innovative, but these particular guys really studied the tradition. When you hear these players, and can hear four or five generations of jazz vocabulary. I think this sentiment applies to all of the musicians that Farnsworth assembled on this date, and they really fit with him.

I first started playing with Kenny a long time ago—I just looked it up, our first record dates together were in 1972, working with either Buddy Terry or Pete Yellin, and later I enjoyed the albums with John McNeil/Tom Harrell and my mentor Buck Hill—and he is so smooth for a drummer to play with. Kenny’s time just flows, and the swing happens naturally.

On bass is Peter Washington. He’s a peer of Joe Farnsworth, someone who apprenticed with the right people of that generation. Washington was perfect for Tommy Flanagan, for example. I myself particularly liked playing with Washington with Stanley Cowell. Stanley loves Washington as well, I guess all the great piano players rave about Peter Washington.

On trumpet for half of the date is Wynton Marsalis. I first played with Wynton in Ron Carter’s quartet with Wynton’s brother Bran-ford. Nobody could quite believe how good these two young brothers from New Orleans sounded. Later I talked with Jeff Watts quite a bit and watched those early Wynton bands with sincere interest. In time, of course, Wynton’s influence has grown and grown. I tell my students that Wynton Marsalis and Steve Coleman have been the biggest influences in this music in the last 20 years or more. I’m not sure if that’s true, but at least it is one way to think about it.

It’s very nice to hear Wynton in a simple quartet setting led by Joe Farnsworth. Farnsworth told me that the way Wynton could hone in on his cymbal beat while playing could bring tears to his eyes. In some ways, this disc is a follow up to Wynton’s own excellent record Live at the House of Tribes, which includes Farnsworth on drums.

Farnsworth asked his musicians what they wanted to play, and the repertoire choices suit the style of the trio and the quartet. He takes an excellent drum solo on almost every tune, and the mix stresses the clarity of the drums.

“The Good Shepherd” is an original blues. The second that Joe comes in on this opening track, you can hear the joy and mastery and tradition in his beat. It’s a “soulful” feeling that is reminiscent of Horace Silver and Milt Jackson. It’s often referred to as the “feel” or “groove” but it’s also the humor, the love.

“Hesitation” is a rhythm changes piece by Wynton, originally recorded with Branford, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. Comparing that earlier recording with this one shows how much Wynton’s style has evolved over the years. In the piano solo, Kenny reminds us that he could comfortably play with Ornette Coleman. Farnsworth quotes the melody in his solo.

“Darn That Dream” is one of those familiar standards that somehow seems fresh every time we hear it. A breath of romance. This tempo is a “walking ballad,” something not too slow, something you can still dance to. It’s up to Farnsworth to make sure the tempo doesn’t sink, and he does that job just right. You can hear that he is playing his bass drum on all quarter notes. To me, this implies that he has been around some older musicians, since I myself learned this kind of concept by being around older musicians. When I think of someone playing 4/4 on the bass drum during a ballad, I think of someone like Jimmy Lovelace, who mentored Farnsworth. (It’s the sort of approach you also learn playing with great singers. Farnsworth recently recorded with Mary Stallings for Smoke Sessions.)

“Down by the Riverside” we find a church: obviously a church in New Orleans. On this track you can hear Farnsworth’s love of Count Basie’s drummer Sonny Payne. Farnsworth told me that when

Wynton suggested playing this particular tune at the session, there was an instant connection to his youth. His best friend’s father used to sing it to him when he was a child and he always remembers how happy he looked as he sang.

“One for Jimmy Cobb” is a drum solo that I hear almost as a suite next to the groove of “Down by the Riverside.” A great drum solo! Farnsworth uses mallets and everything else to tell a story in rhythm. It begins and ends with a tambourine which is an instrument that I associate with New Orleans. It shares a similar tempo to the previous track and almost sounds like a suite. Before I was even aware that this piece was a dedication to the late master Jimmy Cobb, I noted the organization of this solo and Farnsworth’s constant ability to clearly play the rhythmic form in his solos and exchanges. The only person to whom I can compare him more than anybody else in this regard is Jimmy Cobb. Max Roach was the premier drum soloist, Farnsworth and I could talk about Max for hours together. I wish Max could hear Farnsworth here.

“Lumeria” begins the trio set, a workout on one of Barron’s up-tempo pieces. They are playing!

“Prelude to a Kiss” adds a Bossa Nova groove to a famous Duke Ellington ballad. I can be quite critical of how drummers play a Bossa: I learned my way from Joao Gilberto. However—of course—Farnsworth can play a Bossa perfectly, just like everything else.

“Monk’s Dream” starts with an 8-bar drum solo. I stopped and lis-tened to that intro a few times, it was so melodic and inspired. The band really sounds good on this track, Peter Washington has such a good and musical approach at all times, both as an accompanist and as a soloist. Farnsworth quotes Monk’s “Bright Mississippi” during his solo.

“The Star-Crossed Lovers” is another famous bit of Ellingtonia, this time co-credited to the great Billy Strayhorn. Kenny Barron on a ballad like this is all you need, really.

“Time Was” might be best known from John Coltrane, who recorded this standard on his very first record date as a leader.

Joe Farnsworth is one of the rhythm philosophers. Jazz implies improvisation. Improvisation implies composition. The drummer is like the equivalent of a conductor of a symphony orchestra in the sense that he must know the music. Somehow the conductor keeps perfect time for 80 musicians without hitting anything. How does he do that? It’s a result of his knowledge of the music, and the enthusiasm that this knowledge gives him is what he shares with the rest of the orchestra. I think that’s what Farnsworth does.

There’s a tradition of nicknames being used to describe the feeling that certain musicians evoke. They would often refer to the duo of Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins as the “Magic Carpet.” When cats used to go see Eddie Moore play, they would call him, “Super Groove.” They called Jimmy Cobb, “Mr. Happy Beat.” This whole record is happy.

BILLY HARTJuly 2020

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