Birth name Talmage Holt Farlow Labels Fantasy, Concord Genres Jazz | Occupation(s) Musician Name Tal Farlow Instruments Guitar Role Guitarist | |
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Born June 7, 1921
Greensboro, North Carolina, United States ( 1921-06-07 ) Died July 25, 1998, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Movies Great Guitars of Jazz: Live, Red Norvo: Jazz Masters Series Albums The Swinging Guitar of, Tal, Chromatic Palette, The Return of Tal Farlow, Cookin' on all Burners | ||
Associated acts Red Norvo, Artie Shaw | ||
Gibson tal farlow hollowbody electric guitar viceroy brown
Talmage Holt Farlow (June 7, 1921 – July 25, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed "Octopus" because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard. Where guitarists of his day combined rhythmic chords with linear melodies, Farlow placed single notes together in clusters, varying between harmonically enriched tones. As music critic Stuart Nicholson put it, "In terms of guitar prowess it was the equivalent of Roger Bannister breaking the four minute mile."
Contents
- Gibson tal farlow hollowbody electric guitar viceroy brown
- Tal farlow tal farlow 78
- Biography
- As leader
- As sideman
- References
Tal farlow tal farlow 78
Biography
Talmage Holt Farlow was born in Greensboro, in 1921. He taught himself how to play guitar, which he started when he was twenty-two years old.. He learned chord melodies by playing a mandolin tuned like a ukulele. He said playing the ukulele was the reason he used the higher four strings on the guitar for the melody and chord structure, with the two bottom strings for bass counterpoint, which he played with his thumb. His only professional training was as an apprentice sign painter. He requested the night shift so he could listen to big band standards on the shop radio. He listened to Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Eddie Lang. His career was influenced by hearing Charlie Christian playing electric guitar with the Benny Goodman band. He said he made his own electric guitar because he couldn't afford one.
Farlow employed artificial harmonics and tapped his guitar for percussion, creating a flat, snare drum sound or a hollow backbeat like the bongos. His large, quick hands earned him the nickname "The Octopus".
He caught the public's attention in 1949 when he was in a trio with Red Norvo and Charles Mingus. In 1953, he was a member of the Gramercy Five led by Artie Shaw, and two years later he led his own trio with Vinnie Burke and Eddie Costa in New York City. After getting married in 1958, he partially retired and settled in Sea Bright, New Jersey, returning to a career as a sign painter. He continued to play occasional dates in local clubs. In 1962 the Gibson Guitar Corporation, with Farlow's participation, produced the "Tal Farlow" model. He made one album as a leader from 1960–1975.
In 1976, Farlow started recording again. A documentary about him was released in 1981.
Farlow died of esophageal cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on July 25, 1998, at the age of 77.
As leader
As sideman
With Sonny Criss
With the Metronome All-Stars
With Oscar Pettiford