So I’d asked my friend Dan Axelrod to post a comment on Tal Farlow, and he did. It appears elsewhere on the site, but to simplify things, here it is:
“Yeah…the Artistry -later released as Autumn in NY. On that tune, Tal used a special tuning to achieve a 7 string sound, in which a low bass note replaced his 5th string. He recorded that chord melody section alone, knowing it would be inserted later with a tape splice. But he told me he’d spent so much time working out that detailed chord melody solo… that he didn’t realize that he neglected to ever blow over those complicated changes of the song…. and when the melody chorus ended and it was time to improvise, Tal suddenly realized that he didn’t know the chords! By the 7th bar, he didn’t know where the hell he was, he was completely lost and the tape was rolling! Not knowing what to do, he just listened to each piano chord and tried to fake his way thru a blowing chorus. A trained ear familiar with Tal in fact, could probably spot a bit more reticence and ’start and stop’ from him than usual in that solo -especially in contrast to the other clear and brilliant improvisations on that great record-”
Dan Axelrod
Rather than have you all hunt down your copies of The Artistry of Tal Farlow — those of you lucky enough to have copies of The Artistry of Tal Farlow — I decided to copy the track and put it here on the site. Enjoy.
14-autumn-in-new-york
