Recorded in November 1971
I was a child during the 1970s. So I didn't discover jazz until the 1980s, when I was in high school and college. But, unknown to me at the time, I heard Joe Farrell regularly all through my childhood. My father was a huge Hall & Oates fan, and I grew up hearing Abandoned Luncheonette. It was one of my Dad's favorite LPs, and Farrell plays on four of the album's nine cuts. So the sound of that entire record -- including Farrell's tenor -- is imprinted on my mind's ear, an inescapable part of my childhood. It was many years later, after hearing Farrell's sideman work with Chick Corea, Elvin Jones and Jaki Byard, that I realized why Farrell's tenor sounded so right. He was the sax man from Abandoned Luncheonette!
Outback features a stellar band. Farrell had been in Elvin's bands since the drummer formed his pianoless trio with Jimmy Garrison in the late-60s, so the two musicians were very familiar with one another. Farrell also worked regularly with Chick Corea; for example, he appears on Corea's first release as a leader, Tones for Joan's Bones (Atlantic, 1968). Three months after recording Outback, he joined Chick Corea (and Airto Moreira) to make make Return to Forever for ECM. And by 1971 Buster Williams was already a young master of his instrument. Given the excellent compositions and the band's collective firepower, I guess it's no surprise that Outback is one of my favorites.
More Joe Farrell
Some other Joe Farrell favorites (as a leader) from the 1970s:
- Joe Farrell Quartet (CTI, 1970)
- Moon Germs (CTI, 1972)
- Skateboard Park (Xanadu, 1979)
- Sonic Text (Contemporary, 1980, recorded November 1979)
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