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Joe Farrell

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Joe Farrell was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, mainly on saxophone and flute. He was born in Chicago Heights in 1937 as Joseph Carl Firrantello. As a child he played flute and clarinet. After his studies in Urbana, in 1959, he moved to New York to work as a freelancer. He played in Ralph Marterie's band, with Maynard Ferguson and in the orchestra of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and recorded with Charles Mingus, Andrew Hill, Jaki Byard and Elvin Jones. After John Coltrane's death, Elvin Jones formed a trio without piano with Jimmy Garrison and Farrell.

Music and breakthrough

From the late 1960s and through the 1970s he played with Chick Corea and Return to Forever. He plays flute on the first recording of Spain, a jazz standard by Corea. His best-known records under his own name appeared on the label CTI. He also played on many sessions. He played a flute solo on Aretha Franklin's Until You Come Back to Me from 1973 and on the Santana song When I Look into Your Eyes. In 1976 he made the duo album Benson and Farrell with George Benson, and in 1979 Flute Talk with Sam Most, billed as a duet between the two best jazz flautists in the world.

Influence

His last recordings are on Three-Way Mirror from 1987, with Airto and Flora Purim. Farrell died in 1986. He showed that the flute can be a full solo voice in jazz and fusion, and that a jazz player also had a role in soul and Latin music.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Spain by Chick Corea and Return to Forever and notice Farrell's flute, which floats light and fast above the Latin rhythm.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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See also

Categories: Artists