Tal Farlow

Tal Farlow was a brilliant Bop guitarist who became a jazz sensation in 1949 when he joined the same forward-looking Red Norvo Trio that brought Charles Mingus back into the music business. His own solo albums were wonderful, with Farlow equally comfortable with Bop and Cool musicians. However, much like West Coast guitarist Laurindo Almeida, he hated life on the road and retired from the limelight for a fifteen-year stretch. In 1975, he began releasing a string of winning albums on the Concord label that were just as hot as the ones he made for Verve in the '50s. If Tal Farlow ever played a mediocre solo, it seems to have never been recorded.