Dan Millheim

OK "Peeps" I need some opinions. It is my day off and I am sitting in the 'ol leather "easy" listening to some great jazz. I plop on Art Farmers "Tonk" CD for the umpteenth time and can't shake a theory I have come to. Oh man, am I going to get in trouble for this. "TONK" is TANK! I can't stand the TONE Art gets from the mythical Flumpet. I know it was a first gen. issue but it sounds so pinched and thin and if I had not heard others get an amazing sultry dark sound from this horn I would have no interest in this instrument from this recording...it is painful! Not trying to bash the departed leads me to another theory I have. Who cares, right (ha).

(Some)Technical Jazz players tend to sound the same way to me when they try slower, emotive, ballad stuff. I mean give them a bunch of notes and I am in awe of their changes, technique, articulation, etc., but slow it down and blow and it is OFTEN, not always, a big NO for me? Same goes for "screamers" playing schmooze...yipes! Maybe it's just me or it is based on their style of playing, equipment choices and focus of sound. If it is, and IMHO it is, then why do they record stuff and risk their commercial success by going outside their amazing focus and mastery?

OK, I said it...now come after me, but be gentle. The ice pack in the fridge would require me to get off my comfortable chair ha.

trpt2345

Don't say nothin bad about Art or we'll have to fight.

Michael McLaughlin

If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

trumpetdiva1

Art was the master at slower tempos. His wonderful lyricism was demonstrated in his ballad playing. Have you ever listened to his sound on the recording, “Modern Art?” Have you heard him play “Darn That Dream” from the recording? What a work of Art! What an inspiration!

I do not know about his sound on the flumpet, but I could listen to his sound on trumpet and especially flugelhorn all the time. Listen to his pre-flumpet recordings over and over again. Maybe you will find what I found out and discover the marvelous gift that he gave to us.

BADBOY-DON

Hummm?
Although I have only a small collection of Art Farmers wonderful CDs but I haven't heard that one you mentioned as being poorly recorded...or the sound of that flumpet of his not up to your high quality standards of excellence on that recording.
I wonder---------------???
Personally, I have heard Art play both his first prototype flumpets as well as that beautiful Presentation Flumpet.
I can assure you...that listening to Art Farmer play those beautiful instruments live was truly a memorial and rare gift that I will charish forever.

Bottom line:
This flumpet to me.....has some amazing and unique sound qualities.

The flumpet can be played with soooooo little air, and ever so softly to a whisper, without a hint of "fluffy-stuffiness" that often a flugle does, when played softly.
Again.....The richness and density is soooooooooo beautiful, using a flumpet....with out a hint of shrill or brassiness when pushed with lots of air and at FFF played musical passages. (again with such little effort.)

Often beautiful sounding flugle horns and many beautiful sounding cornets will sound fantastical' when played with care and control, that is until you find your sound beginning to take on that weird and sometimes unmusical bright harsh and brassy edge...especially in performing those larger FFF musical passages.
I am no expert and haven't had the opportunity to really work with a quality flumpet long enough to form any kind of judgement.

However I think you too might just be pleasently surprised, just how much these flumpets have to offer a player who enjoyes that softer and velvet sound that a good flugle-horn or a quality cornet has to offer.

In that regard...the flumpet just might be the answer?
Gads...they cost waaaaaaaaaaaay to much for mere mortals or old retired toots like me.

Brian H. Smout

Hi All,

The mind wanders back in time to Downbeat magazine. I think that album rated something like 2 stars out of five and was not considerd to be Art's best outing.
Could be wrong, the memory plays tricks after awhile.

Cheers,

Brian

BADBOY-DON

-------------------Ah, a toast to the pain of being mortal.-------------------Truly, perhaps that old saying "One is only as good as their last gig!"

Brian H. Smout

Hi Badboy,

Its more like Mickey Mantle's " If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself!"

Cheers mate,

Brian

trumpetdiva1

Well said, Don. I found a wonderful quote from the liner notes of Art Farmer’s “The Meaning of Art” that I’d like to share:

In the early days he played trumpet, in the middle years flugelhorn. Now his horn is the flumpet, created to his specifications to capture qualities of both predecessors. Whatever increments of improvement the flumpet allows, it does not produce the beauty; the instrument is a conduit for the music in the man.
--Doug Ramsey