E-Mail This Article to a Friend Meet the Jazztet Art Farmer and Benny Golson’s jewel of a band BY ED HAZELL

The Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet were a band that fell through the cracks. Despite memorable writing and arranging and outstanding soloists, the Jazztet’s urbane music rubbed just enough against the grain of the times to doom them to being critics’ darlings. They didn’t have as sharp a gospel/blues edge as the hard-boppers, and their tightly organized presentation ran counter to the ascendant jazz avant-garde. Mosaic Records has assembled everything the band recorded, along with several sessions by the leaders, into a seven-disc set, The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet Sessions, that lets us see that if the Jazztet were slightly out of synch with their times, they nonetheless made timeless music.

Tenor-saxophonist Golson and trumpeter Farmer were especially compatible frontmen. Golson’s tone possesses a Coleman Hawkins–like warmth, strong but airy, and he can either drift or muscle his way through a solo. He can pile on the appegiated chords, building high crags or digging deep valleys, but he also has a playful sense of time, dragging a note or a funky lagging tension or rushing ahead to heighten the urgency of a phrase. Farmer, who died in 1999, disguised the intelligence and daring of his imagination under the cloak of melody. He was one of the great artisans of melodic improvisation, one whose considered solos embraced reason and passion in equal measure and with quiet assurance.

They recorded the six-piece Jazztet on six LPs from 1960 to 1962, with three different trombonists filling out the front line and a couple different rhythm sections. Despite the shifting personnel, the band had a distinctive sound and style, thanks largely to Golson’s writing and arranging.

Golson is among the hippest composers in jazz. His ballad "I Remember Clifford" and the suave swingers "Killer Joe" and "Along Came Betty" deserve their place in the standard repertoire. The lesser-known "Park Avenue Petit" and "Five Spot After Dark" also evince his characteristic blend of intelligence, accessibility, and deep feeling. He found different ways for the Jazztet to work together on each number, creating lovely harmonies and counter-lines behind his themes and punchy riffs to back soloists. Even the rhythm section gets little figures or rhythms to play. All the parts work together with clarity and finesse. "Junction" (from Live at Birdhouse) and "In Love in Vain" (from Here and Now) are varied and rich in detail, but never at the expense of the tune’s integrity. Golson’s respect for the melody and the listener makes the Jazztet’s music both accessible and artful; he never settled for ordinary head-solos-head routines.

The Jazztet’s first two albums — Meet the Jazztet and Big City Sounds — establish their concept and voice but skimp on the solo space for the principal horns. Meet the Jazztet, with the teenage McCoy Tyner on piano and Curtis Fuller on trombone, does feature a definitive "I Remember Clifford" by Farmer and a marvelous Golson arrangement "It Ain’t Necessarily So."

With trombonist Tom McIntosh replacing Fuller and pianist Cedar Walton, the unheralded bassist Tommy Williams, and drummer Al "Tootie" Heath aboard, the band’s third album, The Jazztet and John Lewis, ranks among their best work. Lewis, the MJQ’s pianist and mastermind, contributes all the compositions and arrangements. His deployment of the band is different from Golson’s but equally satisfying, especially on "Odds Against Tomorrow." The Jazztet at Birdhouse, a live recording, is loose and fun, with the band’s expected precise execution and engaged soloing all around.

On the Jazztet’s last two albums, Here and Now and Another Git Together, Grachan Moncur III replaces McIntosh and pianist Harold Mabern and drummer Roy McCurdy join the rhythm section. The creativity never flags. Here and Now includes a beautifully arranged "Whisper Not" and exciting blowing on "Tonk" and Moncur’s "Sonny’s Back." Another Git Together features an especially hip "Along Came Betty," an inventive Golson arrangement of "Domino," and a stunning Farmer feature on "This Nearly Was Mine."

These years were fertile ones for Golson and Farmer, and nearly half the set consists of albums they made as leaders. Each recorded two quartet albums that rank with the best work he did. On Listen to Art Farmer and the Orchestra, Oliver Nelson’s elaborate arrangements sometimes swamp Farmer’s unfussy improvisations. Golson’s Pick a Number from One to Ten starts with a tenor solo and adds one instrument at a time, climaxing with a 10-piece ensemble on the final track. It’s a gimmick he has a lot of fun with.

Jazz composing and arranging is much more in fashion today than it was during the heyday of the Jazztet. Perhaps now these albums will find the audience they deserve.

The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet Sessions is available by mail, phone, or Web order from Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose Place, Stamford, Connecticut 06902; call (203) 327-7111, or visit www.mosaicrecords.com