Farlow, Talmadge Holt

▪ 1999

      American jazz musician who began playing guitar in 1943, inspired by jazz great Charlie Christian, and later performed during the early-mid-1950s as a professional with the innovative Red Norvo Trio and with Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, establishing a national reputation as a fluent improviser of melodic bop lines. While leading small groups in the New York City area and on recordings such as The Artistry of Tal Farlow (1954), he showcased his lyric artistry. He was noted for his outstanding technique and his electric guitar sound, which was uniquely soft, the result of playing with his thumb instead of a plectrum and of using a unique fingerboard of his own design. After 1958 Farlow performed and recorded only irregularly, meanwhile earning a living by painting signs. He was the subject of the 1981 documentary film Talmadge Farlow (b. June 7, 1921, Greensboro, N.C.—d. July 25, 1998, New York, N.Y.).

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