Art Farmer

Trumpet and fluegelhorn player Art Farmer died in New York of cardiac arrest on October 4, 1999. He was 7I. A prominent voice in jazz for nearly half a century, Farmer was an architect of the hard bop movement in the '50s, a status he achieved while playing alongside saxophonist Benny Golson in the Jazztet. Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and raised in Phoenix, Farmer cut his teeth in jazz playing cornet in local dance bands with his twin brother, the late bassist Addison Farmer.The brothers moved to the Los Angeles area while still in their teens and began playing in a variety of jazz and dance ensembles. By then, Farmer was playing trumpet. Within a few years he was recording on the West Coast, cutting 'Farmer's Market'and other tunes in a group led by saxophonist Wardell Gray. In subsequent years Farmer received international recognition in a number of jazz settings, playing in bands led by Lionel Hampton, Gigi Gryce and Horace Silver, or collaborating with Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Jim Hall and Gerry Mulligan.A prolific artist, Farmer made well over 100 recordings and was widely acclaimed for developing an unusually warm and lyrical tone on fluegelhorn. He remained active throughout this decade, playing a trumpet-fluegelhorn hybrid known as the flumpet. Earlier this year he received a Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment of the Arts.