Talmage Farlow (1981)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Documentary: B-

 

 

In another story of a great, forgotten musician, Lorenzo DeStephano’s film biography of the innovative Jazz guitarist Talmage Farlow from 1981 finally surfaces in this new DVD release form the ever-reliable Music Video Distributors including some extras and the original hour-long program in its entirety.  The only problem is that it does not last longer.

 

Born in 1921, Farlow gravitated towards music, though his father was a textile worker and Tal seemed heading that way.  However, he was way more interested in music and took to that interest immediately.  But the 1940s, he had worked his way into some key groups of the time and established himself as a name and force to be reckoned with.  By the late 1950s, he decided to walk away from everything and was so quiet about it that rumors about him started to surface before he was forgotten as Rock Music came into dominance.  This 1981 work revived interest in the man, who enjoyed a second wind of limelight (despite the press ignoring him too often) until his death in 1998.  DeStephano did his job and this is a vital document of a very important artist.

 

The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image was shot in 16mm and shows its age in grain and some age of the film, but colors are solid and there are happy accidents throughout you would never get with digital formats.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is even a little better, showing that the audio was preserved well enough.  Extras include stills, a 9.5 minutes “penthouse session” with the Tal Farlow Trio and over an hour of performance outtakes at 1.33 X 1 with Farlow and Lenny Breau.  We look forward to more of DeStephano’s work and hope Farlow gets new fans from this release.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo