Art Farmer discusses songwriting.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.43MB)

Art Farmer discusses musicality and song quality.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.27MB)

Art Farmer discusses growing up during the transition from swing to bop.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.17MB)

If you are experiencing problems playing audio on this site,
please update to the latest version of Flash.

Transcription

Q: “I think of you as a player but you write too?”

A: “Very little, very little. I never have ... I've never really geared myself to write. In order to be a writer, you have to work at it, like for instance, when I used to work with Gigi Gryce. I worked with Benny Golson where they've been writing everyday. Regardless of whether it was good or bad or indifferent, they're writing something every day. Now, I'm thinking about playing all the time and that satisfies me. There are a lot of people out in the public playing songs just because they wrote them themselves. Those songs don't need to be played. Nobody else plays them, but there’s "This is my tune. I'm going to play my own tune, man. Yeah, I play my own tune, play my own stuff. You know, I'm not going to play nobody else stuff." But the way I feel about it, I like to find good tunes to play. I don't care who wrote the tunes, but I know that there are enough tunes out here already without adding some more mediocre stuff to the bundle.”