Tal Farlow
b. Talmage Holt Farlow, 7 June 1921, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Farlow did not begin playing guitar until 1942 but before the decade was out he had achieved a sufficiently high standard to be hired by cabaret singer Dardanelle, vibraphonist Marjorie Hyams and clarinettist Buddy De Franco. In 1950, by now a fleet and inventive guitarist, he joined forces with another vibes player, Red Norvo, thus beginning a long-running and fruitful, if intermittent, musical partnership. The third member of this group was Charles Mingus. Also in the '50s Farlow led his own trio, but he later drifted into retirement from music and concentrated on his career as a sign-painter. In the late '60s he made a handful of festival appearances, returning to fairly consistent public performances in the late '70s. In the '80s he resumed his working relationship with Red Norvo, touring the USA, UK and Europe and delighting audiences, many of whom had been alerted to this fine musician's talents through a 1981 television documentary, TALMAGE FARLOW.