Crate Digger’s Gold: Joe Farrell Song of the Wind

One of my great pleasures is the bi-monthly Minnesota Record Show.  This past weekend I went and found a few pleasures.

I was not familiar with this album at all, but it had several tell-tale signs I was going to like it: it was on CTI records, it starred Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, and John McLaughlin, and it was dated from 1970. Clearly this was going to be under the influence of Miles and Bitches Brew. An added bonus is that this was recorded at Van Gelder Studios and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder (naturally produced by Creed Taylor).

First off I got lucky and this was one pristine piece of vinyl.  Second the music is mighty fine.  Farrell and Corea are the most prominent.

This is not easy listening jazz.  It is not a fusion album.  This is pretty straight forward jazz bordering on avant-garde, but a touch mellower.  This is not under the influence of Miles and Bitches Brew – but that is not a disappointment.

There is great horn playing by Farrell – we are treated to soprano and tenor sax, flute and oboe.  Very progressive stuff and timeless too.