the rix mix

"Take Care - Beware (Capricorn)" By Gary McFarland
I don't know how I managed to completely overlook Gary McFarland's music during my radio years. Were none of his LPs in the station library? Did I just ignore his albums at flea markets? I'd buy a record for 50 cents or a dollar if it looked like it might have one or two radio-worthy cuts. McFarland had a really interesting recording career lasting a little over a decade - as an ambitious, acclaimed arranger, bandleader, vibraphonist in a "cool" style; then proponent of bossa nova, samba & light latin fusion; then recorded high quality & sincere "cocktail" jazz (for which he was rejected by jazz fans); & two concept albums; this one from 1968, Scorpio & Other Signs, & a musical essay on environmentalism, America the Beautiful, ahead of its time & which was nominated for a Best Instrumental Jazz Performance Grammy in 1970. He was a wonderful composer. He died in 1971 at age 38 after imbibing a drink dosed with methadone, the circumstances of which remain an unsolved mystery. There's no knowing where he would've taken his music. I've just begun exploring it. But it's easy to hear that he was inclined toward a gentle art (but with edges), & was Californian in spirit - although he was based in New York City. He didn't become a musician until he was in the Army & found an old vibraphone in a rummage shop near his base.

McFarland's wasn't a kind of music I took much interest in before I became a DJ, but he must have already been pretty much forgotten by the time I went on radio, because his music - even the "unhip" pop stuff - was a good fit for expansive free form sets.

Labels: music