Joe Farnsworth's Big Room Quartet

Joe Farnsworth - drums
Peter Washington - bass
Sarah Hanahan - alto saxophone
TBC - drums

Joe Farnsworth, as chronicled on more than 400 recordings and witnessed within historical venues across New York City and the world, has indelibly penned his legacy within the history of jazz drumming. Concisely put, Joe has studied the past so that he might show us the future of music rooted within the jazz tradition.

Much of who he has become as a musician and teacher can be traced to his upbringing in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and his early years in New York City. Joe’s father, Roger Farnsworth, was a celebrated music teacher for more than 60-years, storied for inviting local music students into a repurposed dining room filled with vinyl recordings and an upright piano to challenge their ears with drop-the-needle quizzes and impromptu solfège lessons. The youngest-of-five sons (to a saint of a mother), Joe learned from two older brothers who forged careers in music before him. James, who toured as Ray Charles’ baritone saxophonist for nearly a decade and John, who has balanced stints with Slide Hampton and the World of Trombones, elementary music teaching, and later in life, as a saxophonist.

As a teenager, Joe studied with the acclaimed Boston-based drummer and pedagogue Alan Dawson, whom Joe credits, “having taught me to get my hands together and how, through rigorous study of rudiments, this can open possibilities for developing your sound.” He studied with Arthur Taylor, who, in Joe’s words, “taught me how to use that sound to develop a fluency of language and readied me to collaborate with jazz greats, like Benny Golson.” When speaking about the lessons learned while living (for 8-years) with the great drummer Jimmy Lovelace, Joe says, “Jimmy showed me how to control the drums.”

In 1990, Joe moved to New York City where he began sitting-in at Augie’s (now Smoke Jazz and Supper Club). Here, he was mentored by Junior Cook with whom he recorded his first album, You Leave Me Breathless (SteepleChase, 1992) and developed careerlong collaborations (and friendships) with George Coleman, and Eric Alexander (with whom he co-founded the band One for All).

Joe’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz can be attributed to his tireless study of the masters and traces back to his teens when he would hop a bus to catch a masterclass by Max Roach, sneak into local college dances to hear Buddy Rich (yes, dances back-in-the-day had live jazz), and hitch-a-ride to hear Clifford Jordan, Frank Strozier, and Slide Hampton play at Hartford’s 880 Club. It continued during his years at William Paterson University where he studied with Rufus Reid and Harold Mabern (with whom Joe performed until his passing).

Joe’s reverence for jazz’s heroes is witnessed in his own approach, as he places ego aside so that he might speak music’s truth. Joe’s humility is captured within jazz legend Benny Golson’s praise, “The interests of music will always prosper in the hands and tutelage of Joe Farnsworth. He has the unique and remarkable ability to lay his talented and obedient drum sticks aside, and mercifully share his intellect and his motivational heart with the awaiting world. This is the way of all geniuses.”

Twice nominated for a Grammy Award, jazz elites seek Joe’s artistry, including engagements with vocalist, Diana Krall; pianists, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, and Barry Harris; trombonist, Curtis Fuller; and saxophonist Lou Donaldson and sustained collaborations with Pharoah Sanders Quartet (16-years), Benny Golson Quartet (8-years), and Cedar Walton Trio (10-years).

Joe has released eight albums as a leader, including his debut album Beautiful Friendship (Crisscross Records, 1998) with Cedar Walton and Dr. Eddie Henderson, his sophomore recording It’s Prime Time (Eighty-Eight’s Records, 2003) with special guest artists Ron Carter, Curtis Fuller, Benny Goldson, and Harold Mabern, Jr., and his three releases on Smoke Sessions: Time to Swing (2020) with Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, and Peter Washington, City of Sounds (2021) with Kenny Barron, and Peter Washington, and most recently with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Immanuel Wilkins, Robert Hurst, and Julius Rodriguez, a record about which Jeff Cebulski says, “Joe Farnsworth, in excellent form, not only evinces his wide talent but also his wisdom, casting a vision for our jazz future that doesn’t eschew the genre’s blues roots while still advancing. In What Direction Are You Headed? (2023) is both a good question and an essential album for the 21st Century.” (Chicagojazz.com).

The album’s driving question (one asked of him by the late Harold Mabern) and recent artist-residencies in Spain, Israel, Finland, Austria, Russia, and here at home, are proof positive of Joe’s commitment to handing down the traditions that now inform the musical future he is busy inventing.

“I want to ensure the new generation receives what was given to me by the masters, including Billy Higgins, Roy Haynes, and Max Roach, who once passed along to me advice given to him by Lester Young, ‘Listen to learn. And learn to listen,’” says Joe.

It’s been a blessing to listen to Joe Farnsworth since we were kids growing-up together in South Hadley so many years ago. And I’m still learning from his every quarter note.

Mark Rabideau, President, College Music Society