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Profiles

At the local charity shop one Saturday about five years ago I spotted something with the distinctive orange-&-black Impulse! Records spine. I hadn't heard of Gary McFarland, but felt it was worth the few pounds' asking price to give Profiles a listen. The cover provides a good deal of information up-front: "RECORDED LIVE / Sunday, February 6, 1966-8PM / Norman Schwartz presents / Gary McFarland: / Profiles / A unique concert of original compositions reflecting the special qualities of today's most accomplished jazzmen..." Inside the gatefold, Nat Hentoff stresses the occasion having been a sit-down concert performance of (chiefly) through-composed music.

This was evidently a major showcase for McFarland, who had made a name for himself through the early '60s as a composer and arranger, having worked with the likes of Anita O'Day and Gerry Mulligan. The 20-piece band recruited for the performance did McFarland proud: among their number the likes of Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Zoot Sims, Richard Davis and Gabor Szabo. The opening number 'Winter Colors' is a 3-part suite, preceded my some tuning-up and audience applause, which gives way to a spoken introduction by Willis Conover "This is a program of American music, played by some of America's finest musicians..." 

And, indeed the music is wonderful: vibrant, sophisticated & richly-textured light-ish jazz. The climax to the third part of the initial suite ('January Jubilee') is a thrilling highlight. One odd moment comes in the lengthy 'Bygones & Boogie' on side B, in which Richard Davis takes an extended bass solo - it's inventive and virtuosic, but at over two minutes in duration, also a bit boring. The recording is very good, although the audience noise sounds distant - as if the applause is drifting in from the next room, and that detracts a little from the atmosphere. Perhaps concert recordings weren't engineer Rudy Van Gelder's strongest suit.

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