Meet the Jazztet

Here is the swinging debut of the Jazztet, the group that set the jazz world on fire just a few months after they made their official first public appearance on November 16, 1959 in New York's Five Spot café. Art Farmer and Benny Golson led this sextet that sounds like a big band, with the idea of giving ample space to each soloist, but within a framework that did more than set up lines at the beginning and end in a jam session type of group. With composer-arranger Golson doing the majority of the writing, this was fully accomplished. "I feel that with three horns, we can get any effect we want. How do we get such a big sound? It's really no trick. It's there and obvious you just have to pick the right notes. They're there. You have to emulate the things you have in your mind," said Golson. The Jazztet won the new star award among jazz groups in the 1960 Down Beat International Jazz Critics poll.