USU Students, Alumni Releasing Jazz Album on Friday

LOGAN, Utah — Around four years ago, USU music student and jazz pianist James Farmer started composing the music that would ultimately shape his upcoming album, “In The Moment.” The album includes both original music and jazz classics and features the James Farmer Quartet, a talented group of USU music students and alumni.

“The formation of the group happened over the years,” Farmer said. “The bass player, Ella [Jessop], and I have been playing together since 2019. We met just here on campus, playing in some school groups.”

Farmer noted that he met the quartet’s drummer, Parker Bowles, around the same time, but they started playing together in more recent years.

Last year, Farmer met Leo Testoni, who was pursuing a master’s degree in guitar performance.

“He had that guitar sound I was looking for, so that kind of finished the group,” Farmer said. “Once I had in mind who I was writing for, then I could finish out the arrangements and write and arrange to their strengths.”

One of the jazz standards Farmer included in the album is “Israel,” a composition by John Carisi originally recorded by Miles Davis.

“All of us in the band love that tune,” Farmer said. “We spent one rehearsal where we just played it for two hours, just ‘Israel’ over and over again. The goal was to try to play it differently every time. We were trying new grooves and new chord substitutions. That’s when I picked my favorite things that we were doing and put those into the arrangement.”

Farmer aimed to create a balanced relationship between the guitar and piano players on the album.

“In jazz, a lot of the time it can be a problematic duo because piano plays chords and guitar plays chords. Sometimes they can clash, or you can step on each other’s toes,” Farmer said. “Leo and I spent a lot of time outside of rehearsals trying to figure out how to make it work. I think we pulled it off, and I’m really proud of the work we did on that front.”

The quartet recorded the album on March 2 in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall.

To complete his certificate in audio technology, Farmer handled the recording session and mixed and mastered the music.

Once all the tracks were put together, Farmer decided to name the album “In The Moment” after one of the song titles.

“It was one of my originals, and I felt like it fit the aesthetic of the whole album,” Farmer said. “It kind of represented how the recording day felt to me.”

The physical version of the album, as well as a digital download on Bandcamp, became available on Sept. 25. It will hit all streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music on Friday, Oct. 25.

“Some of these songs I started writing such a long time ago,” Farmer said. “Between that and mixing and mastering it, I’m super excited to have it coming out.”

Farmer said this won’t be his last album, as the process of making “In The Moment” has sparked his enthusiasm for continuing to write music.

“It’s just a very exciting album. A lot of talented musicians did some really special things,” Farmer said. “Jazz is a great form of music and art and expression. One of my favorite things about it is when you record jazz, it’s like capturing lightning in a bottle because we’ll never play those tunes that way ever again.”