“Soft Samba is the New Sound of ‘65” – Verve Records ad in DownBeat, Jan. 28, 1965.
In the early sixties, Gary McFarland (1933-71) was one of jazz’s “golden boys.” He displayed his talent for clever arrangements on Stan Getz’s Big Band Bossa Nova and his own The Jazz Version of ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ (both 1962) and his gifts as a unique and relevant composer on The Gary McFarland Orchestra Featuring Special Guest Soloist: Bill Evans, Point of Departure (both 1963) and John Lewis’ Essence (1964).
And then came Soft Samba. The jazz cognoscenti were appalled. But those outside the elite lapped it up. It became Gary McFarland’s single biggest hit.
I had to listen to the record many times to appreciate its charms and understand its appeal (significant in its day). Now, I can spin the record over and over again, enjoying it more each and every time I hear it. Problems arise trying to make this music fit into some definition of jazz. Really, it’s a confection of moods, with occasionally brief statements of improvisation.
The disc was arranged to be pretty and appealing. After all, the record is called Soft Samba. What did people expect? Ultimately, it succeeds…winningly. Plus, it offers McFarland’s innovative bossa nova covers of the Beatles’ melodic music, a first in jazz.
McFarland hums or whistles the themes and occasionally interjects his own brief, songlike solos on vibes or those of Jimmy Cleveland (trombone), Spencer Sinatra or Seldon Powell (flute) and Kenny Burrell or the Godfather of the bossa nova himself, Antonio Carlos Jobim (guitars).
From my liner notes to the 2018 Ace CD release of The In Sound & Soft Samba:
McFarland fashions a delightfully playful program [here], stitching requisite yet unusually well-chosen movie themes and signature songs for Edith Piaf (‘La Vie En Rose’) and Al Jolson (‘California, Here I Come’), together with a healthy dose of Beatles tunes. Not a McFarland original in sight – although several terrific originals from the sessions remain unissued, two of these tracks (“Tough Night” and “Blue Town”) can briefly be heard in director Kristian St. Clair’s 2006 documentary film “This Is Gary McFarland.”
Of course, jazz critics and purists hated it. DownBeat gave it one star and called it “cheap and trivial… musical self-pollution,” while Melody Maker said it was “the least memorable album” of the year. Perhaps one of the nicest – and most spot-on – notices McFarland ever received came from the most surprising and least likely of places, the all-American pages of the Boy Scouts magazine, Boys’ Life: “We found the wedding of the soft samba to rock’n’roll a joyous union, thanks to the musical ministry of Mr. McFarland.”
This is some really beautiful stuff that truly deserves serious consideration or at least a second chance. The record even inspired a cocktail (the recipe is in the disc’s liner notes) and was reissued in 1969 as Sympathetic Vibrations.
About the cover: In a highly unusual move for Verve record covers at the time, Gary McFarland is seen (photographed by Lester Bookbinder) at a restaurant, of all places. But this was no ordinary restaurant. La Fonda del Sol opened in New York City’s sleek Time-Life Building in 1961. The menu consisted of vivid, full-flavored Mexican and Latin-American dishes at a time when such a thing was practically unheard of for an upscale Midtown restaurant.
The restaurant was an instant hit and became known for its “sunny” atmosphere, appropriately enough, as its very name translates as The Inn of the Sun. What was even more remarkable is the eatery was defined by its bright pop-flavored interior, the work of celebrated textile and graphic designer Alexander Girard (1907-93), replete with the folk-art sunbursts (and delightfully recreated as an icon for the record’s cover) and, as can be seen here, the names of dishes and drinks in an olio of outsized graphics on the wall.
La Fonda del Sol closed in 1971, but a new restaurant of that name opened in 2009 in the city’s Met-Life Building. The owners claim that the original inspired their eatery, particularly in mimicking some of Girard’s original work. However, the new La Fonda del Sol is reportedly nothing like the old one.
I believe that the location was McFarland’s choice, particularly for Girard’s “pop” artistry and the “sunny” atmosphere of the place, two aspects that perfectly reflect what he was attempting with Soft Samba.
Afterword
Eagle-eyed listeners will note that someone in the Verve art department neglected to drop in Creed Taylor’s familiar signature underneath the “Produced by” credit on this album’s inside sleeve.
#McFarlandMonday