Ralph Gleason called Art Farmer's 1964 group "first rate jazz" and "lyrical, soft, quiet, reflective and delightful." The group features Farmer on trumpet, Jim Hall on guitar, Steve Swallow on bass, and Walter Perkins on drums. On this session, Farmer and group perform several ballad standards, such as "My Kinda Love," "Some Time Ago," and "Change Partners," along with Charlie Parker's "My Little Suede Shoes" and Milt Jackson's "Bag's Groove." This episode originally aired January 10, 1964.

Created by world-renowned jazz aficionado Ralph J. Gleason, the Jazz Casual programs were originally broadcast on the National Education Television Network from 1960-1968 to showcase the wild sounds of jazz. Presenting jazz music to American audiences in an intimate and informal setting, the series was unique in that the musical director of each episode was, essentially, the featured artist, an approach that generated the cooperation of the scene's most revered musicians.

Already a veteran of such luminous bands as the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Quincy Jones's orchestra, and his own trend-setting group with Benny Golson, Art Farmer in 1964 was just beginning to help popularize the flugelhorn with this band he co-led with guitarist Jim Hall. In the spartan TV studio setting of Jazz Casual, host Ralph Gleason gets in some interview time with the visibly nervous Farmer after the first number, and after that it's all jazz. Supporting the lyrically swinging group of Farmer-Hall is bassist Steve Swallow, plunking away at the bass fiddle looking like a hip-cat scarecrow in a thin tie, and drummer Walter Perkins who gets in a groovy drum solo on the Charlie Parker-penned romp "My Little Suede Shoes." Tough, lyrical, swinging, and empathetic--this is Art Farmer, 1964. --Kristian St. Clair