Living Legends of Jazz - Daniel Farrow

Daniel Farrow credit: Donn Young

Like many New Orleans musicians of his age, Daniel Farrow has performed several musical styles, including gospel, big band, rhythm and blues, and traditional jazz. He was born and has lived all his life in the Algiers section of New Orleans. After taking lessons with legendary teacher Manuel Manetta and playing in his high school band, Farrow began performing blues in local clubs.He further developed his musical skills during a four-year stay in the Air Force’s marching, concert, and swing bands.

Farrow drove tractor trailer trucks throughout the South for forty years, opting for family life and the stability of a steady job over a risky musical profession. But he also played in local R&B and big bands whenever he could. In the early 1960s he began playing traditional jazz in community parades and funerals with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, in which he interacted with a number of early generation jazz pioneers. After retiring from truck driving he continued to play in a number of bands and occasionally appeared at Preservation Hall, where he is sometimes heard today.

The lyrical beauty and deep passion of Daniel Farrow’s saxophone tells the story of a life of extreme faith and internal strength to survive never-ending crises and hardships, of which Hurricane Katrina, which damaged his home, was just the latest. Over the last several years Farrow and his wife carefully tended to a son crippled by multiple sclerosis, who died in January. Two of his brothers have died since 2003. In 2004 his young daughter — a Boeing rocket scientist working on the space shuttle — suddenly dropped dead just months after giving birth.

For Farrow, music has been a therapeutic diversion from the pain of recent years, and while he believes New Orleans’ musicians need to be better paid, with his long-standing faith he remains cautiously optimistic about the future of his city’s music. These days his sweet saxophone can be heard at parties, brass band jobs, and jazz brunches — whenever he gets the call.