1972 WLP Laminated Gatefold Original. COH. “Outback Is The Second And Finest Of Joe Farrell's Dates For Creed Taylor's CTI Label Recorded In A Quartet Setting In 1970, With Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, And Brazilian Percussionist Airto Moreira. Outback Is Not A Commercially Oriented Funk Or Fusion Date, But An Adventurous, Spacy, Tightrope-Walking Exercise Between Open-Ended Composition And Improvisation. That Said, There Is Plenty Of Soul In The Playing. The Mysterious Title Track By John Scott Opens The Set. Staged In A Series Of Minor-Key Signatures, Farrell Primarily Uses Winds, Flutes And Piccolos To Weave A Spellbinding Series Of Ascending Melodies Over The Extended, Contrasting Chord Voicings By Corea. Jones Skitters On His Cymbals While Playing The Snare And Tom-Toms Far More Softly Than His Signature Style Usually Attests. Airto Rubs And Shimmers On Hand Drums, Going Through The Beat, Climbing On Top Of It, And Playing Accents In Tandem With Farrell In The Solo Sections. Corea's "Bleeding Orchid" Is A Ballad Played With Augmented Modes And Continually Shifting Intervals, Mapped Beautifully By Williams' Adherence To The Changes, With A Series Of Contrasting Pizzicato Fills. Farrell's Trills And Arpeggiatic Exercises Combine Both Jazz Classicism And Middle Eastern Folk Music. On Farrell's "November 68th," He Invokes John Coltrane's Version Of "My Favorite Things" As He Digs Deep Into The Tenor's Middle Register For A Song-Like Voicing, Played With A Gorgeously Bluesy Sophistication. Outback Is A Stunner, As Inspired As Anything, And Perhaps More So, That Farrell Ever Recorded.” AMG - Thom Jurek