- He wrote some beautiful orchestral settings for great soloists, yet wasn't immune to commercial forces.".
- As well as his own albums and arrangements for other musicians he composed the scores to the films Eye of the Devil (1966) and Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name? (1971).
- McFarland was an ingenious composer whose variety of musical moods revealed shades of complex emotional subtlety and clever childlike simplicity.
- He was an American composer, arranger, vibraphonist and vocalist.
- He attained a small following after working with jazz luminaries Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Johnny Hodges, John Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, and Anita O'Day.
- Down Beat magazine said he made "one of the more significant contributors to orchestral jazz".
- At age 38, on November 3, 1971 - the same day that he completed the Broadway album, To Live Another Summer; To Pass Another Winter - McFarland died in New York City at St. Vincent's Hospital from a lethal dose of liquid methadone that he had ingested at Bar 55 at 55 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.
- It is not known whether he took the drug on purpose or someone spiked his drink; police did not investigate.
- A 2015 review of a McFarland DVD documentary called him "one of the busiest New York jazz arrangers of the 1960s". The review further stated that McFarland's "ascendance coincided with the rise of bossa nova, and McFarland was adept at translating the mercurial song form into orchestrations.
- McFarland was considering a move into writing and arranging for film and stage.
- He recorded for the jazz imprints Verve and Impulse! Records during the 1960s.
- He ad a son, Milo (1964-2002), and a daughter, Kerry. Milo McFarland died of a heroin overdose at the same age as his father, 38.
- Largely forgotten now, Gary McFarland was one of the more significant contributors to orchestral jazz during the early '60s.
- An "adult prodigy," as Gene Lees accurately noted, McFarland was an ingenious composer whose music could reveal shades of complex emotional subtlety and clever childlike simplicity.
- In 1955, he took up playing the vibes.
- Displaying a quick ability for interesting writing, he obtained a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music. He spent one semester there and with the encouragement of pianist John Lewis, concentrated on large-band arrangements of his own compositions.
- He also produced and arranged the soft-rock album Genesis by singing sisters Wendy and Bonnie Flower.
- McFarland began devoting more attention to his own career by 1963 when he released what is often regarded as his most significant recording, The Gary McFarland Orchestra/Special Guest Soloist: Bill Evans.
- By the end of the 1960s, he was moving away from jazz towards an often wistful or melancholy style of instrumental pop, as well as producing the recordings of other artists on his Skye Records label (run in partnership with Norman Schwartz, Gábor Szabó and Cal Tjader, until its bankruptcy in 1970).
- While in the Army, he became interested in jazz and attempted to play trumpet, trombone, and piano.
- The success of his instrumental pop collection, Soft Samba, allowed McFarland to form his first performing group. But his recordings thereafter, more often than not, featured an easy listening instrumental pop bent.
- McFarland acted as "artists and repertoire" man for each Skye recording. Whether performing, arranging and/or producing, McFarland, unlike the other principals of Skye, participated in each of Skye's 20-something recordings (also including Szabo, Tjader, percussionist Armando Peraza, vocalist Grady Tate and blues singer Ruth Brown).
- McFarland then teamed with guitarist Gabor Szabo and vibist Cal Tjader in 1968 to form the Skye Recordings. The Skye label lasted less than two years and McFarland, Tjader and Szabo went their separate ways - never to work together again. McFarland went on to compose another film score (Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name), record a folk-pop record with cartoonist Peter Smith (Butterscotch Rum), arrange a Steve Kuhn pop album and supervise the Broadway musical To Live Another Summer/To Pass Another Winter.
- By late 1971, McFarland was working hard toward making a name for himself in Broadway and film, two areas he'd hoped to explore in greater depth.
- More than three decades later, there is - sadly - not enough evidence of Gary McFarland's musical gifts available for listeners to hear. McFarland is unfairly dismissed or ignored by many critics and lack of sales prevents record companies - especially Universal Music, which owns the majority of McFarland's recordings - from returning this work into musical circulation.
- On the afternoon of November 2, while with a friend in a New York City bar, he ingested a drink into which liquid methadone had been poured. He suffered a fatal heart attack and died instantly. He was declared dead at New York City's St. Vincent Hospital that day.
- LPs Profiles, from 1966, and The October Suite, released the following year and featuring pianist Steve Kuhn. They are as formidable, and as majestic, as the great works of Gil Evans.
- In his 10-year career, his most important achievements were his orchestral albums, including the Impulse.
- Gail McFarland-Benedict, Gary McFarland's wife (1963-71), passed away on October 12, 2007, after a long battle with cancer.
- McFarland was a gifted composer, arranger, vibraphonist and producer. He was self-taught and started late.
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