Tal Farlow Still a Be-Bopper After All These Years : Music: Beat lives on in guitarist who just ‘hit the big 7-0.’ He’s never fought for the spotlight but enjoys international respect.

Tal Farlow virtually epitomizes the ‘50s definition of cool . Lean and laid-back, with a Lincolnesque calmness that belies the surging energy of his guitar playing, he is a hardy survivor of a group of be-boppers who typified the jazz experience for the Beat Generation.

At 70, Farlow--who makes one of his rare Southern California appearances tonight) with the Pete Jolly Trio at the Hyatt Newporter--is as wryly laconic as ever.

“I’m always amazed when people say they’ve been influenced by my music,” he said during a phone conversation from his New Jersey home earlier this week.

“I suppose one of the reasons is because there just weren’t so many guitar players around when I got started. Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Chuck Wayne, Remo Palmieri, Johnny Smith--I’m probably leaving some names out--are the major guys who were around then. But today, there seem to be thousands of guitar players, so it’s no surprise that there are quite a few good ones.”

Typically, Farlow is exceedingly modest about his own playing. He continues to describe himself as “still a be-bopper,” but he has always managed to stretch the limits of that difficult style.

Quick and articulate, with machine gun-rapid melody lines and crisp chording, his playing in the ‘50s brought a vigor and excitement to the electric guitar that hadn’t been heard since the startling work of Charlie Christian more than a decade earlier.

“Everybody in my generation was influenced by Christian,” Farlow said. “I remember listening to him on the radio when I was a teen-ager in North Carolina. And when he came out with those first electric guitar solos I was really impressed.

“It wasn’t just the fact that the amplification made the guitar like a new instrument. It was that Christian used it in a way that liberated the guitar from a corner of the rhythm section and brought it right up front to play with the trumpets and the saxophones. I liked that a lot.”

Despite the almost universal respect for his playing among musicians, Farlow has never become a jazz name with significant marquee value. In part, his relative obscurity traces to his own reticence to push his career; in part, it reflects his discomfort with the more commercial aspects of the jazz world. For a substantial period in the ‘60s and ‘70s, his music was placed on the back burner while he made a living as a sign painter.

“I know people sometimes find it strange,” said Farlow with a chuckle, “but the truth is that sign painting is really the field for which I had some training. Music was sort of a hobby--I never did study it.”

Since the early ‘80s, however, Farlow’s music has become his primary focus. Although he has produced few recordings (“I’m not a frequenter of recording studios”), he tours regularly--especially in Europe, where he has achieved near-legendary status--teaches, and works at a network of clubs in the metropolitan New York-New Jersey area.

“I guess you could say I’m doing pretty much what I want to do, right now,” Farlow said. “I suppose I really should do some recording, and I’ll be looking into that.”

“I hit the big 7-0 three weeks ago, and I’m feeling just fine. So, with any kind of luck, I guess you’ll be seeing me around for a while.”

Tal Farlow plays at 6:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. Admission: $6 to $7. Information: (714) 729-1234.