The material was mixed and mastered from new transfers of the original 3-track analog tapes found in Garners personal archive.
![]() ![]() We are grateful for your business and hope you are staying safe and healthy. ![]() Among the bands with which he played during this period were those led by Leroy Brown and, reputedly, Fate Marable. In 1944 Garner moved to New York and began working in nightclubs, including the Rendezvous and the Melody Bar. Fd say hes from the impressionistic school and of the rank of Ravel and Debussy. He was as outr as the great beboppers, yet bop was alien to him, even though he recorded with Charlie Parker. He swung mightily, yet he stood outside the swing tradition; he played orchestrally, and his style was swooningly romantic, yet he could be as merciless on a tune as Fats Waller. He never read music, but he could play a piece in any key, and delighted in deceiving his rhythm sections from night to night. His tumbling, percussive, humorous style was entirely his own. And what a treat it was to listen to that live performance by the master in top form. No matter where - within the confines of a nightclub, in a concert hall, at an open-air festival, in a recording studio - you encountered The Little Man (as Art Tatum fondly dubbed him - he was 54) in action, he would hold you spellbound with the musical magic he could coax from a piano, an instrument he made sound like no player ever had before - or would again. Undeterred by teachers, he made his hands realize what he heard in his head, and that was the sounds and rhythm of a big jazz band. A child of the Swing Era, Garner conceived of the keyboard as a combination of a bands horn and rhythm sections, rolled into a single voice. And his uncanny sense of time, his marvelous touch, and wide-open ears made that conception come alive. Once Garner had taught his fingers to do his bidding, he found such joy in making music that it became contagious. His was, as an album title proclaimed, the most happy piano. Dan Morgenstern, Jazz author, critic and essayist, retired Director of the Jazz Institute at Rutgers University. This elusive feeling of belonging, of connecting or not, is the friction that helps us navigate the creative map. Acceptance or the lack thereof is a part of everyday life on and off stage. He was a sure creative and emotional bet for his audience as well. His audience understood this and showed up to hear him night after night the world over. Either way Garner seemed to be saying it was the collaborative exchange that made the moment possible - that blending between the audience and the musicians. Garners music is a direct and uncensored experience, honest and immediate, free flowing, clearly delivered, focused with fearless projection. The newly mastered version of Concert by the Sea with 11 new performances (22 performances in all), gives us more than a glimpse into what it might have been like to witness this great artist night after night. You could never tell what he might do next were the kinds of responses you heard from his musical collaborators. Geri Allen, Jazz pianist. For reasons I do not understand, considering the high respect other contemporaries had for him, Garner seems to have been forgotten by younger Jazz critics and Jazz pianists alike. There was only one Erroll Garner and it would help every Jazz pianist if they paid a little more attention to his talent and creativity. His harmonies were as modern as tomorrow and his conception of jazz exquisite. George Shearing, who admittedly copped his style, wrote in his autobiography, Nobody else can play the way Erroll Garner did. Ahmad Jamal once said, anyone that has not been influenced by Erroll has not been in our field.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |