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Erroll Garner
At the age of seven, Garner began appearing on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called the Candy Kids, and by the age of eleven he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. Garner began to attract attention after he moved to New York in the early forties, and shortly afterwards he made his first recordings. By 1950, Garner had established himself an international reputation, and from that point until his death on January 2, 1977, he made countless tours both at home and abroad, and produced a huge volume of recorded work.
Garner's style evolved out of the 'novelty rags' of the twenties. More contemporary jazz influences include Earl Hines, another Pittsburgh native, and the rhythm compings of Freddie Green (Count Basie's longtime guitarist). But Garner was ultimately a very idiosyncratic player, and he doesn't fit well into any of the standard piano style groupings of 40's and 50's jazz. His characteristic traits are of course his steady, guitaristic, left hand compings, and, most obviously, his octaval treatments of melodies and solo lines. The major seventh arpeggio in octaves which introduces Garner's biggest hit, Misty is an example. Another typical Garnerism is the pizzicato, super-syncopated introduction. These intros are often highly independent of the main part of the piece. They range from fanciful to sassy, but always their choppy staccato serves to highten the driving effect once Garner turns on his relentless left hand rhythm.
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Cubana Be, Cubana Bop - Play Misty for Me
by David Brown
This week, we start things off with some Afro-Cuban sounds from Bud Powell, Zaccai Curtis and Dizzy Gillespie. Next, a celebration of the birth of pianist Erroll Garner who would have been 103 today. Large band orchestral works from Toshiko Akiyoshi, Jihye Lee and Count Basie will follow before we check out some African sounds from Nduduzo Makhathini and Randy Weston. A set of recordings featuring bassist Reggie Workman will be the next feature, including a date recorded on this ...
Continue ReadingErroll Garner: 100th Birthday Anniversary Of The Immortal Swinging Maestro Of Jazz Piano
by Doug Hall
The hundredth birthday of the legendary and brilliant virtuoso Erroll Garner is being marked by tributes including The Erroll Garner Project, which has released additional recordings and a remastering of existing recordings by the swing maestro of jazz piano. His popularity as an in-demand international performer and his landmark record Concert by the Sea (Columbia, 1955) is also a reminder of how Garner brought modern jazz to a larger mainstream audience without ever compromising the integrity of his compositions.
Continue ReadingCharlie Parker: Birth Of Bebop - Celebrating Bird At 100
by Mark Corroto
Let's face it, there is absolutely nothing new to say about the music of Charlie Parker, unless (insert joke here) you happen to be Phil Schaap. Lao Tzu's quote “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long" is fitting. John Coltrane was 40 when he died in 1967, Eric Dolphy 36 in 1964, and Clifford Brown died at 25 in 1956. Parker was dead at the age of thirty-five in 1955. His legend has grown larger with ...
Continue ReadingErroll Garner: Erroll Garner Plays Gershwin & Kern
by Chris May
The British newspaper The Times once nailed Abdullah Ibrahim's appeal thus: “There are few musicians in jazz who can make you feel that essentially all is right in the world." The late Erroll Garner is another pianist whose music could be similarly described. You might argue that Ibrahim's task is harder, because much of his work deals with painful issues, while the ebullient Garner mostly played feelgood material from the Great American Songbook. But Garner's palette brought its own challenges, ...
Continue ReadingErroll Garner: That's My Kick
by Mike Jurkovic
Great good luck, even in this news weary day, that Erroll Garner remains the personification of that mythical vaudeville buoyancy that can hold us in its sway, lifting us from all our daily unrest. We're fortunate to be in a time when we can re-explore, rediscover and perhaps even re-imagine Garner's continued impact and influence. Welcome, then, That's My Kick, the latest high-powered release from Mack Avenue Records' acclaimed twelve disc series: Erroll Garner Octave Remastered Series. And ...
Continue ReadingErroll Garner: Campus Concert
by Mike Jurkovic
In the history of recorded music, whether it be cave holler, rock, rap, jazz, country or take your pick, there are not a lot of albums that hold one's attention and imagination like the epic Concert By The Sea (Legacy, 2015). But somehow Erroll Garner's other live albums such as this one, the last released in his all too brief lifetime (Garner passed of cardiac arrest, aged 52), or the recently discovered, Nightconcert (Mack Avenue, 2018), in some inexplicable way, ...
Continue ReadingErroll Garner: Campus Concert
by Peter J. Hoetjes
Erroll Garner's sixth album on the Octave label would mark a pivotal moment in his career. Not only would Campus Concert be his final live recording, it would be the last to include bassist Eddie Calhoun and drummer Kelly Martin, who comprised his trio for almost a decade. It remains unclear why, after such remarkable success together, they would separate. The albums he recorded with these sidemen, especially Calhoun, who joined in time for Concert By The Sea (Columbia) in ...
Continue ReadingJazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson's biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner's birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the 'novelty' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records, a style which used ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson's biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner's birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the 'novelty' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records, a style which used ...
read more
Erroll Garner: Boston, 1959
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1959, Erroll Garner was in the middle of a personal storm. The previous year, his label, Columbia, released earlier Garner recordings without his approval. Martha Glaser, his manager, hit the roof and said the label had breached Garner’s contract by releasing inferior recordings without his permission. She had Garner stop recording for Columbia. Disputes over the contract and a demand for higher fees for Garner led to a lawsuit in 1960 by Glaser and a countersuit by Columbia. The ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson's biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner's birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the 'novelty' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records, a style which used ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson's biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner's birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the 'novelty' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records, a style which used ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson\'s biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner\'s birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the \'novelty\' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records... Read more.
Place our ...
read more
Erroll Garner: Nightconcert
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
When Erroll Garner died in 1977, his business partner and manager Martha Glaser became executor of his estate. The position gave her full control over Garner's unissued recordings, which she kept under lock and key. When Glaser died in December 2014, the Garner estate passed to the University of Pittsburgh, and material once salted away began to emerge: Concert by the Sea and Ready Take One were the first two. Recently, the third—Nightconcert—was released by Mack Avenue Records. First some ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson\'s biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner\'s birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the \'novelty\' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records... Read more.
Place our ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Erroll Garner
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Erroll Garner's birthday today!
Born in Pittsburgh in 1921 (Sy Johnson\'s biographical note in The Erroll Garner Songbook has June 15, 1923 as Garner\'s birthdate), Errol Garner started playing piano at the age of two (three according to Johnson). He never learned to read music, probably because it was never a necessity for him. He learned to play the \'novelty\' styles of Zez Confrey and others from listening to 78 records... Read more.
Place our ...
read more
Erroll Garner: Ready Take One
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
When Erroll Garner died in 1977, Martha Glaser, his long-time manager and the executor of his estate, refused to allow the pianist's unreleased Columbia material to be issued by the label. The long-running dispute dated back to 1960, when Glaser decided her client wasn't earning an appropriate sum based on the sales of his albums. She sued the label and was tireless in her defense and support of Garner's business interests. When Glaser died in 2014, the executors of her ...
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