Customer Reviews

Concert By the Sea

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

.....as a little girl in Palo Alto, California probably around 1969 I listened to my father (who is a jazz pianist in his own right) play this record numerous times. It stood out because usually I heard him playing his Bluthner grand piano in his inimitable way and style . . . very influenced by Garner but also his own style.....but then on a regular basis I heard this album. Again and again. It was years later that I realised that although I loved Erroll Garner and had many of his CDs and even his record albums, it was years later that I realized THE recording that was "the one" I remembered -- the one that brings tears to my eyes without seemingly a reason -- it was THIS recording - Concert By The Sea -- I read the editorial review with a smile where they said the "sound is atrocious and the piano out of tune".......well ......no it's not. Not really. It's the sound of "that night" in "that place" and it's Erroll Garner all the way and I give it 5 stars!!!!!! I received my copy today after several months of shamelessly listening to the free samples of the music....(budget is a bit tight these days)... all I can say in closing is this is THE definitive Garner recording!!

Concert By the Sea has to be one of the finest jazz concert albums ever recorded. The crowd reactions,Errol's grunting and unbelievable rhythm and talent go beyond words.Every serious and even part time Jazz Piano enthusiast simply has to have this album. I was fortunate to have known and been a good friend of Boston's "Bill Marlowe" whose voice and Jazz radio shows were incomperable and who inroduced Errol Garner to the Boston Area and the writer. The Bill Marlowe concert at the Surf Ballroom in Nantasket featuring Errol was a total sell out. Greatest concert I have ever attended. Don't miss this album. Period. It's a "Must Have".

Sure, you can't judge a book by its cover, but a CD? Viewing the front of Erroll Garner's 1955 "Concert By The Sea," seeing majestic Pacific Ocean waves slap a Carmel coastline while a woman waves in triumph, leads you to expect grand semi-classical pieces tailored for the era's big-budget films. Or, worse, sentimental pop in the style of that era's top-selling pianist, Roger Williams.

But this Erroll Garner album remains among jazz's all-time sellers and critical favorites for avoiding such tendancies. Given its acoustics (it was recorded in a converted Carmel, CA church) "Concert By The Sea" is surprisingly intimate, energetic, witty, romantic; the concert you'd expect from the composer of the classic (but missing here) standard "Misty."

Garner, with stellar (though barely audible) help from bassist Eddie Calhoun and drummer Denzil Best, weaves piano trills and walking lines like spider webs around familiar melodies like "Teach Me Tonight," Cole Porter's lyrical "It's All Right With Me," a swift "Where Or When," and the delightfully drag-beat "Mambo Carnival." He delivers funky, jaunty performaces on "Red Top" and They Can't Take That Away From Me." Only the oft-covered, overdramatic "Autumn Leaves" falls flat.

Garner's playing here draws effortlessly from musical styles before and around him: Fats Waller's Dixieland swing, Charlie Parker's bop (Parker played with Garner on "Cool Blues"), Nat Cole's cooler jazz piano, neo-classical and even R&B piano sounds from Charles Brown and Ray Charles. Listen to Garner's rhythmic piano chording throughout and realize that he anchored his own solo piano excursions (and inspired the similarly inclined Dave Brubeck), in near rock-and-roll bass style.

Yet like the era's most beloved jazz stars (Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, to whom he unfavorably compares his voice at LP's end ) Garner remembered to entertain as well as challenge audiences. He redraws the Broadway and show tunes here, but grounds them in stop-time dramatic endings drawing enthusiastic applause. An exuberant, gleeful performance by a master pianist and entertainer, "Concert By The Sea" is essential to any jazz fan and would benefit from the remastering, extra-track treatment given other classics in Sony/Columbia's legendary jazz catalogue.

This is a five star album without question and one of my favorite jazz albums of all time. I've heard "C by the Sea" on both record and compact disc and concluded that the old LP sounds significantly better than this 1990 CD. It's about time Sony remasters this seminal jazz classic properly for the CD format. Until then, I'm sticking with my vinyl copy. Incidentally, if you're wondering how good this music really is, just listen to the opening 20 seconds of "Red Top," available for your sampling pleasure right here on Amazon. This should tell you all you need to know. Man, could this guy play. If only he had lived longer, I might have gotten a chance to see him perform live.

I am Brazilian, and have been a fan of Erroll Garner's music for over 35 years. I probably know every available album, and strongly recommend "Concert by the sea" as the best of them all. The fact it was recorded "by accident" left some technical details aside. However, Erroll was extremely inspired that night, which resulted on the unique addition of his widely recognized talent to the best average performance of all albums. I saw Erroll at a live concert in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which was superb, since he was very inspired and concentrated - but his Carmel concert is his masterpiece!

"Concert by the Sea" is one of the best jazz albums of all time. The intensity and creativity of Errol Garner is breathtaking - an album that would have been worthy of either Oscar Peterson or Art Tatum. The highest praise I could give this album is that it was years after I bought this album that I realized that only three musicians were performing! This album is a must for both the serious and casual listener of jazz.

Ok, the sound's thin and distant. Other than that, this couldn't be much better.
One of the greats at his greatest, this belongs beside the very best of Powell, Shearing, Peterson, Tatum, and Evans. High praise but not hyperbole; Erroll has The Touch, and imagination for days. Autumn Leaves is almost hilariously florid and supple; he's not afraid to unwind all the way. No one else ever played that chestnut quite like this...
If there's a jazz bar in heaven, Garner takes the happy hour shift.

This best selling album from 1955 recorded live at Carmel, CA in a field recording style, does represent Erroll's talent very well and the strength of his piano playing overcomes the fact that it was hard for Columbia to record the drums and bass. The CD though was remastered from THE original master tape using Sonic Solutions NoNoise system due to the fact that at the time of recording, the tape was exposed to salty air and is in poor shape. The way the original Columbia 6-eye vinyl sounds is exactly the way the master tape sounds. Sony was going to reissue a new remaster of this recording but found out that it just couldn't be done so we are lucky to have this available on CD from the master tape on a CD mastered in the 1980s.

HE WAS SO SHORT THAT HE HAD SIT ON PHONE BOOKS TO PLAY THE PIANO BUT HIS TALENT WAS LARGER THAN LIFE. 'CONCERT BY THE SEA' WAS A GREAT ALBUM IN 1955 BUT 45 YEARS HAS PROVEN THIS ALBUM TO BE ONE OF THE BEST JAZZ ALBUMS EVER. NO OTHER JAZZ ARTIST HAS BEEN MORE INFLUENTUAL WITH THE PIANO. ALTHO ERROLL IS GONE HIS MUSIC THRU THIS ALBUM WILL BE IMPORTANT TO ANYONE THAT HEARS HIS RYTHMATIC STYLE. THIS ALBUM IS ONE THAT YOU WILL LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER.

One of the greatest live jazz performances ever recorded.