Customer Reviews

Original Misty

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As the title says, this CD contains the original version of Garner's classic track "Misty", plus a good dozen standards done in Garner's unique style, which has been copied so often that it is now ubiquitous. Several great Garner originals on here too... like the hot "7-11 Jump". This CD was also remastered, and sounds terrific. If you like Erroll Garner, you'll be sure to like this one.

Recorded in 1954 in Chicago, and originally released under the title of "Erroll Garner Contrasts", this disc features a number of one-take recordings. Two tracks from the same session (but different original LP releases) have been added to this CD release: "Exactly Like You" and "Oh, Lady Be Good."

Although perhaps it was simply coincidence, the Chicago location of the recording date shows through in the bluesy edge that many of the tracks have. Most of the performances are a lot more bouncy and upbeat than other Garner recordings I've listened to, yet they retain a relaxed feeling.

According to the liner notes this is the very first version of "Misty" ever recorded. Apparently Garner composed it in his head while flying to the session. The version heard here is take 1. The featured trio is: Erroll Garner (p), Wyatt Ruther (b) and Eugene Heard (d).

How good it is to remember true greatness....Erroll Garner has always been one of my favorites. My father and I would sat and listen to him for hours at a time on Sunday afternoons and he never let us down...each time we heard one of his recordings was like the first time, there was something very much alive in Mr. Garner's musicianship.

I bought this CD just because of the original recording of Misty and I got hooked on it.

"Misty"...... the way it should be, and it alone is worth the price of the CD.

Misty of course is beautiful and we've all heard it many times. There are no other ballads like that on this album. Instead, you have a variety of different styles...lots of jazz. Not a fan of jazz but Garner does it better than anyone. I like that there is just the piano and percussion-not over orchestrated. Those old recordings allow you to hear the brush stroking the head of the drums and ilke that. What a talent!

Erroll Garner's music is beautiful, upbeat, heartfelt, and passionate.
The CD includes others artists; Duke Ellington, for a more "Mellow Tone", Cole Porter's upbeat "Rosalie" makes me want to have a martini in my hand, and Harold Arien/Ted Kochler "I've got the World on a String" gives me a satisfying sensation as if I indeed have the world on a string. I felt transported to a more relaxed and happy place. I definitely recommended "The Original Misty", perfect for listening while entertaining your best friends.

Erroll Garner was one of the all-time Olympian greats of jazz piano, at once time capable of supporting a record label singlehandedly--while himself being supported by the thick New York phonebook to which he attributed the leverage and power he exerted over his instrument--a mastery so complete that, without the benefit of extra musicians or digital technology, he practically replicated the sound of an entire orchestra (I suspect most listeners aren't even conscious of the tracks where he dispenses with bass and drums in favor of solo, unaccompanied Erroll). What's somewhat disappointing, even disturbing, is to hear so little of him these days--even on the precious few remaining jazz shows. At one time, Ted Williams, a Garner fan who had taken over managerial duties of the Washington Senators, had his players practice to the thunderous, irresistible propulsion of the Garner earth-moving machine.

"Concert by the Sea" is, of course, the one to start with, belonging in any short list of ten if not five essential jazz piano albums. After that, it's remarkable that a musician capable of attaining the singular heights of the concert in Carmel, California, seemingly was incapable of doing anything less on album after album. So in one sense, it makes sense to download your favorite Garner tracks and settle for assembling your own anthology.

Still, if like me, you appreciate extras like dates, contexts, musicians' and composers' names, along with the satisfaction of a concrete object in your hands as testimony to the incredible sounds, it may make equal sense, and even save you a few bucks, to pick up a good "best of" collection. "Misty" isn't necessarily the best of the "best of" collections--in fact, it's actually a studio session, with bass and drums, recorded in 1954. To these ears, the title song, which leads off the album, is far from the highlight. After hearing it so many times over the course of the years, it's almost a relief to get it over with right away and allow Erroll to get down to more serious business. The next track, Cole Porter's somewhat anomalous, operetta-like piece "Rosalie" (remember Nelson Eddy?) gets the flying fingers treatment from Erroll, who manages to negotiate octaves with greater speed and precision than most pianists can handle single notes. The sleeper on the date, at least to these ears, is "I Wanna Be a Rug Cutter," which if anything moves at a faster pace than "Rosalie"--the pianist playing four left-hand chords per measure, all the while breaking the speed limit but never his stride, or seeming to need to come up for air. All this, along with numerous melodic and harmonic subtleties not to mention rhythmic surprises, are there awaiting the listener's discovery. The last two tracks were not released on the original LP, and a couple of the tracks add the conga drums of Candido (though just because he's barely noticeable hardly justifies the omission of his name in the liner notes).

Another strong candidate (in case you're looking for the least expensive 2nd-hand copy available) is the eponymous Verve collection, or "Jazz Masters 7," to be more precise. It starts out with the aforementioned "Rug Cutter" track and manages to get just a bit more brilliance and treble out of the proceedings, with Eugene Heard's brushes more audible than on the above Mercury recording. The remaining tracks are all from the Mercury/EmArcy catalog (the latter, Mercury's jazz division), yet the audio is far from consistent. Despite the very noticeable stereo separation, loudness and reverberation of the second track ("Misty"), it's decidedly less satisfying than the audio of the first track, even though both were recorded at the same session! (A demonstration of what engineers, mixers, and too many chefs in charge of the final product can do to the original source which, hard as it is for all of the technological "experts" to admit, is beyond their attempts at "enhancement." Such over-production, over-tampering, over-engineering would perhaps reach its apex during the disco seventies, when many great natural players were forced to strap on headphones, play in insulated rooms, and then await the reverb, sweetening, and other post-recording effects of the producer. Unfortunately, I can think of few jazz musicians with the clout--artistically, maybe, but not financially, to take exception to some regrettable representations of their best work.)

The Verve collection comes with a detailed consideration of Garner as a musician and of the circumstances of the recordings written by the redoubtable John McDonough, one of the best and most knowledgeable jazz writers left. Personally, I'd part with the Mercury "Original Misty" album before the Verve "Erroll Garner: Jazz Masters 7."

Then there's the Columbia offering--available for download on Amazon--entitled simply "The Essence of Erroll Garner." If only because of the "Concert By the Sea" album, it deserves first place for anyone not fortunate to have the concert album. And even at that, Garner's success with Columbia was of such magnitude that this may be the one to own, even it's your second. It starts out strongly with a warm and clever "Poor Butterfly" literally taking wing if following a somewhat funky, syncopated flight pattern. "Lover" is another Garner scorcher, breaking all speed limits, with Garner's "strumming" left hand and rapid-fire right-hand octaves alternating between polyrhythmic and more synchronized sections. Only three of the selections--tracks 7-9--are from the "Concert by the Sea," and all three could be judged the "keepers" (though "Where Or When" from that momentous performance would be excruciatingly tough to pass by, imo. The audio quality is quite consistent, warm, balanced and centered, though one has to allow for the exception: "Misty" performed with strings doubling the lushness of Garner's piano (though I strangely find the performance more enjoyable than the "Original Misty," which may commit the greater sin because of the post-performance effects, or electronic souping-up of the natural sound of the piano).

The producers of the Columbia set had the good sense to give the listener a chance to wash the palette of the strings by ending with solo Garner, and it's an especially good one: "If I Had You," with one of his "patented" but especially extraordinary, extended, suspenseful (you never know what's coming) introductions. And notice the Monkish touch Erroll adds to the melody the 2nd time around, playing the melody note along with the adjacent chromatic half step--all the while dropping low bass-register bombs in unexpected places, resulting in a performance that's as kinetic as it is clever and marvelous. In fact, I frankly think Erroll "out-Monks" Thelonious on this delightful recording.

The written notes evidence Columbia's usual close attention to crucial details, providing just enough (but not too much) information. With the current cult-like popularity of some of the small specialty jazz labels of the 1950s, it's all too easy to forget the enormous achievements (and with "natural," honest, non-enhanced audio) of the label that mailed out those LPs to tens of thousands of homes each month, giving us Miles' "Kind of Blue" and Brubeck's "Time Out." And the same practically goes for Norman Granz at Verve, whom we can thank for Ella's great Songbooks along with invaluable documents of some of the best work of the masters of swing--Tatum, Oscar, Ben Webster--as well as the most seminal bebop players--Diz and Bird, Stitt and Rollins, the pyrotechnical Stan Getz of the fifties and the bossa nova champion of "Getz/Gilberto," one of the more listenable, popular jazz albums of the turbulent, frequently electro-charged and musically eclectic sixties--at least in terms of the "fusion" music and electronic instruments that began to prevail, leaving Erroll and many others struggling to be heard above the din.

Thankfully, we can now hear him--all over again.