Erroll Garner

Erroll Garner distinguished himself among pianists by showing that musical sophistication need not depend on the ability to read notation, that a jazz improviser could attain wide popularity without simplifying his language, and that an individual style could be maintained with undiminished enthusiasm once it had crystallized. A dazzling technician whose sound remained entirely personal, Garner frequently marked the pulse on medium-tempo numbers with his left hand in the manner of a rhythm guitar while his right hand placed chords just behind the beat, producing a singularly buoyant swing. His whimsical, unprepared preludes (which required close attention from accompanying musicians), his capacity to execute breathtaking runs without ever looking down, his occasional vocal interjections, and the evident pleasure he took in playing all contributed to what became known as the Garner magic.

The pianist’s older brother Linton was himself an accomplished keyboardist. Garner first broadcast as a member of the Kan-D-Kids at the age of ten. After local work in Pittsburgh he arrived in New York in 1944, spent 1944–1945 with Slam Stewart’s trio, and then launched a solo career. By 1946 his personal idiom was fully formed; when he accompanied Charlie Parker on the celebrated Cool Blues session of 1947, his stature as a major artist was already unmistakable. Garner’s unclassifiable approach combined an orchestral, swing-era perspective with an openness to the harmonic and rhythmic advances of bop. From the early 1950s onward his immediately appealing manner attracted a large audience, and he rarely delivered a substandard performance until illness forced his retirement in early 1975. His original composition “Misty” entered the standard repertoire. Garner could sit down without rehearsal and record three albums in a single day, all of them vivid first takes. Throughout his career he recorded extensively for Savoy, Mercury, RCA, Dial, Columbia, EmArcy, ABC-Paramount, MGM, Reprise, and his own Octave label.