The Best Of Earl Grant

Beyond The Reef

The Best Of Earl Grant
Arranged and Adapted by Earl Grant and Charles Dant
Produced by Charles Bud Dant
Decca Records DXSB 7204
1970

2-record set, double fold jacket.

From the inside cover: Just who is this Earl Grant who comes on slick and polished that he looks like someone made him up, and who sounds like a series of guys who know exactly what to do and are doing it?

He's an Oklahoman, if that's any help to you. Earl was born in Oklahoma City in 1931. His father was a Texas, Southern professor. When Earl was still a child, the family moved to Kansas City where there has always been a tradition of fine music. And that's also where Earl started studying music, a loving chore that has occupied most of his life.

Among the instruments he knows are, of course, organ and piano, but he also plays trumpet and drums. From this wide variety of tonality in his musical background, Earl can draw the unique sounds and approaches that make his music so distinctive. If he's at the organ keyboard, and the trumpeter in him feels the need to dig into a chorus, why shouldn't Earl laugh into just such a trumpet-like attack on the organ?

He attended the University of Southern California and majored in music. After graduation, he did post-grad work in music at the New Rochelle Conservatory, Chicago's De Paul Conservatory, and the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. His course was set. Earl had decided to teach music as a career.

But, after a hitch in the Army, he came back and picked up his post-graduate studies at the University of Southern California. To help defray the expenses of campus life, he began singing in small clubs in the Los Angeles area. Before long, he was so popular that he had to set aside his budding career as a music teacher and become the performer.

His first big break came when he played at the Pigalle Club in Los Angeles, and his first national breakthrough came when he landed his Decca recording contract and really began to groove.

Stand By Me
Sunny
Sweet Sixteen Bars
(At) The End (Of A Rainbow) (vocal with orchestra)
Goin' Out Of My Head
Saints
Ol' Man River
Ebb Tide
It Was A Very Good Year
House Of Bamboo (vocal with orchestra)
A Closer Walk

Sermonette
The Look Of Love
It I Only Had Time (Je N'Anrai Pas Le Temps) (vocal with chorus and Instrumental Accompaniment)
Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu) (vocal with orchestra)
I Can't Stop Loving You
More
Drown In My Tears (piano and organ duet)
Beyond The Reef
Tender Is The Night (vocal with orchestra)
After Hours
Swingin' Gently