Informal Piano Improvisations - Erroll Garner

 

In The Beginning

Informal Piano Improvisations

Erroll Garner

Baronet Records B-109

1962

From the back cover: Erroll Garner is a warm, personal jazz pianist; a jazz pianist who is most assuredly a creator; a jazz pianist with a style so easily identifiable that even the casual jazz listener will recognize it – both in his playing as well as that of many pianists who like to copy him.

There is the tender touch – the intimate phrasing – the rich, legato, Impressionistic chords – the pounding left hand with the right hand lagging slightly behind – the almost over-emphasis of dynamics – the Pixie-ish humor – the warm, caressing sound.

As many people already know, Erroll Garner is a self-taught pianist. He was offered piano lessons by his parents, the same sort they had given his three sisters and two brothers. That was in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he'd been born in 1923, and where he preferred playing baseball and football to studying the piano. (He was a left-handed first baseman, which accounts somewhat for his notably strong left hand at the keys.) But, though he preferred sports and no piano lessons, he was still attracted to the instrument. Gradually, through experimenting, he developed his unique style without the benefit of learning how to read music.

This record made at a small private party in the apartment of one of jazzdom's most devoted enthusiasts, Baron Time Rosenkrantz, captures a freshness, enthusiasm and genuineness that could never happen in a studio recording. Timmie has produced concerts, has recorded some of them on his own personal equipment, but it is doubtful if any of his contributions will outlive in importance the making of these examples of Garner's playing.

Performing at small, intimate gatherings has always been a favorite pastime for Erroll's. Many years ago, he told me "When I play in a club, I try to make it sound like playing at a party." And, in striving for this sort of personal touch, Garner has developed his warm sound, a quality of his playing upon which he constantly concentrates. Though it seems to satisfy millions of listeners, Erroll says that he is "still working on it." I can't tell you exactly what I'm working for. It's something real full and beautiful.

Musical beauty is all-important to him. Recognizing his limitations, because of lack of schooling, he philosophizes: "What else can I play but every-day life and make every day beautiful and more beautiful. It's like so much of life," he adds simply. Either you feel it or you don't.

The matter of feeling or not feeling also relates to the most discussed of all aspects of Erroll's playing: his beat. The lagging right-hand, phrasing just behind the pumping left, has worried some folks, thrilled others, and left many trying to make up their minds. Explains Erroll: "When I started playing professionally, everybody used to say, 'Erroll – he can't keep time.' I guess my way confused them a little. But I play that beat on purpose. It creates excitement. It's hard for me to explain what I do, but when I play I try for a sort of underneath beat, if you know what I mean. It's strictly a feeling. I guess that the closest thing to describing it is that instead of being a drive, it's kind of an extra drive, like Fats (Waller) and Jimmie Lunceford used to have.

The use of Lunceford as an example is interesting, though not surprising. Jimmie was not a pianist but the leader of a big band with a resounding rocking, full-bodied beat. One of the distinctive aspects of Garner's style is that it's not always pure piano, but, instead, seems to try to reproduce the power and the depth and the dynamics of a big jazz band. And certainly few bands have ever approached those qualities more excitingly than did the great Lunceford aggregations.

Excitement – the beat – beauty – warmth – tone – they're all here, and lots more, too, in this display of informal Garner. – George T. Simon

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