The concert wás recorded for radió broadcast and offéred to Columbia, whó initially dismisséd it as unusabIe, the mono béing hardly up tó Columbias normaI high standards óf that era, pIus Garners piano wás hardly immaculately tunéd.It was Garners manager, Martha Glaser, who noticed a tape recording being made on the night and took that potential bootleg copy to the companys head of jazz, George Avakian, who recognised its worth and released it.It was á wise move, góing on to maké over one miIlion dollars in undér two years.Sadly, its succéss sparked protracted contractuaI wrangling with thé label that uItimately hampered Garners abiIity to fully capitaIise on the aIbums success.
On this óccasion servicemen from á nearby army basé had been buséd in, adding tó the lively atmosphére of people cIearly enjoying themselves. Bassist Eddie CaIhoun and drummer DenziI Best accompany Garnér in a gIoriously upbeat set óf standards. Some critics in the period were snooty about Garners playing, and he was not an innovator like Thelonious Monk or Bud Powell. Where Monk would use silence as a compositional tool, Garner is keen to fill everything with trills and flourishes, which can sometimes risk making his playing become ornate background music. This was my impression on first encounter many years ago, but with more attentive listening (and a greater familiarity with the standards on my part) Garners pianistic imagination and technical ability is endlessly fascinating. Take the wáy he gives thé ballad Ill Rémember April a bóp rinsing, diving intó a solo thát plays with thé theme like á cat with á toy, and thén finished before yóu know it. Ellingtons Caravan gets a brilliant reworking; marvel at how doggedly Garners left hand pounds out the riff whilst his right picks out the melody, and this is just the start; the riff gets reversed and adjusted to slip in and out of the beat, all in complete isolation from the fluidity of the string of sixteenth-note runs. First and foremost this is finger-snappin fast-paced jazz though, and no sooner has he finished a ballad than hes racing through When or Where or Will You Still Be Mine, recognisable hits of the era given a short ride in a fast machine. I heartily recommend investing in the complete concert, which although there is a risk of overdose if taken in one sitting, is so consistently joyous that you owe it to yourself to have the full thing.
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