Dudley Moore on Erroll Garner

By Howard Nichols

Dudley Moore's arrival at his favorite corner table was punctual. His 72 Market Street Restaurant in Venice, L.A., is only yards from the rollerbinders and iron-pumpers of Ocean Front Walk. Conversation soon turned to Erroll Garner. "I was completely mesmerized by his playing, which I first heard before I went to Oxford in the early Fifties; that characteristic slow drag in the right hand, the tick tock beat in the left. I found it hard to believe he didn't read music, but perhaps he'd have lost freedom if he had." Garner once came down to the Establishment club in London, where Moore was playing. "I was so nervous he was there that I spilled a bottle of Coke down the middle octave and the keys stuck together. When I looked up, he'd gone!"

Moore agreed that Garner gave his bassist and drummers a tough time. "Oh yeah! Eddie Calhoun was always at his left hand wondering what on earth key he was going to pop into. Eddie looked fairly ancient from the start, didn't he? I think it was from worrying what was going to happen!"

"I thought Garner's fast numbers were extraordinary," continued Moore "because he didn't play too fast. I've a lot of the metronomic markings and there's a bit in "It's All Right with Me" which I could not and cannot do, although I've practiced it forever. Effortless for him. Sure there were certain patterns which he preferred, for example octave runs, often filled octaves, which is when it's time to stand back in amazement and think, here we go!"

Moore prefers to hear Garner with bass and drums. "His stuff with orchestra doesn't sound quite right, successful though it may have been. The same goes for Charlie Parker and strings. I like the sparseness of bass and drums." A particular Garner concert Moore remembers attending was Hammersmith in London, in 1972. "I must have been 37. I was overjoyed. I couldn't believe his facility." (Having been at that concert, I knew what Moore meant. It was memorable.)

Of Moore himself, Leonard Feather once concluded, "Erroll Garner was so distinctive that he became, in fact imitable; arguably the most imitated pianist of them all, though nobody could really capture the total essence. Dudley Moore and Dick Hyman have come closest."

It is understandable that, as a music scholar, Moore should question Garnet's disinclination to learn music. "I think he felt he would lose a lot from doing so. I have to disagree with that point of view. I also felt the way he got his audiences going with long introductions was daft, even if they were much praised by some. Garner himself probably didn't know just how much he was loved, either that or, like a lot of musicians, he wouldn't be able to take it."

Moore agreed that Garner exuded enjoyment at the piano. "I don't think you can play without it. Or if you do it sounds sort of prosaic. Garner enthused passionately when he played. Like Connors with tennis. It's the same. He goes on and on playing, a good guy."

"I find Garner as important technically as Horowitz or Chopin perhaps was," continued Moore. "The fact is that Chopin had a fixed technique when he was 26 years old and the same is true of Garner. Very early on he had this extraordinary mobility on the piano."

Moore's own jazz trio made some good albums and they appeared on TV and radio frequently. I asked if he would consider doing a jazz piano TV series now, with guests. For sure his own playing would include strong references to the Garner style. "That has been specifically suggested, and I love the jazz club scene too, but I haven't played much jazz for a while, playing as I do, classical concerts in North America and Canada."

So for the moment, Dudley Moore confines this appraisal of Garner to his recorded work; still, however, in awe of Garner's virtuosity and technique.