From This World, San Francisco Chronicle, June, 1958

Garner is Now Up There With Armstrong, Ellington

By Ralph J. Gleason

ONE OF THE most consistently rewarding jazz performers is the elfin pianist, Erroll Garner, whose newest offering is a two-LP package, "Paris Impressions" (Columbia C2L 9).

In 15 years of listening to Garner, this reviewer has yet to find a single track or an LP by him that does not offer something of value and this is a statement that can be made for very few other jazz artists - only real giants are this consistent.

In recent years Garner has fairly bloomed as an artist, reaching an ever increasing audience until now he ranks with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington as one of the great universal talents in jazz.

Just what it is that Garner does, of course, is actually beyond description. However, I have often thought that in some way all three of these men - Garner, Ellington and Armstrong - represent the best of jazz; an out-going, all-encompassing warmth that is in direct contrast to some of the neurotic, self-destructive and ingrown tendencies that have cropped up in recent years.

Another aspect of Garner's music is that it is possible to listen to it on several levels; to those who don't care to dig into it, it is a warm, melodic and rhythmic musical pleasure dome. To others it can become a highly intricate and occasionally complex expression of jazz.

With Garner's growth as an artist and his increasing ability to fulfill himself on the piano, has come a desire on his part to experiment more and more with his art. In the past year he has recorded with strings and has tried composing for a large orchestra. Here he makes his debut on the harpsichord. For this reviewer, Garner does not as yet perform on this instrument with the same success he has achieved on the piano Garner's touch is a bit on the heavy side for the harpsichord and he does not as yet seem to be fully aware of the delicacy inherent in this instrument.

However, one of the pieces he plays on it is a blues of really fascinating nature. "Paris Blues" is the title and it has an earthiness and unusual rhythmic structure that goes far back into the roots of blues piano. Garner, incidentally, is too intelligent a musician not to explore the possibilities of the harpsichord further. I would expect his next recordings on this instrument to be considerably different in concept and execution than these.

The other tracks of the album are replete with evidence that Garner's usually ripe melodic and lyric character is still his most important asset. He has an ability to make a melody of even the most banal sort into really rewarding music and to bring to pedestrian songs a grandeur they would never have approached otherwise.

To say Garner is a jazz artist of stature is to understate the case considerably. He is one of the great musicians in jazz and his art now belongs, like Armstrong's and Ellington's, to the world.