ORIGINAL 1976 LP LINER NOTES

“ORK" is what Jimmy Rowles calls Erroll Garner. "Ork" is short for orchestra and that is what E.G. is to pianist Jimmy Rowles - an entire orchestra all by himself. Strike Up The Band is the first tune on the album and Erroll does just that. What a band! If only I were an arranger, I would have organized the swingingest big band since Ellington and Basie by just transcribing Erroll's piano solos in big band arrangements. Erroll gives you everything. The beat, the tempo, melodic interpretation, and always, above all, the swing. I have been wanting to write notes for a Garner album for over 20 years. In a sense, I am glad I had to wait so long, because now I have so much more to say. There was the historic concert at Newport in the late 50's with just Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, and Erroll with his rhythm section. Duke, who experimented with two bass players in the 50's and had given up the idea, showed up with two bass players in the band that night. I knew he wasn't trying to form an infield, so I asked him why. Duke merely said that I had matched him with the strongest left hand in the business and he simply needed some extra help to even the odds. 

This particular album of Gershwin and Kern tunes is worth the price alone for the ad lib first chorus of Love Walked In. Eee Gee worked Storyville in Boston many times in the 50's. Every night, my wife and I would catch his last set, sit close by the piano, and talk to the "man." We would call out the names of pianists Erroll loved - Teddy Wilson! “Fatha" Hines! Tatum! Waller! James P.! As we exclaimed the names of these greats, Erroll, no matter what song he was playing, would subtly shift into the style of the name called, and then back into his own distinctive style. Erroll had absorbed and retained all of it - all the music he ever heard left its mark on his facile musical mind. The amazing thing about the Garner development and style is that it emerged in his early teens before he heard any of these great pianists. Yet, and this is the most important thing, no matter what style he reflected, he always maintained the Garner identity. That is why Garner is the single most important piano stylist of the past 35 years. 

The aforementioned ad lib chorus of Love Walked In fully demonstrates this. It is a masterpiece, and one of the greatest passages of music I have ever heard on a Garner recording. When he takes the melody into tempo, here we find another great contribution of Garner. He knows how to make a ballad swing and yet keep the ballad feeling. So few can do that. 

In listening to this album with the intent of writing the notes, I became more aware than ever of Erroll's total concern for the song and what the composer was trying to say. Singers should listen to Garner's melodic lines and learn about jazz phrasing. The awareness of the "song" undoubtedly is the reason that Garner is such a great composer in his own right.

 
I don't know if Erroll knows the lyric of each song he plays, but I would guess he certainly understands the composer's intent and then gives each song his own inner meaning. I Got Rhythm in this album is played with a minor feeling. totally opposed to Gershwin's original harmonies. Maybe it's Garner's form of social protest to the myth that all “Blacks are supposed to have rhythm.” The sardonic feeling is apparent. His pixieish (a word often applied to describing Garner) development of the first chorus of Someone To Watch Over Me might be another form of protest - against someone who might already be watching over him – too closely. The tempo is taken quite fast for this song that usually gets slow ballad treatment. Kern's Only Make Believe is also taken quite fast, as if to "make believe" is just that, and not something real. Yet, Old Man River is played at a drag tempo with a beat that makes the sweating and straining of the lyric all too explicit. To comment on Gershwin and Kern is not our purpose here. Their wonderful songs emphasize the impoverishment of the art of popular song in this contemporary age of 1976. 

In its way, each tune as interpreted by Garner has its own intensity and personal interpretation. They are all gems. Each number in the collection sparkles with a lustre of its own. Garner has tremendous technical facility. His hands can express any style or mode if he chooses. He has total command and complete self-identity. 

Most every piano player who has heard Erroll Garner owes him something. The Garner influence on ballad interpretations by other pianists is omnipresent. His up tempo approach with the continual four beats in the left hand, is too difficult to copy, so most pianists merely comp occasional Garner-like chords with the left hand while trying to play swinging figures with the right hand. This makes for a lot of weak sounding pianists. Garner epitomizes all that makes jazz the great music of our age. He is a natural who developed from the mainstream. His music communicates to those who know nothing of the meaning of the word jazz. His music is serious, yet joyous. 

He has developed an individuality of style that has blessed only the greatest exponents of music. All the commercial phrases composed by media people to describe his music do him little justice. – "The greatest aid to romance since kissing", "The man for whom the piano was invented" and many other slogans don't really say it. To put it simply, Erroll Garner is a great musical genius. He has given me some of the most memorable and moving musical moments of my life. Thank you, Mr. G. 

Original Liner Notes by George Wein