Reprinted from Billboard Magazine, December 4, 1999, page 75.

A Wealth of Erroll Garner on Boxed Set

GETTING MISTY: The late Erroll Garner was a seeming paradox, a sophisticated composer who never learned to read music, a technically advanced pianist who infused his music with a palpable jubilance that could overshadow its inherent complexities.

"His music was accessible, but it was far from easy," says Martha Glaser, who both managed Garner and produced many of his recordings. "It sounds straightforward, but in actuality it is very complex, with layers of ideas going on simultaneously. Plus he had an amazing swing factor, and he had a great joy for playing, which you can hear in the music."

In 1994, Glaser, who continues to oversee Garner's catalog, decided to reissue many of the pianist's classic recordings, some of which had been out of print for nearly two decades.

Reissued on Telarc, 12 of the pianist's LPs (which, due to the format's time constrictions, were approximately 35 minutes in length) were remastered and transferred to CD, with two LPs being combined onto each disc. The resulting six Garner CDs-"That's My Kick & Gemini," "Magician & Gershwin And Kern," "Dreamstreet & One World Concert," "Now Playing: A Night At The Movies & Up In Erroll's Room," "Closeup In Swing & A New Kind Of Love," and "Campus Concert & Feeling Is Believing"--have been released at the rate of one per year since 1994.

Garner's most-celebrated composition, "Misty," appears in live form on "One World Concert." In total, 28 of Garner's original compositions can be found throughout the six discs, nestled comfortably among standards such as "Mack The Knife" and "Stella By Starlight."

On Tuesday (30), Telarc releases "Erroll Garner," a boxed set that compiles all six CDs in one package. The box will retail for $54.95; the individual discs are still available at a list price of $11.99.

Telarc worldwide sales director Adrian Mills notes that the impetus to release the box came from retail. "As I would talk to buyers, I would constantly have people suggest a box," says Mills. "Initially, our idea was to be very aggressive with the individual titles, by putting two albums on each disc and selling them at a mid-line price. We continued that with the boxed set, which is priced incredibly aggressively considering it represents 12 albums' worth of music."

The original albums, from 1959-73, were released on Garner's own Octave Records label. The pianist is showcased in trio, quartet, and quintet settings, in addition to a performance with a 35-piece orchestra.

"Erroll did not overdub his piano with the orchestra, as is often the case," recalls Glaser. "He recorded right alongside the orchestra, which sparked a lot of excitement, because he played by ear and improvised along with the orchestra members, who were playing off written scores. He did concerts with 100-piece symphony orchestras, and they would be playing off written scores, and there was Erroll, playing by ear and breezing through it."

Glaser notes that much of Garner's recorded output represents first takes.

"According to union rules of the day, you would do four sides in a three-hour session," says Glaser. "Erroll was so fast that he could cut 18 to 20 or more songs in four hours."

According to Glaser, there are "hours and hours of unreleased original songs which have yet to be documented." She hopes to annotate and release those performances in the future.

©1999 BPI Communications Inc.
Used with permission from BILLBOARD Magazine.

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