Erroll Garner and Art Tatum at Birdland, 1952
Photo by Marcel Fleiss
This recording is a view into the unorthodox and dramatic piano style of one of the greatest imaginations in jazz. From the rumbling orchestration of the preface to the melody, we know the sophisticated Garner is poised to deliver his trademark romance. The melody rolls like pearls from the stage where the diminutive man is perched on top of a phonebook. A natural musician who never learned to read a note, Garner developed a synthesis between understated cocktail phrasing and the rich harmonic flourishes of Art Tatum.