Erroll Garner - pianist

Erroll Garner (b. June 15, 1921 – d. January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first recorded in 1956 with Mitch Miller and his orchestra, and played a prominent part in the 1971 motion picture Play Misty for Me.

Garner began playing piano at the age of three. His elder siblings were taught piano by a "Miss Bowman". From an early age, Erroll would sit down and play anything she had demonstrated, "just like Miss Bowman", his eldest sister Martha said. Garner was self-taught and remained an "ear player" all his life, never learning to read music. At the age of seven, he began appearing on the radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group named the Candy Kids. By the age of 11, he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. In 1937, he joined local saxophonist Leroy Brown. Garner played locally in the shadow of his older brother Linton, also a pianist.

Garner moved to New York City in 1944. He briefly worked with the bassist Slam Stewart, and although not a bebop musician per se, in 1947 played with Charlie Parker on the "Cool Blues" session. Although Garner's admission to the Pittsburgh music union initially was refused because of his inability to read music, the union relented in 1956 and made him an honorary member. He is credited with having had a superb musical memory.

Garner may have been inspired by the example of Earl Hines, a fellow Pittsburgh resident who was 18 years his senior, and there were resemblances in their elastic approach to timing and use of right-hand octaves. Garner's early recordings display the influence of the stride piano style of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. Garner's melodic improvisations generally stayed close to the theme while employing novel chord voicings and other devices. He developed a signature style that involved his right hand playing slightly behind the beat while his left strummed a steady rhythm and punctuation, creating an insouciant quality and at the same time an exciting rhythmic tension. He would also enhance the effect by accelerating and decelerating the beat in the right hand, a device nicknamed the "Russian Dragon" (rushing and dragging). The independence of his hands also was evidenced by his masterful use of three-against-four and more complicated polyrhythms between the hands. In trio settings, he often played the 3:2 son clave rhythm pattern in his left hand chording on Latin tunes, and on swing tunes, he played the similar 12/8 Rhumba clave rhythm pattern. Garner frequently improvised whimsical introductions—often in stark contrast to the rest of the tune—that left listeners and even fellow band members in suspense as to what the piece would be or when the introduction would come to an end.

Garner died of cardiac arrest related to emphysema on January 2, 1977, aged 55. He is buried in Pittsburgh's Homewood Cemetery.

Source: Wikipedia