Jump to content

Erroll Garner’s “Concert By the Sea” as 3-CD Box by Sony Legacy


RiRiIII

Recommended Posts

Don't recall ever being disappointed by any Garner recording, as long as the man himself was left unemcumbered. For example, I recall rather hesitantly picking up an early ‘60s MGM Garner album of movie themes "A Night at the Movies” and being knocked out by Garner’s exceptional by his own standards zest and inventiveness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 135
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Wow. I've never been a huge fan of this album. . . I'm strangely uninterested in this new reissue, but I'll be eager to read impressions.

Same here. I've never really understood the attention that this record gets relative to other recordings by Erroll Garner, but maybe this reissue will do it for me.

I have the same opinion. I never really connected with this album.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe it's best just to approach it when one is ready for it without even being aware of the marketing hullaballoo and just take it for what it is? Just like with sooooo many other jazz albums, really ...

Maybe a case similar to why some just don't go head over heels for KOB either, for example, just because everyone else says you NEED to go for it ... ;)

I literally stumbled across this album in the mid-90s while browsing the racks at MOLE JAZZ in London. The lady behind the counter in the vinyl department upstairs spun records for some jazzical background moods and then up came this live piano LP ... Something, the overall feel, caught my ear and just got me hooked and when I was told what that one was of course my thoughts were "Oh so THAT's the one" (I had heard of that "landmark" LP, of course, but probably had never listened to much from it consciously before). Needless to say I added it to the stack of vinyl I had picked from the bins.

At that time I already owned quite a few Erroll Garner records but almost all of them covered the period up to c. 1949, including his 1944 beginnings, the Dials, Savoys and others, but nothing much from his Columbia heyday yet. Maybe not the worst idea to explore a prolific artist somewhat chronologically ...

Edited by Big Beat Steve
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is perhaps my favorite Garner recording. It was also my introduction to him, which may play into that I suppose, but I love it. For me, the live setting and roaring crowd always added to my enjoyment of this record. "They Can't Take That Away From Me" is a stand-out track that kills me every time.

I used to listen to Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins on a couple his different runs on bay area radio stations (and one tv show), and he was a big Garner fan (always made fun of people getting his name wrong by referring to him as "Earl Gardner"). "When You're Smiling" from EG's "Dreamstreet" album was something that he used as a closing theme for some of his shows (Basie's "Blues In Hoss' Flat" was the opener).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

amazon.com has a September 18, 2015 release date ...

81mEFVmUUgL._SL1000_.jpg

Interesting... This is not the original cover pic (nor the CD version). The original LP version had a white woman, and so did the different CD offer yet another white woman.

I wonder who this model is? Might it be (aptly) Geri Allen?

(A Toronto sidebar: the next gig the Garner trio did after the Carmel concert was here, at the Colonial Tavern the next week. I wonder if they drove across the country to get here? Air travel was still a great luxury in 1955.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's certainly not a photo of Geri Allen taken this century. . . . Here is Geri a few months ago.

geri_allen.jpg?1427488900

Interesting observation about the cover. Hopefully they mention something about it in the notes.

Original cover: http://mvdb2b.com/i/300dpi/EJC55499.jpg

CD cover: http://www.recordsale.de/cdpix/e/erroll_garner-concert_by_the_sea(2).jpg

Edited by jazzbo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to listen to Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins on a couple his different runs on bay area radio stations (and one tv show), and he was a big Garner fan (always made fun of people getting his name wrong by referring to him as "Earl Gardner"). "When You're Smiling" from EG's "Dreamstreet" album was something that he used as a closing theme for some of his shows (Basie's "Blues In Hoss' Flat" was the opener).

Man, I still miss listening to Jazzbeaux on Sat. & Sun. nights on KCSM. The man was as cool as the Purple Groteaux itself! I wish radio still had room for personalities instead of cookie cutter hosts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to listen to Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins on a couple his different runs on bay area radio stations (and one tv show), and he was a big Garner fan (always made fun of people getting his name wrong by referring to him as "Earl Gardner"). "When You're Smiling" from EG's "Dreamstreet" album was something that he used as a closing theme for some of his shows (Basie's "Blues In Hoss' Flat" was the opener).

Man, I still miss listening to Jazzbeaux on Sat. & Sun. nights on KCSM. The man was as cool as the Purple Groteaux itself! I wish radio still had room for personalities instead of cookie cutter hosts.

Was this a latter-day spelling of his nickname?

Both the East Coast Jazz Scene LP on Coral and the sheet music published around the same time as well as that "Riding Hood" disc have him als Al JAZZBO Collins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He changed the spelling to "Jazzbeaux" in 1969 (when he moved to Pittsburgh, according to what I've read). I don't know the full story, since I was only 13 at the time and not yet hip to him, but it makes sense to me that he wanted something more "sophisticated". :) He would sometimes pronounce it "Jazzbox", by the way. Why? Who the hell knows! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

 

 

I got mine today from Amazon.  I've heard part of it and it's very good.  However I've read all the notes and in three essays no-one mentions the man who recorded "what would have been a private bootleg recording".  It was the late Will Thornbury a wonderful d.j. whom I was lucky enough to hear when I first moved to California.  The only credit he gets is in very small letters as one of two after "originally engineered by".  He was also an actor (model for the Marlborough Man) and a screenwriter. 

Oooops. I just noticed that on the back of the package he does get credit for doing the interview that's at the end of cd 3. 

Edited by medjuck
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...