Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony
Music Entertainment, and Octave Music Licensing LLC, curators of American jazz
legend Erroll Garner's archival recordings, announce the release of Garner's
Ready Take One on Friday, September 30.
A new album
of 14 previously unreleased studio performances by Erroll Garner and his
backing musicians--drums (Jimmie Smith, Joe Cocuzzo), bass (Earnest McCarty,
Jr., Ike Isaacs, George Duvivier, Larry Gales) and percussion (Jose
Mangual)--Ready Take One is comprised of tracks recorded during seven
extraordinarily productive sessions in 1967, 1969 and 1971. The New York Times
just premiered "Wild Music," a new original track from the album,
which can be heard here: http://smarturl.it/Erroll_WildMusic.
Ready Take
One features six previously unreleased original Erroll Garner
compositions--"High Wire," "Wild Music," "Back To
You," "Chase Me," "Latin Digs," and "Down Wylie
Avenue"--alongside Garner's swinging interpretations of a variety of jazz
and pop standards including "I Want To Be Happy," "I'm Confessin'
(That I Love You)," Bobby Hebb's "Sunny," Duke Ellington's
"Caravan" and "Satin Doll," Cole Porter's "Night and
Day," "Stella By Starlight" and a passionately rendered version
of Garner's own "Misty," one of the most-often-covered jazz
compositions of all-time and the most-requested number in Garner's repertoire,
recorded for this album on May 28, 1969 in Paris, France.
Recorded
during an especially prolific creative period running from 1967-1971, all 14
songs found on Ready Take One are previously unreleased and only recently
restored after nearly 50 years on acetate.
Drawn from
these sessions at Universal Recording in Chicago (November 28-29, 1967),
Capital Studios in New York City (October 7, 1969) and RCA Studios in Manhattan
(April 27, June 22 and December 2, 1971), Ready Take One finds Erroll Garner in
the studio with his road-tested band and longtime manager Martha Glaser, firing
off some of the most memorable performances of his career. For the first time,
listeners are given a glimpse behind the studio doors, with rare insightful
conversational tidbits between Garner and the group included between many of
the songs. Glaser, known for her progressive guidance of Garner's artistic and
commercial interests, is heard here in producer mode, slating takes and joking
with Garner over the control room talk-back mic. As album producer Geri Allen
writes, "a kind of fifth member of the band, Glaser would support Erroll
Garner in the moment of the creative act." Indeed the title of the album
comes directly from Glaser's steady refrain of "Ready Take One."
The first new
Erroll Garner studio album to be released in nearly a quarter century, Ready
Take One is the worthy successor to Legacy/Octave's first Garner release,
2015's critically-acclaimed Grammy-nominated The Complete Concert by The Sea,
which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Jazz chart. Ready Take One is the first
studio album from the extensive Octave Music catalog of previously unreleased
Erroll Garner recordings and compositions.
One of the
great American jazz pianists and composers of the 20th century (his classic
"Misty" is an undisputed cornerstone jazz standard and the mainstay
of many repertoires) Erroll Garner was among the most popular, successful and
influential jazz artists of his era. (Reportedly Johnny Carson's favorite jazz
musician, Garner appeared 27 times as a guest on "The Tonight Show"
during Carson's reign as host in the 1960s and 1970s.)
Garner
recorded the top-selling outdoor jazz concert album of all time, Concert By The
Sea, in 1955; in 1957, became the first jazz soloist to win The Gran Prix du
Disque in Paris, France; in 1959, was the first musician to play a solo jazz
concert at Carnegie Hall, turning away more than 7000 people; and was given his
own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 6363 Hollywood Boulevard).
Garner
popularized jazz for millions all over the world with record breaking concert
tours, and at the height of his career, was credited with developing the first
completely original piano style since Art Tatum. With his completely
distinctive, immediately recognizable and highly influential compositional and
performance gifts, Erroll Garner was compared by critics to artists as diverse
as Claude Debussy and Fats Waller.
Sadly, and
somewhat inexplicably, since his death in 1977, Erroll Garner's artistry,
enduring musical legacy and immeasurable contributions to the evolution of 20th
century American jazz in the 20th century have been overlooked too often by
contemporary audiences. With albums like Ready Take One, The Complete Concert
By The Sea and future titles in the works, Legacy Recordings and Octave Music
are reintroducing the music and genius of Erroll Garner to the world, bringing
the abiding magic of his sounds to whole new generations of fans.
On June 15,
2015, the estate of Martha Glaser, Garner's longtime manager, announced the
formation of the Erroll Garner Jazz Project, a major new archival and musical
celebration of Garner. The project includes the donation of the Erroll Garner
Archive--a huge trove of newly discovered historical material from Garner's
life--to the University of Pittsburgh.
The album
producers are:
Peter
Lockhart, Senior Producer
Geri Allen,
Producer
Steve
Rosenthal, Producer
Susan
Rosenberg, Executive Producer
Emma Munger,
Assistant Producer
Erroll
Garner
Ready Take
One
Track list:
1. High Wire
2. I Want To
Be Happy
3. I'm
Confessin' (That I Love You)
4. Sunny
5. Wild
Music
6. Caravan
7. Back To
You
8. Night And
Day
9. Chase Me
10. Satin
Doll
11. Latin
Digs
12. Stella
By Starlight
13. Down
Wylie Avenue
14. Misty
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