The Octave Remastered Series -- from Mack Avenue Music Group
and Octave Music -- continues with the release of That's My Kick, available
now. Featuring newly restored and expanded editions of classic Erroll Garner
releases from the 1960s and 1970s, the series is a historic year-long, 12-album
project that has received critical acclaim thus far. Utilizing the Plangent
Process playback system for analog tape, these new transfers were remastered
and, when needed, remixed by the GRAMMY® Award-winning Garner team. The
subsequent series rollout features one album per month – That’s My Kick
(available now), Up in Erroll’s Room, Feeling is Believing, Gemini, Magician,
and Gershwin & Kern – through June 2020.
Produced by Peter Lockhart and Steve Rosenthal, the series
continues Garner’s resurgence, following his return to the top of the Billboard
Jazz chart with 2015’s GRAMMY® Award-nominated The Complete Concert by the Sea,
which was the first release from the Erroll Garner Jazz Project—a collective
formed to curate Garner’s monumental archive. The Garner Project followed The
Complete Concert by the Sea with the critically acclaimed, newly unearthed
studio record Ready Take One in 2016, and the midnight concert album
Nightconcert, which reached #1 on the iTunes and Amazon jazz charts upon its
release in 2018.
The master tapes for all 12 albums in the series were
transferred and restored using the Plangent playback system. Employing a
wideband tape head, preamp and DSP package to capture and track the original
recorder’s ultrasonic bias remnant, the Plangent Process removes the wow and
flutter and FM/IM distortion from the recorded audio. This returns the listener
to the original session experience, bringing to life Garner’s incomparable
performances of his own compositions, as well as classic works from the jazz
canon.
During his 40-year career, Garner published more than 200
compositions, the most famous of which, “Misty,” was ranked by ASCAP as the
twelfth most popular song of the 20th century. Since 1954 no other song has
been recorded by more jazz artists except Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll.” In
1971, “Misty” was the centerpiece of jazz aficionado Clint Eastwood’s film Play
Misty For Me. It has also been featured in numerous television shows (Cheers,
Saturday Night Live, Magnum PI, The Muppet Show) and films (Oscar® nominated
Silver Linings Playbook). A previously unreleased studio performance of “Misty”
is included in the Octave Remastered Series, on the Gemini album.
The newly minted bonus tracks in the series are all Garner
originals, eight of the twelve being previously unreleased compositions. “It’s
truly shocking, and one of the greatest joys of this work, to find these fully
realized tunes just sitting there on tape,” says Peter Lockhart, senior
producer of the Octave Remastered Series.
One of the most prolific composers and performers in the
history of jazz, as well as a courageous advocate for African-American
empowerment and artistic freedom, Garner is a legend among jazz pianists. His
unique approach melds bebop and swing influences into a unique, unrivaled
mastery.
In addition to his brilliant keyboard artistry, Garner is
also a notable figure in popular music history for the hard-won precedents he
set for artistic freedom that still stand today. In 1959, because he had rights
of approval on what was released, Garner successfully sued Columbia Records to
remove an album they had released without his permission.
His victory was the first of its kind for any American
artist in the music industry. Garner and his manager, Martha Glaser,
subsequently founded and launched Octave Records, whose 12 releases make up the
Octave Remastered Series.
Erroll Garner was a rare musician who was equally adored and
respected by peers and devoted fans alike. He and his art were best summed up
by the late trumpeter Clark Terry: “The man was complete. He could do it all.”
That's My Kick was Garner’s first traditional studio album in five
years and perhaps his most ambitious album ever as a composer. The selections
were surely inspired by the new array of musicians assembled for the sessions,
including percussionist José Mangual, who would go on to play with Garner for
rest of his career. The electric atmosphere captured on tape here is at times
raucous and always palpably joyful.
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