The Man Who Brought Me Back: Mr. Erroll Garner

I started playing the piano at 7 years old and actually learned to read and play some classical pieces. I left the piano and then came back to it in my teens. My mother had an eclectic taste in music, from opera to jazz and she had an LP by this guy named Erroll Garner: "Concert By The Sea", recorded live in Carmel, California. By this time I was playing by ear and after hearing this album I tried to assimilate each arrangement on this wonderful LP. So he is the MAN who brought me back to my instrument.







This is Earl's best rendition of "Misty", courtesy of You Tube:

~~ MY NEW CD ~~

I've been working on a CD, "Reflections - Classical Improv" that is improvised, and is classical and lyrical in style, and I just sent it off for distribution. If you'd like to take a look at it and hear some samples, you can click on the album cover below and it will take you to the CD webpage. It is available for purchase on that page and will be available for download from Itunes, Amazon, etc. in a few weeks.

- As Time Goes By -

I hadn't realized how long it had been since I posted - I've been working on a couple of CD's since my last post. One is called "Songs for Valerie", (my wife) and the other is called "Quiet Elegance" which is synthesized harp music. Both are on CDBaby.com. CDBaby.com is a great resource for unknown artists, like myself, to reach a broader audience and they even have resonably priced hosting for music websites.

Glen Gould - Goldberg Variations 1 - 7

I've never heard anyone play Bach with more feeling than Glen Gould.

[the following is a quotation from his biography at www.sonyclassical.com:]

In 1981 Gould departed from his custom of not rerecording a work and, twenty-six years after his first recording of the Goldberg Variations, went into the same New York studio for his second recording of the work with which he had become so closely identified. Gould viewed the two interpretations as substantially different because he came to see the variations not as separate and distinct exercises but as belonging to a larger whole, with one rhythmic pulse, harmony and ideology underlying the entire work and forming a definite unity of composition. Always acutely aware of the possibilities technology offers, Gould was also motivated in his decision to rerecord the Goldberg Variations by the vast changes in recording technology during the previous twenty-five years.

Click here to see his full biography

- SATIN DOLL -

"Satin Doll" was written by Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974) for and with pianist William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn (1915-1967) in 1967; the lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer (1909-1976).

I played it on a M-Audio 88 midied into a Mac running GarageBand. Then I dubbed in the bass track. I'm shooting with an old Panasonic palmcorder that has terrible sound, so I have to sync the sound track from GarageBand into Imovie.

- Here's That Rainy Day -

Here's an arrangement that I did using GarageBand of this nice old jazz standard. It's title is a perfect description of today's weather here in Cottonwood.

- MISTY -

Erroll Garner was instrumental (no pun intended) in getting me to play the piano. I had piano lessons at an early age, but left music to do art and then came back to it with Erroll in my teens. Like Erroll, I don't read music, and play completely by ear. I saw him perform once at the 'Mogambo' night club on the old Sunset Strip. Here is a video of my version of 'Misty'