I heard a story that someone criticized Erroll because of his inability to read music. He responded by saying,"No one comes to watch me read." Thanks for posting.
Three interesting facts about Garner: (1) He composed this beautiful creation, Misty. (2) He was only 5 feet 2 inches tall. (3) He never learned to read music and composed Misty using a dictaphone, getting friends to transcribe it later into a musical score.
Not too bad. I'm only a 5'4" male. At 72 I can kinda-sorta do (kinda-sorta) do what the man does. We short guys work harder I guess. Dean Seattle Jazz Alley
His music brought me and my husband together in 1959. Especially Misty, that was our favorite song. We were married fifty years. Misty was so special to us. Thank you, Errol xx
@@user-lb4ew7gr2j Idon’t know man, erroll is born with a certain feeling in his hands that can never be achieved by any experience level whatsoever. It’s just his genetic advantage of mobility.
@@l3gendbaap963 and at one point he couldn't play at all; taking what he said literally a million years is more than enough time as long as you're actively learning
That's what happens when you have passion for what you do. At that point, you don't even have to worry about things like that, it just comes naturally.
Most good pianist can play without looking at there fingers - most of the time. After a while you just know where the keys are. I know because I play piano also - absolutely no where as great as he can. But as I said, if you practice enough you really get to know the keyboard.
Yes, I’m aware that a brilliant pianist doesn’t have to look at his fingers or the keybord. But Erroll even turns his head often and looks away while playing at high speed.
6 лет назад
This guy is looking everywhere, but the piano. Mindblowing excellence.
@@xxcrump3297 Actually the reason he isn't looking at the piano is because he was blind. He was playing by touch, just like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
My mom's favorite piano player, Errol Garner. What great control and touch. Mom loved Errol's big, blasting chords and fabulous style. Don't we all. What a gift to America. RIP Errol Garner.
Way back when I was a kid in the 1960's, our family was in the boarding area at the Bismarck, North Dakota airport. My Dad, who had been a jazz musician when he was young and was still a jazz lover, recognized Erroll Garner in the waiting area with us. He struck up a conversation with Garner, he and Garner talking jazz for probably 30 minutes. Erroll Garner was gracious and very humble for such a greatly talented man. I've never forgotten that day.
Erroll Garner is the King of improvisation, composing, uttering, executing , arranging anything without previous preparation and without the ability to read music. Total genius. RIP
My mom and dad took me to the Elwood in Windsor,ont in the late 60's to see this man. I was 15/16. I am forever grateful they exposed me to such beautiful music.
How is this man not more worldly recognized. He has such a beautiful and unique style in approaching jazz piano with his left hand swinging rhythm section accompanied by the right hand octave melody lines. Erroll was living proof that jazz is one of the greatest art forms. This video deserves 7 billion views.
I always thought Errol Garner was pretty recognised in music... always mentioned in classical and jazz circles, particularly in his day. I just heard something about him in a doc about the evolution of jazz recently ...
At my family's Bar and Restaurant in NYC he was playing in our bar, I sat at the bar listening, sometimes hiding behind the jukebox because I was not allowed in, he played a few nights a week for years and I didnt know what I was hearing...I play Jazz guitar now and boy do I know how lucky I was
Dude that line at 2:40 was freakin insane. So much creativity in the line itself, but he puts these beautiful chords behind such a well constructed melody. What a line. 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻🤤🤤🥵😩
'block chords'. Garner was a master at playing the line in octaves in the right hand, with harmony notes filling in the chord. He could use grace notes on the top or even with the thumb and you can hear how gorgeous his tremolo was, splitting the block into two halves. Other pianists used different block chord styles
When I was 14, my mother bought me Andre Previn and Oscar Peterson albums, then I was hooked on jazz piano. Then followed Erroll and Bill Evans. I have played "Misty" on the piano since I was about 10 years old, about 60 years! "Misty" is one of the greatest love ballads of all time!
@Wes McGee Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter in Play Misty For Me. I put that movie with Hitchcocks's Psycho as two great, disturbing thrillers that hit the big screen. I have yet since either was released, ever to watched them again,lol.
You are so right about 'Misty', but Erroll Garner's splendid introductions sold me on his performance skills from the first few notes - he invites interest by invention.
@@vinyltapelover I was eating at a restaurant in Monterey once wondering why it looked so deja vu familiar and the waiter said "Did you ever see Play Misty for Me?" Classic movie and classic song - so many great versions it's nice to see Garner do it.
I'm thinking it might just be best if we never look at our hands and "just go with it" as the late Deems Tsutakawa said to me a few years ago during his break at Jazz Alley here in Seattle.
He couldn’t read sheet music anyways 😂 he was just that talented that he didn’t rely on sheet music but on some savant level sense of how the piano and harmony works
YankeeClippa Yes, he was a musical genius. He wrote it, so that's why he plays it with such style. He knows every perfectly placed note. Another person wrote the lyrics. Together they crerated one of the finest love songs of all time.
Never mind the reading music statement the man is looking up to the stars when he's playing he's not even looking at the keyboard he knows where everything is. Genius .
and if you look closely, you can see drops of sweat running down the sides of his face... of which he seems totally unaware... people in this thread mention "he doesn't look at his hands..." because it's all about TOUCH.. and FEEL ... you can see him tilt his head back, eyes half-closed.. he doesn't need to see anything -- he's feeling it and making us feel it, too :)
My mother was a concert and Jazz pianist in London and Kenya, Africa. She had records of Erroll Garner playing and I loved his piano playing the best, when I was only seven years old. As you say he had a distinct style different from any other. My mother went to the Royal Academy but long before that she always loved Jazz and had had a Birthday Present went she was 13 years old. to have a piano lesson in Jazz from Billy Mayrel. She went on to play concerts of Music from Debussy, Ravel, Beethovan, Schuman and Mozart etc but when she came back from a broken marriage from Berlin to London she began playing for Billy with his troupe of lady pianists. When she was at the Royal Academy of Music, she heard that Art Tatum was coming to London. She arranged for her fellow students to come and hear him at a nightclub in London. They all sat down excited and waited. I imagined it to like that scene in "The Red Shoes" when the hero and his fellow composers are waiting to hear the music, not to see the ballet,- and were shushing everybody. Well, Art Tatum came on and began playing but people continued to talk. Suddenly Art got down from the piano and walked off the stage. ThIs was in early 1930s, when people acted differently. My mother Kay Marjoribanks, went to the manager and asked why Mr Tatum had left the stage. The manager said that Art was not used to people talking while he played. My mother then went backstage and talked to Art Tatum. She said that she was so excited to hear him play and that a whole bunch of Royal Academy of Music students were out there waiting to hear from him. People in London did not realise the conventions of America or of good music, especially in a nightclub. (Paris might have been a lot better). She was well off and she had a car and offered to drive him around London which she did. He came back and played and she arranged for him to play a recital at the Royal Academy itself. For an almost blind, self taught pianist, the reception Academy Main Tutor said he was a brilliant and very gifted musician. In London Art and his wife were quite frightened, as they had not ever been abroad, and of course did not know how they would be received. America was extremely racist then but Paris especially, and London were much more accommodating. My mother followed his work all his life and was influenced by him and Billy Mayrel in her own music.
This is a wonderful story about your mother, who sounds like a truly great person and musician. I'm so glad you shared this with all of us. Just one bone to pick: The part about the Academy Main Tutor deeming Art Tatum "brilliant and very gifted" is quite patronizing, not from you, but from them, even if it was the 1950's. It's also a monumental understatement. Art Tatum was one of the greatest pianists and musicians in music history, regardless of genre. Much more than 'brilliant and/or very gifted'! The Tutor, no doubt white, likely was not all that familiar with America's classical music, Jazz, and without realizing it, I'm sure, comes off as a patronizing know-it-all at worst, and Euro-classical snob at best. A more humble assessment would have been something like this: "I am not qualified to comment on what this man is doing from a musical perspective, me being woefully uninformed about the discipline and courage that must be required to play such difficult music as part of Mr. Tatum's chosen art form, but, clearly, America has produced a musician who's piano playing and arranging skills rival the greatest classical pianists on this planet. And America has produced a genre of music with such harmonic, melodic and rhythmic sophistication and feeling, that, I, and am sure many others at the institution must study this music further! Perhaps Art Tatum could provide some instruction in this regard, and we would like to have him back in a professorial capacity, if he would be so inclined at our most gracious request". Think of the possibilities here! It may have even extended Tatum's life, as America clearly was not good for him. He died at just 47 years old. Nonetheless, I'm glad they saw fit to have Tatum perform for them. A wonderful cultural exchange, to be sure. All praise to your mother for making it happen. She was way ahead of her time!
I agree, Cynthia! I ADORE Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, George Shearing ... Bud Powell: ALL HONORED POWER TO HIM FOREVERMORE - but Erroll. Erroll Garner is simply: he is: an orchestra, a whole Big Band (his main influence, he acknowledged): unto himself. His SPIRIT! He NEVER talks! He just does that ADORABLE singing to himself: and he PLAYS. That's ALL, y'all. There will NEVER -- not ever, ever - not EVER - be another on this planet, I don't think: EVER: who can do CLOSE to what he did. Thank ALL the gods for him. Always. THANK YOU, ERROLL! -- PS: Y'ALL: HE can play THIS SONG BETTER THAN ANYONE: Because he made it up. (lol: I almost typed: "He wrote it." But. We know who wrote it. A notator, thank heck, who has saved the chart for us.) HE CREATED IT. Thoe MAGNIFICENT harmonic chord changes and melody. So.
O, WOW. Now I read your whole comment (I'm sorry; I hadn't read the whole thing, before). ART TATUM! That is BEYOND WONDERFUL, what your Mom did for Art that time. HOW PEOPLE COULD CHATTER during ART TATUM playing??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! utterly blows my mind. BLOWS IT. BLOWs it UP. - What a thing, Cynthia. What a thing. THANK you for sharing that. People. I can't understand people. AND GEORGE SHARING. That blind, British MARVEL. HE PLAYED SO GORGEOUSLY, too, eh? Born blind. 1 of the top 10 Jazz pianists in the world, I'd say. BUT NO ONE COULD PLAY LIKE ART TATUM. NO ONE. That Right hand of his. - FLYing over the keys; -- --- !!!!!! - And the Left hand, perfectly keeping up! astounding. ASTOUNDING. -- and Marian McPartland! No slouch, either! Thank you so much for this, - VCH & Midlantic Theatre Co., Newark, NJ, USA
@@yung4evr '"... sick ..." A positive, descriptive, colloquialism used to express great appreciation of a skill or an act. Similar to saying such things as, "out of sight"(old school saying), unmatched, unparalleled, exceptional, genius, daaamn!(an extended version of the exclamation of "damn" but used in an appreciative manner). No shade or disrespect intended. Just having fun but not at your expense. Besides you probably know knew it already.
If Erroll Garner had had the finest musical education, and learned the intricasies of musical scoring from the best in the country he would not have played any better. His genius rose above learning by rote - he simply mastered the instrument and let his magical emotional depth flow through his fingers onto the right keys. What wonderful interpretations he gave us.
Interpretations? If you are referring to the song "Misty", he didn't interpret it, he wrote it. If that isn't what you meant, then disregard my comment.
Gary Rice interpretations in context would mean his style or his methods of playing here, also what hes playing too. it's not the actual denotation of interpretations here, if it wasn't obvious enough.
What a perfect piece! I’m a classical pianist, but love this piece so much that I get goosebumps, and I can feel the deep and inner feature: love this “arpeggio chords” technique…it feels to me like flying on a soft steam of a cloudy night sky
An elderly friend told me of her husband who played the piano in Madison square gardens during the war, whilst playing Misty a gentleman stood behind him listening, when finished the gentleman complemented him on his playing in his words 'never have I heard this song played so perfect with such feeling' he thanked the gentleman and asked his name ? the gentleman replied .... Erroll Garner I wrote it sir ! :)
Carlos A. Bonorino his mind was replaced by another mind infinitely talented for jazz and he was using E.G. body .the mind is working as a radio set device ,it is just as you you shift radio station pointer , you start to listen to another kind of music jazz .
If I had one wish right now; I'd like to go back in time and hear this played in some small club in any city. If I had to hide in a corner or behind a curtain, that would be alright.
+Ozzy Gonzalez Liszt had some sick "jazz" chords in his pieces. LOL Listen to his sonata in b minor. I guess it's just the way you call it... Classical Era or jazz music... a Genius still remains Genius. I'm one of those who think that we should not separate music but learn from each other and seek for the things we have in common, the similarities. Jazz is just a name, music is much more than that... and I believe it will always remain like this.
+Ozzy Gonzalez don't know about composer of the romantic era but Arturo Toscanini when in NY personally want to know those monsters of piano..and he did it
1963, the Tenderloin in San Francisco, standing outside the Blackhawk, listening to this incredible musician playing to a packed house. Not old enough to get in, but even listening on the street was an amazing experience.
+Kalim Manigault (iGrungeisntdead10) Harpists just do "glisses"...this guy was doing jazz chords down the fucking piano...this guy is a legend. He doesn't even need to look at the keyboard when he does this.
DocsDota Do.nt be so hostile dude_ there is a recording of Misty by a harpist Dorothy something ( sorry for not recalling her surname) that uses a lot of the arpeggios that we hear in Garner version! Relax dude this is the cool stuff!
I've never seen anything else like this in my life ever, he is not looking because the instrument is an extension of his mind, he was a prodigy and got it at age 3, very rare, he is one with it
Garner had a unique "tool kit" as a pianist due to the fact he didn't know sheet music, theoretical fingering. Sharps and Flats meant nothing too him. He settled into playing in keys that his mind and hands felt most comfortable with. Not straying from the melody too much, he applied massive resources from left-hand in almost orchestral accompaniment playing octave passages as fast as a concert pianist, crossing the beat with his right hand, changing moods from maximum to minimal accent, sliding a semitone into chords with his right hand thumb and little finger, using little musical catch phrases from tunes different to the featured one, using r.h. index finger in a stabbing mode. Also having a great stride left hand solo ability; and finally a really nice mannerism and sense of fun with audiences. Yeah, I discovered him in 1969 and still a huge fan.
Beautifully put. "Massive resources from left hand" is almost an understatement given that many media reports focus on his striking degree of ambidexterity: aside from the piano (obviously), he could also write with both hands and play golf from both sides. Erroll is an inspiration and shows that "dominant hand" is only a limitation of the mind if you are willing to practice things with two hands.
As a guitarist, I watch this and cry. So many simultaneous notes from one person. Effortless, yet this MUST be difficult for any typical pianist. Can any piano players reaffirm? Because he looks like he is doing some otherworldy playing...with such ease...
lotta practice requried and a certain amount of passion, but by on means impossible or even tremendously diffiuclt, anyone really can do it, but what makes it amazing is the passion not really the difficulty level
@@gerryhowe1086 - that is the genius of a genius - it all exists and is formed in the mind first, whether it is ever written down, or not. Written music simply preserves the creative thoughts - it does not create them. All of Bach's masterpieces existed in his mind before they ever existed on paper. The same with Erroll - same genius, different genre.
I totally agree. I had the luck to be in two Errol´s concerts in Buenos Aires. First row, of course and after the show I talked with him and recorded my conversation in my small Sony cassette recorder.
I've been listening to Erroll Garner for 40+ years, and to me he is a genius. No other pianist has given me more pleasure. The best pianist that ever lived.
Reading all the comments below, makes me realize even more how much I love this man's music. I have his CD's in my car and playing on the radio on continuously. For all of you who wish you could hear him live, I must share that I had the privilege of producing a concert for Erroll at Kent State University in 1965. Not only did I get to meet him, but I got to sit at the piano with him for a few minutes before the concert. Then sat front row for almost two hours of pure heavenly enjoyment. He was pure genius on the piano, and the man that taught me how to play the piano, by me having the opportunity to sit in my parents living room and listen to his vinyl over, and over, and over...and I'm still listening to this day. I miss him terribly!
Saw him in BIrmingham in the 60’s. A two-handed genius who mesmerised with his performances and professionalism. How his trio knew how his improvisations were going, I have no idea. Sheer brilliance and inspirational. Legend.
Thanks for posting this historical film of the master playing his own piece just as free as a bird. Wonderful to behold. I play from ear mostly. I was getting the bridge wrong. I was playing a different one. But now I think I've got it. Nothing like getting it firsthand from the composer. What a world!
I came here because someone said that this hip hop remix had the similar melody to this BEAUTIFUL music. It’s a shame that I’ve spent 23 years not knowing this LEGEND! My heart of heart feels in love with music for the first time!
