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Red Garland

William McKinley "Red" Garland, Jr. was a jazz pianist, best remembered for his work with Miles Davis between 1955-8. This 4 CD set (The Albums Collection Part One) collects eight albums featuring his own trio (with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums) or in quartets or quintets, recorded over roughly that same timespan (1956-9). A few years back I'd become particularly enamoured of long & languidly bluesy jazz numbers like Grant Green's 'Idle Moments' & 'All Day Long' by Kenny Burrell, and was keen to hear Garland's All Mornin' Long album with its twenty-minute title track.

Garland is on fine form in 'All Mornin' Long', but it's a little too much of just him for my liking with sidemen Donald Byrd and John Coltrane, no less, being given ample time for a smoke-break during the pianist's lengthy solo. Coltrane's contributions to that record, and to John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio are by no means his finest work, though I should add, to illustrate how unreliable a guide I am, that I've failed to acquire much of a taste for even his best albums.

I've seldom revisited most of these recordings - Manteca for example ('58), featuring additional percussion by Ray Barretto; or the gimmicky All Kinds of Weather ('59) - but two of them have kept drawing me back in, both of them dating from '57: Red Garland's Piano, released in June of that year, offers immaculately tasteful and refined interpretations of standards like 'The Very Thought of You' & 'But Not For Me'; while Groovy! (released six months later) is a little looser and livelier, kicking off with a version of Duke Ellington's 'C-Jam Blues' in which both pianist and bassist shine particularly brightly.

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