Music played and composed by a true musician! All he ever "needed" was a piano!

...and a bass player and a drummer.

Seriously, he was a very talented piano player for sure, as well as an accomplished composer.

I used to play this piece quite often on solo digital piano as a special request for the restaurant owner and his wife. He wanted it played "no frills" and I really enjoyed playing it sans arranger accompaniment.

This piece also worked well on my old D-85 Electone organ, using bass pedals and a simple drum accompaniment.

Garner was most definitely a class act.

Ian

A class act indeed, but those additional instruments, especially the bass, make a huge difference in the presentation of the song.

Keep in mind that Willie Nelson is probably among the most talented composer/song writers on the planet, but he's probably only an average musician when it comes to guitar playing and piano playing. Without his drummer, bass player, steel player, etc..., those songs would not have gone very far. IMO, the same scenario holds true for an arranger keyboard. What makes us so popular is we essentially incorporate a 5-piece band with every song we perform. It's not just us with a guitar in our hands, or a piano at our fingertips. Sure, we can still entertain folks using a single instrument, but I believe that when using a single instrument, we tend to loose our ability to diversify, and diversity is what an arranger provides more than any single instrument. I can do a great job playing and singing Misty, and when that song ends, I can hit a single button, and a half second later be performing Old Time Rock & Roll. Even Jerry Lee had a backup band.

Cheers,

Gary

HOW ARE YOU, Taike? Just looked yesterday at the photo of my little "adopted" family. Imagine little man is really bigger.

How's the new arranger? I'm on deadline, so I'll get back, but I met Garner in the early 60's when he appeared on the Steve Allen show. Johnny Mathis, who was scheduled that night introduced us.

Man. I've been lucky.


Talk to you soon...


Russ

Hi Taike:

I listened yesterday but did not have time to reply. Garner was the "real deal" and was certainly no slouch on vibes, as well.

Thanks for sharing this little piece of Heaven with us. On top of being a talent... he was a great performer and had such a grasp of keeping the audience right there with him.

Regards,

Dave Rice

.........and then Garner said to Steve Allen. "Yea I know Russ, but I can't remember the name of that guy that introduced us."

Jerryghr

I just made the time to watch this, although I can't count the number of times I've listened to EG's "Misty" ... and if HE can't play the song, who can - after all he WROTE it !!!
Errol and Oscar - two of the GREATEST !!!

And personally, I don't think the bass and drums added all that much to the arrangement ... JMHO ...

I tend to agree with Tony...the bass and drums didn't add all that much to that particular arrangement...but, they were there none the less...I was hoping that Garner would have played it totally solo.

On the subject of bass and drums in an arrangement, I could listen to a piece played without drums (and just the added bass) but not to one without the bass (and just drums with the solo instrument).

Bass, to me, adds that "foundation" (literally) and movement to a tune better than drums only, even with a good kick drum, mainly because the latter doesn't actually play other notes other than what the bass drum is tuned to.

Ian

I couldn't find a version of him playing it solo ...

Ian, I agree about the bass alone vs. drums alone ... I think the drums alone only works if the pianist has a strong left hand ...

Way too deep for me - I'm not all that bright, ya know!

It's SUCH a GREAT song ...

I couldn't agree more.

Gary

I also feel even the strong left hand (piano) with drums is still not as pleasingly smoothly blended as a bass (especially acoustic upright) as the piano bass tends to sound a bit too harmonically complex for my ears. The string bass seems to be sonically more appropriate.

Tony, this tune has always been on my must play list, along with As Time Goes By and Somewhere Over the Rainbow...they seem to be loved and recognized by a broader age range of listeners than most tunes, especially if you are playing only instrumentals.

"All the Things You Are" is another one that seems to fit in with the above.

They are all so rewarding to play.

Ian

People ask 'what is your favorite song?' and I always say it is impossible to have ONE out of all the songs and genres, but if I HAD to name one it would probably be "All The Things You Are" ... It is just beautiful and the changes are fun to work with ...

And you are absolutely right about the Acoustic Bass vs. the piano bass ... and the songs from the Great American Songbook just call for an upright acoustic bass ...

To realize just how important bass is, I sometimes switch off the drums while playing a style and it still works pretty good (you could probably still dance to it) but if I leave the drums on and switch off the bass, the style seems to lose direction pretty quickly.

I love starting out a tune with a style, first with both bass and drums turned off, bringing in first bass and then drums as it progresses. In fact some of my styles are edited to accomplish just that...usually the first variation being without the drums (or both bass and drums) with the subsequent variations adding them.

Of course, some players accomplish the same thing using Registration Memories.

Ian

Not the best sound but half of the pleasure is watching a great musician play.



Russ, I"ll get back to you soon! Same goes for Chas.

Great hearing from you guy. Made me remember all the years I spent absolutely worshiping the guy (Garner). Even suffered through and cringed the many times I heard would-be 'jazz lovers' refer to him as Earl GARDNER. Arrrrrggggg.

chas

A GREAT song no matter how it is played ...

For those who may not know, Ralph Sharon was Tony Bennett's piano player for over 50 years, until he retired ... he was 91 in Sept.
TB's current piano player is RI's own Mike Renzi ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Renzi

I always say that, for many forms of music, I want the best player in the group to be the bass.

Watching Garner do almost a counter balancing on his left had...the interplay with the upright player's line, is what makes this kind of playing full and melodic.

The most significant things I learned about jazz....and LIFE, to, for that matter, were from Ray Brown.

In a lot of ways, I try to be the "albino" version of my hero...on and off the bandstand.


Russ

Diana Krall says that Ray Brown was her biggest influence ...

Way too flamboyant for my taste. I absolutely loved the woman playing the nylon string guitar version. It brought out the pure beauty of the melody. In my opinion Garner destroys the melody line of his own song with all those fancy fills.

God Bless,
Don

DITTO .....sometimes less is MORE!!

It's JAZZ, fellas ... and if the composer can't play the song they way he wants, who CAN ?!?

BTW I really liked the guitar player's version also ...

Don't confuse flamboyancy with musicianship! It's Jazz, not Rock!