ERROLL GARNER - SO YOU WANNA LEARN TO PLAY THE PIANO HUN?

[Music] now then back to earnest McCarty he's a bass player who worked as Erroll Garner's accompanist for over five years maybe more somewhere in that period Ernest and I met and have kept in touch now he dropped by my office as I said recently and as we got into a conversation about Errol and some of the things he said about are always so compelling that I decided to put it on film for you you're going to see that film in a few moments but don't think that all of this is just a selfish expression on my part this interview is being presented out of the conviction that Erroll Garner is among a whole host of exceptional people of our race who are little known by today's youth we hear it like it is our constantly seeking to remedy that and this interview is a step in that direction after 10 happy years here's something you deserve a diamond ring can we afford it you can afford the ultimate gift diamond jewelry from SMA Diamond importers SMA has private showings by appointment only to help you choose from a best selection of dazzling diamonds at unbelievably low import prices call for your appointment I love my new diamonds [Music] Island importers HBO is okay but only whd tops off your earrings with night cap films just wait till you see them Plus enjoy lots of great feature films vintage screen classics showbiz extravaganzas like Frank Sinatra in concert children's specials in action-packed sports no cable TV is required to get WH T so why wait call toll free today and get the entertainment for the entertainment hot operators are standing by this is Ernest McCarty today for over five years Ernest took his position on Erroll Garner's left and accompanied one of the most demanding of musicians and concert and nightclub performances all over the world Errol Louis Garner oh he was bad he was just a shade taller than five feet and yet he was unanimously regarded as a giant we're fortunate to have acquired film of garner in performance although you'll see him with another bassist accompanying him til nonetheless we hope find the footage useful in understanding the brilliance that was his and also aided by the illustrations drawn by Ernest McCarty in telling his story [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] where did you meet this man I met Earl in 1970 at the apartment supper club in New York City here and I was the house bass player mm-hmm up there he dropped in with Carmen McRae and glory Lane was there already and they were all sitting there at the table together just looking at me you know making me very very paranoid because that's the whole that's all old musicians ploy - almost like a friendly type challenge to just sit in if you are trumpet player you sit and stay at the trumpet player so everyone is sitting staring at me and none of them seem to be a bass player to me and you know after after the set he he ready to be over to the table I started talking about could I travel to have a passport all the kind of stuff and Carmen was saying the same things can you travel I will 42 weeks a year and blah blah blah and that's how we met with the proposition so they were both hitting her and you were both hitting on me so what happened well Carmen figured that I wanted a quantity of work more more weeks a year area I'll say look I'm only gonna work 23 24 weeks a year maybe 38 tops which leaves me plenty of time to do my writing and my other thing plus he paid three times as much and common well I would prefer to work with Aero then then with Carmen because he was a musician and I could learn a lot from him as far as musical freedoms mm-hmm well what happened I mean you were hired on the spot oh no no after I said I would go with him he said well we have to have a little rehearsal I didn't know that it was the first and only rehearse we would ever ever have for five years he invited me to the studio NOLA studios on 57th Street one I have to know about 130 and he's there at the piano and Jose Manuel Manuel the conga player at that time he was there and I walked in and he had a base waiting for me some rented base really hard to play the strings were that fat you know and he just sat down and then during his little Mambo talk and starts fooling around with one his elaborate intros on the piano which is hypnotic if you get too absorbed in it because you've got to catch his cue when he gives that downbeat so he's going off on his whole thing and then I couldn't think of what song he could be developing there he's not saying anything maybe he'll stop and turn and say to me we're gonna do misty never happens all of a sudden BAM we into a tune I remember April just floating along he's looking up and you just have to find it there well I've been playing a tune for a long long time mm-hmm I was happy did he pick that instead of lush life probably lush life and so how many Tunes did you all play we played after that particular tool the audition was actually over then he played played misty they started off in the traditional way song wrong and wrong about the bridge he went into a tango on top of changing the key which is if you know the song you are musician the bridge to misty starts on the fourth degree of the scale oh it's that's that's the the first chord after they turn around that's right so therefore if you're gonna change key on top of it you've got to fire first figure out what keys going to and then get the fourth degree of the scale so that solved a lot of problems for him as far as my music music ability was concerned because he had to have someone who would be able to follow him all over the the universe musically speaking so to speak so what key did he take it into we were done we went from a flat mm-hmm and we went from E flat to G flat right which which means that on the turnaround we we used a F sharp seven or G flat seven according to a B major 7 or C flat major seven instead of an A flat major seven it was interesting he didn't say anything to you he just did it he just did it spontaneous head head Arrangements which is the type of format we always used whenever we travel whenever we recorded even on the album this even says it he arranges by Eric garner didn't hurt and you never had a rehearsal sense no more rehearsals except when we got ready to do a television show we were set up you know soundcheck that kind of thing that's not a personal mm-hmm just to get the balance so you mean to tell me whatever he played you just had to be ready at all times how many Tunes would you say this man knew in Ariel's case it would be almost like saying how many stars are there in the sky Errol could play anything that he ever heard so therefore they were there was no telling how many songs he actually knew because he could play along with the music something would be playing up there he'll sound just like it he knew classical music he could do Beethoven he get out of here he could imitate any anybody's dial he was the most learned musician he was a very deep professor of another method of bringing music to people he didn't know about harmony how to put it together how to write it down he couldn't expound on the principles and elements that comprise music but let him get to a piano that's the office [Music] to be if his company was like boy to the mountain to talk to the wire to my Risha school as far as music was was concerned did he ever take a tune into such a way or start playing in such a way that you just had to sort of lay out and see what he was gonna do before you hold up yeah I must admit now in my wanderings around the musical sphere with this man there was a couple of times when I was totally totally lost I mean he's on Jupiter and I'm only on Mars someplace and I had to just stand there ran on the stage and just get myself together and he covered any covers but usually the other two musicians the drummer in the conga would take their cue from me we will come in because even kill me because I have to do the chords as well as the time so if I didn't play chances are they wouldn't play and I was counting on that because if they had play and he was playing there I was cake on my face man raw egg - yes he took he played a song he played the intro that was so magnificent that I couldn't even zoom in on what tune he has disguise within the intro [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the way you could cut you down was on the bandstand so he wasn't gonna warn you he wasn't gonna hang you up so that the audience knows he's gonna send you some musical messages as to you know I am still the guy and I'm giant and I know what's going on before you know what's going on so what he would do with - a nice intro start playing one particular tool [Music] he would be has dairy with little clue he's been in the intro things are there maybe you go Amy he'd be talking to you while he's doing all this no right at the beginning I see what I mean that's it for sometimes he will just do a tremolo on the on the dominant note which will give you the cue that it's in a particular key [Music] and certainly the time what he would change the time into something else seven six time and do a rundown in my department the base the completely gobbled up my baseline and he's saying I want you to play this this is not what you have on your man I want you to play this [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he could play songs that are usually shunned by a lot of musicians because of court changes he could play a song inside out he could ruin it backward play he could play null in one hand and don't song in the other and and you got all these things going on the same time he could destroy the harmonic or tonal center in your mind and make you doubt the key was in and you're playing it and you're warming every note that you play this does not sound like it's true it this is not and it's not or it is he made magic he big magic did he have the the linguistic capabilities could he make himself as understood verbally as he could as a pianist he wanted to he had magnificent verbiage when he wanted to you could talk as eloquently as anyone if he wanted to but he preferred to talking cold even even the name that we called him I would she cou is a name that signifies and the image more so than a thing and it's why they called Mooji man I mean I saw he was she cool whatever chiku is that's what era was he could talk to you through the piano also he was multilingual as far as that one could talk several of the language through the piano could he do it verbally could he make himself no no he'll hit his own language to instead seem to be understood everywhere I'm gonna quote something ruin Italy sitting out there in the cafe and we're trying to get some refreshment made some coffee having cheese sandwich or whatever it is and it's the the group air all in stage-managed that means a road manager we're all sitting there and the weight is coming over and he's going through his thing and we had our little books out you know talking very fluent Italian peeps or salami Bologna zucchini you know very good tell you you don't understand a thing it all sales to the man bring me which is the English of course pickle in the pig foot pickle in the pig foot man brings beer sardines bread pie you don't say now I know people who are sailors you're lying I don't care I don't care I don't care we got one on it he comes in man and everything just and everything comes out he would talk to you on the set while he was playing yeah yeah yeah sometimes about things that are totally unrelated to what was going on at that particular moment in the middle of one number he would turn over and say oh I saw you last night speak it out the hotel well he's lab you know he could have knocked on my door stuff like that you know ding-a-ling ding-a-ling boom boom boom Bingley III I do ask questions and I did ask him why I asked him what are you saying away I want to go into the other words the other things because if he explained why I cried together so he said well on one of the few cases that he was talking standard English to me I said you know on the game shows and they can you get something they ring the bell on you so when people get something I bring the bill on ding-a-ling so that's a compliment idea or if if it was not a compliment or I caught you ding-a-ling it's the inflection what was it like on tour with and tell us about the way in which crowds overseas responded to him I never understood it and in the first place because I when I grew up in Chicago people talked about show business as a frill situation the girls had to with wigs and then rings and the guy said hey are you talking to stop and everything like you doing dance me shuffling l was what jazz musicians were when they played and jam sessions in little clubs they didn't talk they got up there and they played and dealt with that and he worked at it AOL will come out and after the first two after the first tune you would think you were at a party and people start ordering drinks again if it were a cabaret situation or for a concert one would leave go to the bathroom when when the the break would come everybody would just and we almost running over each other getting back to their seats some people were fighting over just was my seat it wasn't I was sitting here see my coat is here people switched seats while people were leaving to get closer to this man one lady just came up to him see I just want to look at you I just want to just look at you I mean me Allah I wanted to know what was this do you think he knew how great a gift he had been given uh-huh which is one of the reasons I think I found him to be bored a lot once you know that something is the way it is if you talk about I mean who to whom do you talk people tell you she's got an ego it's got a problem he thinks he's wonderful he has to tell somebody about this gift that I'm sure at certain times he didn't view it as a as a gift because it cut into his private life he couldn't be the artist when someone recognized him he would have to become the media thing and go through all that ritual of signing autographs and being us are storing soul but when he played [Music] he became Phoebe breasts to be to like fully tuned to the age of four he played not being concerned with being happy moving traffic or whether or not the gig is going to be get paid or if the second show is going to be filled when he played that was all that was going on and and when he played we were glad to be there [Music] [Applause] [Music] did Errol dissipate sure sure I think that Manny's is is is evolving mankind from a provincial purest type state where one time and only ain't herbs and woods and all that kind of stuff but life is becoming so complex now things are being mashed upon the spiritual entity that is in the body that it takes certain distractions to just get through a date oh so he would take a drink you're there you know Haran there yeah yeah he will take a drink now in the round there anyone there do you think that it it hindered his piano playing you know it didn't help it well he just burned right through it maybe that's why he sweated so much cheeks he perspired a lot getting rid of the poisons in his body because he was he what he was bored I said that before and I say that now the more I think about him that there's only so much you can do in a day and he never practiced and we worked maybe two cents at night I was set if it were if he were an hour so he had a lot of time on his hands to think about the powers that he had the gifts that he had the people that he had on him the people that he was the families that he was supporting all the business interests that people had in him yeah yeah he drank it never got got in the way of his plane nothing like that not that I could I could see I think what it what he did but I wasn't would towards deteriorate deteriorate his health which might have been turned weaken him to affect his plane but if he went up on the bandstand and he'd had a few under his belt how could it not affect him what happened to him when he sat down right well alright it was effective let's just talk about the effects of alcohol upon the body it brings it down it is a depressant therefore if he began to play a set and he would he was thinking about playing in one way the alcohol in his system would bring it down to a level that will probably relate to most people which is probably why he could touch a lot of people because he he would begin sad very very lofty as the set will go on he would get more and more dirty songs he will start making up on the piano we're overtones of brothels and stuff you could you could almost sense in his music the things that arrow did if you listen beyond I had the opportunity because I heard him so much that I got over the all of the sound of his plane you started understanding what was being played on a particular song how he felt hmm and when he was depressed you could tell that in his innocence in his plane and such beautiful melodies what would come out when he's depressed it was almost as as if he were wishing he was someplace else [Music] that the ladies responded to him yeah the overflow was wonderful I mean that's one of the fringe benefits of getting around the monsters man now you know a lot of a lot of musicians are gonna be upset about what you said that this was the baddest piano player you have ever heard what made him superior to other artists like a tatum or Peterson or somebody of that caliber well I don't want to put anybody on the spot or compare anyone I'm just going to point out the things that Errol did that the others did not do and what is that he provides upon improvisation I don't know if I can even explain that but whenever you went to to nail-gun a concert in which people what you would follow him around the country couples would drive be for 500 miles within even if you heard a song that he had recorded and you came that night to hear it and you requested it and he said that that he would play it I hope you didn't count on here we get the same way he was it was recorded was he's gonna take that as a base and he's gonna go wherever the muse is gonna take him at that particular time and you're going with him [Music] [Applause] [Music] would you call this man that genius yeah people see use that word so much I know no but in the terms of what that word means and the things that you cannot explain yes he was a monstrous genius have you ever told him how you felt about his plane it was after concert playing it was Brazil one of those countries in South America and we had a series of four concerts and each concert it was so it was it was sold out and but but after each concert there were almost as many people outside the gates trying to get in as it were inside it was 10,000 inside some nights the first night that was pumped maybe five six hundred people hanging outside next night there was four thousand people outside till they're dead think you bring out the troopers and everything told his man down and I'm sitting here looking at this man who doesn't say a word he's not gonna come on the stage like Victor boiler he's not a clown he's not making fun of the piano he's he's not the rodeo clown this man sit down at the piano and just before you know it everybody's in his hand including us I could not be so uppity and just walk around without with the big head and say yes yes yes I'm with the wonderful man I had to go tell this man that I thought he was magic but this I said you are wonderful do you know what I'm saying to you you are wonderful he just said [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] if you can ever get a chance to do some film of arrow you can see sometimes the delight and the surprise on his face when something goes down that's really heavy and he's amazed himself [Music] so you were never bored when you were up there on the set kept me alert a lady came up to him and Switzerland once and asked him a question said well wasn't quite a question question she said you know don't you what you're doing can't be done you know okay what you're doing is impossible and that pretty much sums it up what he did you can't do you penis cannot do that [Music] every time he played I was astounded not only was I astound intellectually emotionally but I felt happy after I work a night with Errol I felt spiritually satisfied that I have arrived at at a plateau of my artistic existence that I never dreamed that I could have done this way if I had been conducting an orchestra I could understand the feeling but a bass player with Eric garner I mean I wouldn't trade that before anything what's the things that I've learned I learned how to trust myself my own instincts as far as music goes I learned to not be so bound by the book and I did go to school and study and he stripped the book away I have the knowledge of the book and the freedom of a spirit and it's due to him that 5-year chapter in your life was a big one yeah that was the period that was necessary for me to have something upon which to build the rest of my life musically speaking everyone else that had worked with up to up to that point seemed to be in high school when I got with gone I was I was working on a PhD from the first day I mean he didn't treat me treat me like a rookie once you becoming once you get into the big big leagues so to speak you expected to produce on that particular level no one's gonna let's go to spoon feed you and he just came right in from day one and this one this is I thought to be and this is there and that's what it was I had to expand I had to broaden my scope just to deal with his man and the way people were affected by him it affected us I mean people would around him would change according to the pressures that he would have on him and we had to deal with that too and he was the main one so he so you can imagine the amount of precious that he had to be under you're missing yeah I miss him in one way I mean I can't go if I had enough I don't know there's not I have not experienced anything like that listen to anyone play just play knowing that there's something in there for me that that I can get all of it that if I just for just can be exposed to for just a minute I can share my cares for this day the amount of the ticket that it would cost for me to pay to see him play but soon be forgotten it would almost be like it was a it was a cardinal sin that was that small I mean he was a very very very powerful man in a gentle way some people might think you're laying it on a bit thick somebody's got to pour it on thick I mean I was there I'm a very sensitive person I'm an artist I think I'm good in what I do I'm not as good as I could be and I know diamonds when I see them you can tell a real diamond you don't have to come from any particular aristocracy to know quality this man is more than I can say I'm trying to take a phenomenon and put words on it I can't do that I can only say what he has done for me and what he's done for a lot of other people and it's a shame now that arrow is so still missing from our consciousness our young people today black n white the people that loved him all all over the world can only tell they're off offspring about this magnificent man and he seems to be banishing daily records are not being reissued for whatever reason film copies of his life of his works are hard to find I don't know what that what that is I would almost think that it's almost like a conspiracy oh by the way earnest McCarty hasn't worked with another pianist since he left Carrollton [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: omar shabazz

Views: 112,484

Rating: 4.9520054 out of 5

Keywords: OMAR SHABAZZ, SHABAZZ PRODUCTIONS

Id: LiUP3NA5GYA

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 19 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/opinionsareus]

(a one minute listen, unless you want to go further)

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This is one short segment from a fascinating video that reveals the gobsmacking depth of Errol Garner’s genius, but also his sense of humor - messing with his own group, on stage . Take just over one minute and listen from the point of entry (at just over the 14-mnute mark) to this video and observe at 15:29 how Garner segues to the most glorious chordal resolution and goes on to full entry into the tune over the next 10 seconds. Uncanny!

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I went on to watch the whole video and came away every more inpressed with Garner than prior. The man was a pure, raw genius on the piano - almost a scant-like ability to do anything he wanted; to project anything he heard in his head onto the ivories.

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One of my favorite live Garner tunes - exuding pure joy and completel mastery - the inventiveness and swing that this man brought to his instrument was gobsmacking.

A comment made by someone on youtube:

"Erroll Garner was without question one of the greatest musical geniuses of the 20th century. Both within jazz and generally-speaking. By the age of four, he was imitating music he had heard on the piano, and soon the young Garner proved to have a near-perfect memory for music. He was capable of hearing a lengthy and complex piece and later accurately playing all or most of it from memory. He knew thousands of songs and pieces of music by memory, and never had the need to learn to read or use standard notation. He could play with equal facility in any key, and would often cycle a tune through all twelve keys - or some portion thereof - in the course of a number. He had a highly-advanced understanding of chords, harmony and tonality, and used many of the innovations made famous by impressionistic composers such as Ravel and DeBussy, in his own playing. Although not strictly a bebop musician, he performed with such luminaries as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie - during the 1940s - when that music was being created. He authored a number of standards, the most-famous of which is "Misty." Garner's music is loved by the masses, which may be one reason certain critics in the jazz world belittle his style and music, but the critics are the ones who are fools. Garner's style is extremely difficult to master, and only the very best pianists can even get close, people like the gifted Hal Galper, to name one.

[u/oogalooboogaloo]

awesome video. one of the GOATS. also enjoyed the commercials too.