By Robert Spencer

Red Garland (1923-1984) won fame as the pianist for the coolest jazz group in the world, the "classic" Miles Davis Quintet of the Fifties. With Garland, Davis, John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, the Quintet established itself at the top of the jazz world and recorded a series of influential albums for Prestige and Columbia - most notably, the celebrated Round About Midnight.

The man holding the piano chair in the world's most renowned jazz group may seem to be an unlikely candidate for Unsung Hero honors, were it not for two unfortunate facts: after Coltrane, Garland was the Quintet member singled out for the most criticism by the stoneheaded critics of the Fifties: he was a "lounge pianist." His tinkling, glossy lines seemed to some to be evidence of a false veneer of sophistication over a talent that was slight at best. The second unfortunate fact was that were it not for his stint with Davis, Garland might be entirely forgotten today.

Both of these are injustices. Davis' sense of the chemical mix of his sidemen in those days was unmatched: he knew that his own melancholy reserve, combined with Coltrane's impassioned loquacity and Garland's confident, cheerful melodicism would be an explosive combination. There's no doubt, of course, that he was right.

As for Garland's career apart from Davis, it was long, eventful, and full of musical highlights. There was much more to his style than the early critics noticed; he worked in the line of Basie and Cole, but the way he voiced chords was singular and immediately recognizable. He recorded as a leader with sidemen of the caliber of Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Oliver Nelson, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ron Carter, and Nat Adderley. He and Coltrane play with particular verve together on the albums spotlighted here, All Mornin' Long, Soul Junction and High Pressure. All display his charms in abundance, with his easy, upbeat manner masking a tremendous facility (witness his polyphonic left hand/right hand interplay on the title track to All Mornin' Long).

When his old boss Miles turned on the electricity and the roof caved in on straightforward boppers like Garland, Red returned to his native Texas. He reappeared later to record a few more times before his untimely death, but his glory days were in the fabled jazz scene of the Fifties, where he walked among kings. His widely-imitated playing deserves more attention today.