#1
Bill Evans
1961 Village Vanguard
#2
John Coltrane
Complete 1961 Village Vanguard
#3
Miles Davis
Live at The Plugged Nickel
#4
Charles Mingus
Live At Antibes
#5
Duke Ellington
Live at Newport
#6
Sonny Rollins
At The Village Vanguard
#7
John Coltrane
Live at Birdland
#8
Wes Montgomery & Wynton Kelly
Smokin' at the Half Note
#9
Erroll Garner
Concert By The Sea
#10
Gillespie, Parker, Powell, Mingus and Roach
The Quintet-Jazz at Massey Hall, Volume 1
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The Top Ten Best Live Jazz Recordings - #9
By C. Michael Bailey
#9 - Erroll Garner
Concert By The Sea, Columbia 40589
 In the same way that the former St. Louis Cardinal/Atlanta Brave Terry Pendleton demonstrated that a fat man could play most-valuable-player in baseball, Erroll Garner showed that one did not have to be able to read a note of music to be influential as a jazz musician. Born in Pittsburgh, Garner moved to New York City and worked with Slam Stewart's Trio during the early heyday of 52nd Street in the 1940s. He managed to secure a sideman place on Charlie Parker's "Cool Blues" sessions, recorded in 1947 for Ross Russell's Dial Records. Garner composed the standard, "Misty" and played with an indescribable style that was firmly grounded in Swing but open to the personality of Be Bop. Garner recorded dozens of records and appeared on dozens more, but, while good to excellent, could not compare to Garner's trio performance captured on Concert By The Sea.
Concert By The Sea was recorded September 19, 1955 in the scenic confines of a converted church in Carmel, California. The sonic were atrocious and the piano was a bit out of tune. Bassist Eddie Calhoun and drummer Denzil ("Move") Best are barely audible. But, no matter, this disc has be a consistent favorite of collectors and dilettantes alike for the past 40-odd years. The recital was a typical one from Garner. It included a couple of originals, some standards, and some show tunes, all played in that Garnerian manner.
And what is that "Garnerian manner?" Having had no formal training, Erroll Garner was not encumbered by theory or common performance practice, thereby making his music quite uncommon. Garner performed with a two-fisted orchestral style that was about as anti-Bud Powell as one could get. His left hand was as much a rhythmic instrument, as it was a harmonic one. Garner's astonishing free introductions, such as that for "I'll Remember April" were forged with his left hand. Garner's lack of formal education was his greatest asset. It enabled him to explore harmony and arrangement in a postmodern manner before there was postmodernism. Take Gershwin's "They Can't Take that Away from Me." Here, Garner deconstructs the Ellington tune in grand style, roaming around the mostly in the low keys before breaking about in the upper register. Garner transforms "April in Paris," with his ornate introduction and idiosyncratic approach to the melody. I would imagine Franz Liszt playing standards this way.
Concert By The Sea is a flawed monument of perfection. This recording was a dichotomy, a paradox, where the unlearned not only prevail, but create art of a lasting quality. This is the art.
Writer's Note: Having recently completed a survey of the Top Ten Best Live Rock Albums, I have learned a couple of valuable things. One is a list of this sort should be presented in descending order starting with number 10 and descending to number 1. Second, it is better to poll a group for their opinions and develop the list from an analytical (or pseudoanalytical) evaluation of the results. This is how the Top Ten Best Live Jazz Recordings were selected. I polled the writership of All About Jazz, combined the results and ranked the recordings. For recordings that tied in number of votes, I arbitrarily selected the order (I had to exert editorial control somewhere!).
Live Jazz is perhaps the most natural creative state in music. Performing jazz means a musician must create a work of art on the spot, composition in real time. In this series, I hope to highlight historic events where this invention has not been merely successful, but transcendent.
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