Jazz Articles about Red Garland

Various Artists: The Prestige Records Story

by Robert Spencer
October 1, 1999

This is much more than the history of just one label: this is a primer of modern jazz. The sweep of Bob Weinstock and Prestige Records, particularly in the Fifties and early Sixties, was so broad that this collection encompasses a large part of the jazz that mattered in those days. There is a stunning roster of the biggest names possible, including Miles Davis, Gil Evans, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy, and Dexter Gordon. There's ...

Red Garland: The Nearness of You

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 1999

From time to time Red Garland would do something new in his long series of albums, injecting some variety into his classic formula. Sometimes it was an added musician, or there’d be a “theme” album like WHEN THERE ARE GREY SKIES, full of old tunes like “St. James Infirmary”. This is one of the latter – an all-ballad set. Considering how lyrical Red was, this was a natural, although he only did it a couple of times (the others were ...

Red Garland: I Left My Heart...

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 1999

When Red Garland moved to Dallas in the mid-Sixties, he kept to himself for over a decade; in 1975 he stopped playing entirely. “The record royalties were coming in, so I watched television and played with my grandchildren for 18 months.” His return to jazz came slowly: first at the Recovery Room in Dallas, then he was hired at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner in 1977. This led to a series of albums on Galaxy, and he returned to the Korner ...

Red Garland: Feelin' Red

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 1999

This is a welcome reissue; the swan song of a very proud swan. Red Garland’s long series of trio recordings began in 1956, when he was still in the Miles Davis Quintet. He stayed with Prestige until 1962, appearing on more than 30 albums (including much of John Coltranes’s work for the label.) When this deal ended, there were albums for Riverside/Jazzland – then his sick mother needed him in Dallas. Garland went home, and stayed there for his twilight ...

Red Garland: Red's Blues

by Douglas Payne
November 1, 1998

Pianist Red Garland (1923-84) could spin any of a million tunes into a smoky, slow after-hours blues. Churning 'em out one after the other with his melodic block-chord style, he could go set after set, leaving listeners wanting more. Red's Blues collects eleven such tracks from as many albums the pianist recorded for Prestige Records between 1956 and 1962 (around the same time he was with Miles Davis's famed quintet). The blues featured here combine Garland's basic originals ...

Red Garland, Victor Feldman, Don Patterson: Red Garland Revisited!, The Arrival Of Victor Feldman, Boppin' And Burnin'

by AAJ Staff
August 1, 1998

Fantasy Records' Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series is up to almost 1000 titles; these three classics are among the titles Fantasy has recently reissued on CD for the series.

When pianist Red Garland was signed to Prestige from 1956-62, he recorded so often that the label had plenty of material in the can long after he'd left. First released in 1969, Red Garland Revisited! comes from a 1957 session that employed Paul Chambers on bass and Al “Tootie" Heath on ...