Kultur Video Proudly Announces the Release of "Erroll Garner In Performance"

Available in DVD and VHS

Features Rare Performances circa 1964 from BBC TV

This summer, Kultur Video proudly brings to home viewing audiences a very special program, Erroll Garner In Performance. The video features rare performances by the world-renowned pianist and composer of "Misty," with rhythm accompaniment. This video embodies some of Garner's one-of-a-kind improvised performances of classic standards and originals, filmed in London by BBC, during the peak of Garner's creativity and popularity. It is digitally re-mastered and available for the first time on DVD and VHS in North America. The DVD also includes a rare bonus audio track of "Misty" and an Erroll Garner photo gallery.

Click here to download an excerpt of Misty in MP3 format (600KB)

Born on June 15, 1921, Erroll Garner had an enormously successful career as both a pianist and composer. He began to perform at a tender age of 3 in his hometown Pittsburgh, and continued to wow the audiences throughout his career. Newsweek hailed Erroll Garner as "The man for whom the piano was invented." Garner performed worldwide in concerts, major nightclubs, colleges, and radio and recordings, including his landmark album Concert By The Sea. As a composer, Garner has more than 200 compositions under his belt -- his memorable composition "Misty" was named by ASCAP as one of the 25 most performed standards of the 20th Century.

Audiences will be delighted by Erroll Garner In Performance, which captures the essence of Erroll Garner, exhibiting his wit, humor and surprise. The video contains many unique features, such as special close-up shots of Garner's hand positions and Garner's imaginative introductions. This video is a valuable addition for any jazz enthusiasts and will bring forth a new generation of Erroll Garner fans.

This title is available through retail outlets in the United States and Canada, from Kultor's toll free number (800) 718-1300, from Kultur's web site, and from on-line resellers such as Amazon.com.

Exciting comments are coming in from media people regarding the "Erroll Garner In Performance" video:

George Avakian (jazz historian, record producer, author):

In the entire pantheon of jazz, nobody ever expressed the pure joy of performing for an audience more than Louis Armstrong and Erroll Garner. Armstrong's warmly communicative personality has been documented in countless examples, from grainy 70-year old European concert performances to sleek Hollywood features, but the visual side of Erroll Garner in action has been notable in its absence.
Happily, the BBC has preserved and now licensed for home release a dozen and half examples of Erroll Garner, ranging from pixieish rollicking to gorgeous introspection -- the full gamut of his extraordinary ability to communicate not only in sound but through his physical being as well. Few artists ever exuded such joyousness, and to watch as well as hear Erroll Garner again is to realize that this most communicative of pianists was -- like Armstrong -- one of a kind, who will never again be matched in either the sheer happiness of his music or his sparkling persona.

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Harvey Siders (syndicated columnist, author):

Swinging (something he could do in his sleep), swatting (that pile-driver left hand), and sweating (TV lighting was unforgiving in those days), these two BBC programs capture the essential, pristine Erroll Garner: impish, rhapsodic, gruntingly focused, challenging his sidemen to the point where they dare not relax. Erroll took so many harmonic and rhythmic detours, traveled down so many unexpected byways in unpredictable keys that he even surprised himself. This is a "must have" video for the true Garner fan. For a whole new generation it will be an archeological revelation: the joy of discovering a timeless treasure trove.

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Steven Graybow, Billboard, January 25, 2003:

A rare videotaped performance of pianist Erroll Garner is available on DVD through Kultur Video. Recorded in 1964, "Erroll Garner In Performance" brings together two separate 35-minute sets. ASCAP has named Garner's "Misty" one of the most-performed standards of the 20th Century.

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Jim Steinblatt (a senior editor), Playback, November/December 2002:

The first-ever live performance DVD of pianist/composer Erroll Garner has been released as "Erroll Garner: In Performance" by Kultur Video. The DVD (also available in the VHS format) features two complete live sets by the Erroll Garner Trio on the mid-1960s British TV program, "Jazz 625," in glorious black & white and magnificent sound. Garner is featured playing his always-swinging and ever-surprising renditions of numerous classics from the Great American Songbook.

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Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times, November 24, 2002:

The spare simplicity of the black-and-white production allows the music to come through with superb clarity -- fascinating for Garner's fans, useful for pianists to view the keyboard technique of his extraordinarily natural talent. ... Garner is a joy to watch, as well as hear. Perspiring profusely, his smiling countenance reflecting the shifts and changes in his musical line, he comes alive again as one of the jazz world's most matchless and inventive originals.

Click for more information on this video in our discography, including liner notes