Erroll is the only guy around who can sound like two different instruments playing at two different tempos at the same time, and still swing. His left hand is a guitar pushing the beat, his right a pianist lagging. They meet, somehow, and where they do is right where the rhythm section is—the right place to be. Erroll's time is here extended; extended to and meshed perfectly with the rhythm section. The bongos and the balance reflect a more important role for the accompaniment than in Erroll's past. They nest together likeovers in a haystack, five people making music together—as one.
THAT'S MY KICK, AFINIDAD, PASSING THROUGH, NERVOUS WALTZ, GASLIGHT and LIKE IT IS are all written by Garner. GASLIGHT could be another MISTY—it's certainly as pretty. And all the tunes are as musical as we have come to take for granted from Erroll. But the best thing about him is his sense of humor. It's as if he's always saying; “We are supposed to enjoy music—remember?”
KICK, MOON, and MORE open with wild, polyrhythmical solo piano introductions—avant garde—if you insist on definitions. Listen to them with the certainty that the pulse will eventually pounce on you with Erroll's sparkling, familiar and swinging strength. His time and conception are out of time. He renders historical or stylistic classification unnecessary. He is neither old-fashioned nor new-fangled, conservative nor radical, nor anything else other than Erroll Garner, which is plenty.
Herbert Lovelle plays drums, Wally Richardson, guitar, and Jose Mangual, bongos on all tracks except AFINIDAD and KICK, on which they are replaced by George Jenkins, Art Ryer son and Johnny Pacheco respectively. And Milt Hilton's bass is ubiquitous. I should mention that there is, in actuality, a sixth instrument—the Swinging-Grunt. Composer John Cage teaches us that any sound at all can be musical if treated in a musical fashion-fire-engines, bird-tweets, the wind, or a grunt. Glenn Gould has introduced his audience to the Bach-Grunt, and it is to Erroll Garner that we owe thanks for the Swinging Grunt, a strangely pertinent sound of gutteral beauty with which he accompanies himself up tempo.
Primarily, though, we owe him thanks for the happy energy his music gives to us and to that extent this record adds to his vital body of recorded works. It is the same joy, even more so.
Original Liner Notes by MICHAEL ZWERIN
