Concert by the Sea

by Erroll Garner

Overview

Concert by the Sea is certainly one of the biggest albums in jazz history, selling over 225,000 copies in the first year after its 1956 release and turning into such a steady seller over the next few years, it reportedly brought Columbia Records a million dollars by 1958 -- a nice sum at any time but astronomical in the late '50s. It should've turned Erroll Garner into a full-fledged superstar and, in a way, it did, because it was a reliable catalog item and earned him plenty of fans, including Johnny Carson, who frequently invited the pianist onto The Tonight Show. Instead, Concert by the Sea turned into a pinnacle, with Garner and manager Martha Glaser sliding into contractual battles with Columbia that hampered his long-term growth. Glaser is the one who had the idea to turn the tapes of Garner's September 19, 1955 concert at the Sunset School in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California into a full-fledged album, taking tapes that may have otherwise wound up as a bootleg and turning them over to Columbia. The label whittled the 19-song concert into an 11-track single LP -- Columbia/Legacy's 2015 The Complete Concert by the Sea restores the entirety of the concert over the course of two CDs, adding the original LP as a third -- and, by doing so, they wound up distilling Garner's joyous appeal. Supported by bassist Eddie Calhoun and drummer Denzil Best, Garner seems at home skipping and swinging through a collection of bop and big-band standards, tunes that offer showcases for his sly skill of remaining melodic even when departing from the melody. Garner's playing is so robust and easy to enjoy that his flashier flourishes, such as the cloistered chords that call up "Caravan," almost seem camouflaged, but there are also subtler signatures, like how he slyly emphasizes staccato left-hand rhythms as much as the melody on "They Can't Take That Away from Me." These are distinctions that appear on close listening but the wonderful thing about Concert by the Sea is how it's so infectious and open-hearted, it almost defies inspection: it's the kind of warm, inviting music that seems born from joy and can't help but engender bliss in the listener. [The 2015 expansion offers simply more of a good thing: the rest of the concert is every bit as good as the selections that made the official LP.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	04/14/1987
Label:	Bmg / Sony Music Entertainment
UPC:	0886976995027

Tracks

1. I'll Remember April
2. Teach Me Tonight
3. Mambo Carmel
4. Autumn Leaves
5. It's All Right with Me
6. Red Top
7. April in Paris
8. They Can't Take That Away from Me
9. How Could You Do a Thing Like That to Me
10. Where or When
11. Erroll's Theme

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Erroll Garner   Primary Artist,Piano
Erroll Garner Trio   Primary Artist
Denzil Best   Drums
Eddie Calhoun   Bass

Technical Credits

Allan Roberts   Composer
Stanley Dance   Liner Notes
Joseph Kosma   Composer
Gene DePaul   Composer
Irving Mills   Composer
Vernon Duke   Composer
Larry Keyes   Engineer
Cole Porter   Composer
Jacques Prevert   Composer
Patricia Johnston   Composer
Garner   Composer
Pat Johnston   Composer
Ben Kynard   Composer
George Avakian   Producer
Don Raye   Composer
George Gershwin   Composer
B.Y. Forster   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Erroll Garner   Composer
Lorenz Hart   Composer
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Jules LeMare   Composer
Juan Tizol   Composer
Ned Washington   Composer
Jerry Leiber   Composer
Martha Glaser   Producer
Ralph Rainger   Composer
Matt Dennis   Composer
Mike Stoller   Composer
Buddy Johnson   Composer
George Shearing   Composer
George David Weiss   Composer
Geri Allen   Producer,Compilation Producer
Harry Tobias   Composer
Hoagy Carmichael   Composer
Steve Rosenthal   Producer,Compilation Producer
Jimmy Lyons   Producer
Edward Heyman   Composer
Tyree Glenn   Composer
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Composer
David Raksin   Composer
De Paul   Composer
Johnny Green   Composer
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Leo Robin   Composer
Lionel Hampton   Composer
Spoken Word   Composer
Tom Adair   Composer
Gus Arnheim   Composer
Sammy Cahn   Composer
Bruce Steinberg   Photography
David Raskin   Composer
Bernie Miller   Composer
Alan Spilton   Composer
Jocelyn Arem   Producer,Compilation Producer