Finally. Red Garland at the Prelude appears as it was recorded in 1959 at a bar in Harlem. Originally, the three sets of material from this date -- the very first live club date Prestige ever issued -- were released on four different LPs: Red Garland at the Prelude, Lil' Darlin', Live!, and Satin Doll. There was a CD issue of volume one which included
At the Prelude and Live! on one disc, but outside of Japan, the sets had never been assembled together for release on CD. So for American fans unwilling to shell out the big dollars for Japanese imports, this is an historic occasion. In his liner notes, Joe Goldberg makes a case for how misunderstood and under-appreciated
Garland was by jazz critics and fans in general. One need only to look at the record to find out what his label, Prestige, thought of him and the many musicians he worked with:
Red Garland recorded 19 dates for them. The band here -- with bassist
Jimmy Rowser and drummer
Charles "Specs" Wright -- was not a working trio and was assembled for the purpose of this recording. As such,
Garland kept his program close to the standards and hothouse, barroom jams of the era. And there are some real doozies here, such as
Count Basie's "M-Squad Theme" that opens the first set on disc one -- as well as a number of other
Basie tunes, including "One O'Clock Jump" and "Let Me See." There is also a lovely reading of "Bye Bye Blackbird" that resembles closely the
Miles Davis Quintet version -- of which
Garland was a part. There's a great version of "Satin Doll" that has been previously unissued until now, as well as a false start on "Lil' Darlin." "Perdido" kicks off the second set, and the first disc ends at the halfway point of the second set with "Like Someone in Love." The trio clicked from the start here. The tunes were familiar enough to anybody playing in New York at the time that finding a groove was easy, and
Garland's wondrously idiosyncratic right-hand moves put an individual spin on them. The second disc offers a gorgeous reading of
Irving Berlin's "Marie," and
Garland's own smoking "Bohemian Blues." Set three gives us Gershwin's "It's a Foggy Day," another read of "Satin Doll," (the officially issued one), the
Ellington nugget "Just Squeeze Me (But Don't Tease Me)," and a
Garland improv called "Prelude Blues." The program ends with two more unissued tunes, a stomping "Cherokee" and another "One O'Clock Jump," making three in total for the night. This is a must for mainstream jazz fans interested in the piano room music of New York at the end of the 1950s, and swinging hard bop in general. For
Garland fans it's a treasure trove. ~ Thom Jurek