Concert by the Sea

1	I'll Remember April 4:14
2	Teach Me Tonight 3:37
3	Mambo Carmel 3:43
4	Autumn Leaves 6:27
5	It's All Right With Me 3:21
6	Red Top 3:11
7	April in Paris 4:47
8	They Can't Take That Away From Me 4:08
9	How Could You Do A Thing Like That To Me 3:59
10	Where Or When 3:06
11	Erroll's Theme 0:46

Barnes & Noble

To paraphrase Chuck Berry: He never did learn to read or write music so well, but Erroll Garner could play the piano like ringing a bell. The fact that this musical autodidact couldn't make heads or tails out of a score didn't stop him from becoming one of the most effortlessly swinging pianists jazz has ever known, or from composing the world famous standard "Misty." Garner wasn't precisely a bop musician, but his hybrid style is so singular that trying to categorize him is just a waste of time. On the bestselling CONCERT BY THE SEA, Garner displays all the tricks of the trade that made him so distinctive, including his effortless ability to twist a song's framework into dazzling pretzel-like contortions, a zesty rhythmic bounce that animates his every phrase, and his trademark guitar-like left hand chording. Not to forget -- as if anyone who's ever heard it could -- his trademark grunting, humming, and moaning that runs alongside his playing like a bemused commentator. "Misty" may be missing, but Garner's head-spinning transformations of such standards as "April in Paris" and "Autumn Leaves" more than make up for it Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

Concert by the Sea was arguably the finest record pianist Erroll Garner ever made, and he made many -- a few outstanding -- good recordings. But this live recording (September 19, 1955) with his trio (Eddie Calhoun, bass; Denzil Best, drums) presented a typical Garner program; it was a mixture of originals, show biz, and pop standards delivered with his unique delivery and enthusiasm. The rhythms and brilliant use of tension and release were perfectly captured. And while for many jazz listeners, Garner's deliberate structures were too orchestrated, there was an equal spontaneity in the propulsion of these orchestrations that swung as well as anything. [The 2007 Jazz Beat reissue included bonus tracks.] Bob Rusch