magician by Erroll Garner (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: magician

Artist name: Erroll Garner

Year: 1974

Number of discs: one

Label: MPS Records

Collection: Selman

Distinguishing characteristics:

Scratched into side one of LP: 5C 0640-99440-A/HV32973-2Y

Scratched into side two of LP: 32974 5C xxxx B/HV 32974-1-Y 99440 B-06442

Buy it on Amazon: $54.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Erroll Garner or listened to this record.

What I expected

My first thought was that this looked like it would be another comedy record, but actually it appears that Erroll Garner is a jazz pianist. I don’t know what kind of jazz, though.

What it was actually like

This record was entirely instrumental, and Erroll Garner made great music with the piano, but it was more like mood music and less like songs that I would put on to listen. I would rather have him playing in the background at a party or something.

The worst aspect of the music was the congas, which were in competition with the piano and other instruments, and which mostly seemed out of place.

It was also really bizarre that Garner seemed to have a habit of groaning and making assorted grunt-like sounds while he played. The grunts were somewhat evenly distributed, but were most apparent on It Gets Better Every Time, Watch What Happens and Yesterdays. I was not sure why the producers and recording engineers left those sounds on the record. Maybe it was intentional, but if so, I thought it was a mistake.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing