Search - Hank Garland :: Jazz Winds

Simply the best!

09/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The stories behind this album are too numerous to mention. Just know that it's one of the greatest recordings of all time. If you love guitar, and I don't care if you're a jazz artist or a metal head, then you will be floored by this CD. After you pick yourself up, go to HankGarland.com and read the whole story. It's fascinating."

Jacket notes for this album!

09/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jazz Winds From a New Direction - Columbia Records (JCS 8372)
Hank Garland Joe Morello, drums Gary Burton, vibes Joe Benjamin, bassby John HammondIt would be fairly safe to venture that Hank Garland is the most
recorded of all guitarists. There is scarcely a Country Record emanating
from Nashville, Tennessee, in which he is not featured behind the
troubadours of the Grand Ol' Opry. But it is nothing less than
revolutionary to find him leading as tasty a jazz combo as can be heard,
on records only, in this year of 1961. We should not be too surprised
when a Country and Western star steps right into the forefront of jazz
stars. For Hank Garland isn't the first country boy to make it big in
the jazz world. But Hank is the first to do it without leaving
Nashville. Let us hasten to add that the Hank Garland All-Stars is a
group assembled solely for the purpose of making this album in
Columbia's Nashville studios. Joe Morello, the superb drummer with Dave
Brubeck, was flown in from New York for the occasion, along with Joe
Benjamin, one of New York's top bassists. A seventeen-year old vibe
player from Princeton, Indiana, Gary Burton, completes the quartet and
immediately proves himself one of the discoveries of the year.For the benefit of future editions of "The Encyclopedia of Jazz", Hank
Garland wa born near Spartanburg, South Carolina on November 11, 1930.
He graduated from banjo to guitar and arrived in Nashville during his
early teens. He was in Paul Howard's band in the late Forties and made
his first Northern tour, joined for a short time by the same Joe Morello
with whom he is reunited on this disc. Except for private jamming in
clubs around Nashville, he has never before this year publicly
identified himself with jazz. Last July, however, Hank Garland was the motivating force behind a
Nashville group that trekked to Newport for the 1960 Jazz Festival. They
were scheduled to appear on July 4th, but the riots had closed down the
Festival the day before and the group was never heard by the fans. The
trip was not entirely fruitless, however, for the combo, under the name
of the Nashville All-Stars, was recorded there by another label. All
this information is but preamble to the title of the first selection on
Side Two, "Riot-chous." It is a fast blues of enormous power, and an
altogether fitting commemoration of the most tragic event in recent jazz
history. "Relaxing" which follows, is a slower blues in which Hank's
opening statement sounds like a reincarnation of Charlie Christian.The first side opens with a beautifully organized "All the Things You
Are," which makes it seem all but impossible that this was the first and
only time the group was together. After this comes and effective blues
in waltz time, then a jumping "Move," followed by an intricate version
of the Irving Berlin standard, "Always."Not only was this Hank Garland's debut as a jazz leader. Don Law, dean
of all the Country and Western Artists and Repertoire men, supervise his
first jazz session in nearly thirty years of recording and proved
himself a threat to all of us who consider ourselves authorities. The
last laugh may be on him, if Hank deserts Nashville for the world of
jazz.The above notes were taken from the original jacket....... :-)"

Hank garland's jazz winds in a new direction

Barney Evers | nashville | 06/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"as good as any jazz album, seriously; really great"