Erroll Garner

Erroll Garner (1921-1977) was born in Pittsburgh and was entirely self-taught: he never learned to read music and never needed to. He was playing on riverboats and local radio as a child, and by the mid 1940s his unmistakable style filled clubs on 52nd Street in New York.

That style was orchestral: the left hand strumming steady four-to-the-bar chords like a rhythm guitar, the right hand floating melodies teasingly behind the beat, with famous free-time introductions that kept even his own bandmates guessing what song was coming. His 1955 album Concert by the Sea became one of the best-selling jazz records of its decade.

He wrote Misty in 1954, reportedly composing it in his head on an airplane; it became one of the most performed ballads in the American songbook. The Original Misty in this store is transcribed from his own recording of it.