William "Red" Garland (1923–1984) was an American jazz pianist whose complex block-chord style influenced many forthcoming pianists in the jazz idiom.

Life and work

Beginnings

William M. Garland was born in Dallas, Texas on May_13, 1923. He came from a non-musical family Garland started out playing the clarinet and alto saxophone but in 1940 he switched to the piano. Obviously having to learn from scratch, Garland spent copious amounts of time practicing and rapidly developed as an eloquent player. In interesting fact about Red is that he was a semi-professional boxer in the welterweight division at the time, and once fought a bout with Sugar Ray Robinson, but lost.

Early Work

Following the Second World War he performed with Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young, and now had steady work in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. His work remained consistent, but he was still obscure.

The Quintet

Garland became famous when he joined the now classic Miles Davis Quintet in 1955 which featured Miles himself, a younger John Coltrane, Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers. He played on the Prestige recordings of Workin, Steamin, Cookin and Relaxin. Garland's so-called 'cocktail piano' style can be heard throughout these seminal recordings; his distinctive chord voicings, his sophisticated accompaniment, and his parodies of Ahmad Jamal's style. This groups' recordings would arguably influence the Free jazz movement more so than some of the more jazz avant-gardists of the time. He played on the first recording date that Miles had for Columbia Records, which was Round About Midnight, a classic of 1950's jazz. He would go on to play with Miles, but towards 1958, he and Jones had started to become more erratic in turning up for recordings and gigs. He was eventually fired by Miles, before participating on another classic, Milestones.

Post-Quintet

In 1958 he formed his own trio, which recorded frequently. Among the musicians the trio recorded with are: Pepper Adams, Nat Adderley (Cannonball's brother), Ray Barretto, Kenny Burrell, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Jimmy Heath, Harold Land, Philly Joe Jones, Blue Mitchell, Ira Sullivan , and Leroy Vinnegar. The trio also recorded as a quintet with the addition of John Coltrane and Donald Byrd.

Return to Texas and retirement

Red Garland eventually returned to Texas in the 1970s. He led a recording in 1977 named Crossings which reunited him with Philly Joe Jones again, and teamed up with a world class bassist in Ron Carter. He would record other dates with fellow pianists McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock, until his death from a heart attack in 1983. His style, a block chord angle to melody playing, whereby there was no division between right hand melody or left hand accompaniment, which was also used by George Shearing Jimmy Smith, and Bill Evans, alongside his classic recordings with the first Miles Davis quintet, will remain to be his ultimate legacy.

References

• Nisenson, Eric (1996). Round About Midnight - A Portrait of Miles, updated edition. Da Capo Press ISBN 0-306-80684-3
• Simpson, Joel (1996). "Red Garland Biography (1923-1984)".