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I have taken a break from my ongoing chronicle of Tiffany Club to publish Bob Dietsche's appreciation of Arv Garrison:

https://jazzresearch.com/arv-garrison/

Members might have heard Arv's name mentioned recently during the many celebrations of Charlie Parker's centenary. Arv was on three of Charlie Parker's first sessions for Dial Records.

 

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Wow! He was an excellent player. Kind of the missing link between Django, Charlie Christian and the bop players that followed him.

More melodically gifted than Chuck Wayne, a far superior player than Bill D'Arrango, stronger than Billy Bauer at that time, he definitely was one of the finest players of the 40s.

Thanks for posting that.

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Garrison's chops are best displayed during the AFRS Jubilee concert where four of the finest guitarists of the time play, one after another. Barney Kessel plays Cherokee followed by Irv Ashby playing I Got Rhythm, then Arv playing How High the Moon, ending with Les Paul playing Honeysuckle Rose - all accompanied by Benny Carter's rhythm section. Garrison's performance demonstrates he was the equal of his peers.

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5 hours ago, JamesAHarrod said:

Garrison's chops are best displayed during the AFRS Jubilee concert where four of the finest guitarists of the time play, one after another. Barney Kessel plays Cherokee followed by Irv Ashby playing I Got Rhythm, then Arv playing How High the Moon, ending with Les Paul playing Honeysuckle Rose - all accompanied by Benny Carter's rhythm section. Garrison's performance demonstrates he was the equal of his peers.

I listened to the Jubilee concert online that had Andre Previn playing with Barney Kessel, but I didn't hear Arv Garrison playing How High the Moon".

Is there some recording of it? There was a very modernistic (for the time) arrangement of some band playing "Begin the Beguine" with the guitarist playing some interesting parts along with pizzicato strings. Was that Garrison?

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Details from #204

AFRS program announcer: George Dvorak

Master of Ceremonies: Ernest “Bubbles” Whitman
Studios: NBC Hollywood


Side 1, wax info: HD6-MM-7508-1 Time 15:15
01 Introduction & theme: One O‘Clock Jump (nc)
02 Unidentified tune

03 I Can‘t Believe That You‘re In Love With Me - v KS
 04 What Is This Thing Called Love?

05 Star Dust


Side 2, wax info: HD6-MM-7625-1 Time 29:15 Fill to 30 (sic !)
 

05 Begin The Beguine

04 Oh, Lady Be Good

06 Embraceable You - v KS


02 Unidentified tune interspersed with signoff and canned applauses

- 01 AFRS Studio Orchestra
No details
- 02 Cliff Lang‘s Hot Formation

Probably unidentified trumpet; Ed Cosby, trombone; alto sax; Irving “Babe” Russin, tenor sax; Tommy Todd, piano; Dave Barbour, guitar; string bass; drums. NOTE: Ernest Whitman: “These are the gents who get worked up in a Studio all day playing the 
great background music. Tonight we brought them out into the light and right in front. Cliff,
explain the rest, please.” Cliff Lang: “Well, the next number we are going to do, Ernie, is a thing that we recorded about six months ago, for Pan American records, called Star Dust.”
- 03 Kay Starr

Kay Starr, vocal, acc. by piano; guitar; string bass; drums; probably the André Previn Trio, see below.
- 04 André Previn Trio

André Previn, piano; Barney Kessel, guitar; Phil Stevens, string bass. Unidentified drums added on “Oh, Lady Be Good” only. 
NOTE: Whitman explains that Previn is 17 years old. (Born April 6, 1929 in Berlin, Germany)
- 05 Cliff Lang and his Symphonic Jazz Orchestra

Cliff Lang, leader, conducting a 32 piece Orchestra composed of motion picture Studio musicians, including Irving “Babe” Russin, tenor sax; Buddy Baker, arranger. Others unidentified.
-06 Kay Starr

Kay Starr, vocal, acc. by Cliff Lang‘s Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, definitely including Ed Cosby, trombone.

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23 hours ago, JamesAHarrod said:

The Previn and Kessel session was from AFRS Jubilee #204. 

The Kessel/Ashby/Garrison/Paul session is from Jubilee #205, October 14, 1946. Arv' s wife, Vivian Garry also sang with the Benny Carter orchestra on this session.

 

I found the mp3 of the Jubilee concert with all four guitarists on the Old Radio Shows website. Garrison had the more polished technique of the four, although LP and IA had more exciting solos.At the end of the LP rendition of Honeysuckle Rose, there were four guitars playing in harmony, like LP's later double tracked recordings, but this was a live concert, so it had to be the four guitarists playing together.

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On 11.10.2020 at 11:37 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

An interesting jazzman. The few recordings he left behind are interesting, to say the least.
And here is a somewhat better picture of him than the ones in the article linked above (taken from the public domain William Gottlieb online archives):

39622421qy.jpg

who´s the lady on the bass , and who is the piano player ? 

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  • 7 months later...

I pitched the idea of a commemorative CD set to Jordi Pujol last year. Nick Rossi wrote the liner notes for the booklet, ten chapters that chronicle the arc of Garrison's career in the 80 page illustrated booklet. Nick and I are very proud of the finished product.

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/arv-garrison-albums/53984-wizard-of-the-six-string-classic-and-rare-recordings-1945-1948-3-cd-box-set.html

Jim

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