Hi, I'm Marc from JazzGuitar Lessons.net and you're listening to Album Deep Dives. In this episode we will delve into the artistry of Hank Garland, and we'll talk about his first major jazz release which is "Jazz Winds From a New Direction", which would eventually give him the fame he deserved and would place Nashville musicians in general in the American Jazz Scene once and for all.
Hank Garland has a very interesting and tragic story. He was born in 1930 in South Carolina. And of course, country music was huge in this region, and this would have a big impact on Hank. He picked up the guitar when he was just a child at the age of 6 and had his first professional opportunity to play when he was only 15. So this happened by chance when he was buying a guitar string, a string set, at a local music store and Paul Howard, a member of the legendary venue and radio show "The Grand Old Opry", heard him play. And of course, he was very impressed, and immediately offered him a job with the Cotton Pickers in Nashville. During his time at "The Grand Old Opry" Hank became acquainted with Chet Atkins and Billy Byrd, who started to teach him jazz and would eventually become close friends. Hank absorbed everything quickly and got very heavily into jazz, transcribing you know, Django Reinhardt obsessively. Shortly after, he joined the Cowboy Copas, and he made a name for himself while being with this group. Some time during 1949, Hank left the Copas and began freelancing in the music studio industry that was just gaining force in Nashville at that time. Hank would eventually become one of the most sought-after guitar players in the whole industry because of his energy, imaginative playing, and his extreme versatility. This gave him the upper hand and allowed him to survive through every transformation that came to the Nashville scene. Namely, you know, he played in major country, R&B, and Rock n' Roll sessions and later on he would become the regular guitar player for Elvis during 1958 through 1961. So of course, we see Hank had a brilliant career going on, but tragically, he suffered a very severe car accident in 1961 which left him with severe brain damage. He lost virtually all his dexterity, but he decided to keep trying and learnt the guitar from scratch again, that's very sad. And he regained some of his control and was able to play you know, the instrument again, although not well enough to return to the studio life.
[music clip "All The Things You Are" 0:33 - 01:07] The album "Jazz Winds From a New Direction" was recorded on August 23, 1960. The stellar line up of Hank Garland on guitar, the young Gary Burton on vibes, Joe Morello on drums, and Joe Benjamin on bass, would go into the studio to record 6 tracks that would give Nashville musicians their rightful place in the national jazz scene. Before this record, Nashville was purely a country and folk place, and people from all over the country couldn't believe that such tasty and agile bebop lines were coming from a Nashville guitarist. The album starts with Hammerstein II and Kern's "All The Things You Are" of course, and the arrangement of the head is pretty distinct from the other versions with Gary playing the melody of the A section, that's on the vibes, with straight eights, and Hank Garland weaving almost Bach-like contrapuntal lines behind the vibes. The group goes into a swing feel for the B section, to later go back to that last like baroque-tinged A section. Both Hank Garland and Gary on the vibraphone play great solos, showing off their raw talent and ability with their respective instruments. We can hear a clear country influence in Hank's lines, which sounds pretty amazing and fresh on this well-known standard. By the end of the tune we listen to them trade fours of course, to then trade twos! And this is a spectacular conversation between Hank and Gary, there is just so much energy and excitement in the trading, and their communication is such that it seems as if they are guessing each other's intentions by completing each other's phrases. Let's listen.
[music clip "All The Things You Are" 03:25 - 03:52] Of course, the blues needs to be present in any good jazz album. So in this case, we have Garland and Burton's original "Three-Four, The Blues", it's a "disguised" 12 bar blues in waltz time. So the melody of this tune is just great, and it's phrased in perfect synchronization and great feel between the vibes and the guitar, so Hank and Gary. And in Hank Garland's solo we can hear just how well he understands both, the blues tradition, and the jazz vocabulary. He plays some tasty blues licks and goes into fast bebop lines and altered melodies just at the right spots. This might not be very surprising now that we are so used to hearing so many great players play jazz blues, but making a blues sound genuine and interesting is one of the big tells of a good jazz musician. Jazz is based on the blues after all, and it's always important to pay respect to its roots. Let's listen.
[music clip "Three-Four, The Blues" 00:26 - 00:55] Next up we have the famous rhythm changes "Move", written by Best and Walsh. Of course, if there's a jazz form where one can show off their dexterity and vocab knowledge, rhythm changes certainly comes to mind right away. Remember, we had "All the Things you Are", and then blues, and now we have a rhythm changes form. So the group plays this tune at a fast tempo, and Gary Burton takes the first solo. Hank's comping is superb, always keeping up the momentum without getting in the soloist's way. During Hank's solo then we can really hear his bebop chops. He navigates the changes with great rhythmic and melodic sense, playing fast eighth note runs that outline the changes to perfection. It is true that Hank's swing feel doesn't flow as light as other players, but it's good to keep in mind that this was his first jazz recording as a leader at the very young age of 30 ; and he was just getting started and making a name for himself in this new genre.
[music clip "Move!" 02:33 - 03:05] Irving Berlin's "Always" is played as a bass feature by the group next. So the bass plays the melody of the tune while Hank comps behind him. There are also no vibes, so vibraphone, present in this track, which gives a refreshing sound to the tune. Because it is played with a relaxed mid-tempo swing feel, Hank's playing is very different than on previous tracks. His swing feels a lot stronger on this tune, and his laid back phrasing really works well here. So this tune is perfectly in contrast with the more pushy pace of the previous tracks, and shows Hank's control not only over the fast bebop language, but his control over the more lyrical side of jazz. Let's listen.
[music clip "Always" 01:46 - 02:13] Hank's playing on the next track the "Riot-Chous", this is a Hank Garland and Homer Randolph original, really reminds me of a famous jazz guitarist that was deeply influenced later by this record and Garland's playing in general: George Benson. So Hank's playing in this track is deeply rooted in the blues, but it's also borrowing elements from what at that time was considered as R&B. And Hank's extremely clear and strong attack, and his picking technique, all are reminiscent of how George Benson would approach the guitar later on. It sounds like Hank is picking every note right? And he is doing so with a very even and controlled way, which makes his lines have a lot of energy and clarity.
[music clip "Riot-Chous" 01:44 - 02:15] The last track on the album is Jimmy Guinn's "Relaxin". This tune is very aptly played at a swing ballad tempo, and is beautifully bluesy. It is interesting to note how carefully the tunes for this record seem to have been chosen, the order and everything. We've heard Hank playing over a blues, over a fast rhythm changes, a couple of mid-swing tempo tunes, a bluesy R&B influenced track, and now we get to hear him play over a swing ballad. So he is covering pretty much all of the tempos and styles that are expected of a professional jazz player of course. It's hard to say for sure if Hank Garland did this on purpose or in order to prove himself, you know, that he had everything it takes to be considered a serious jazz musician, but it certainly gives the audience a good idea of his mastery of the jazz idiom on the guitar. During his solo on "Relaxin" Hank plays beautifully lyrical melodies that breathe and develop during his chorus of blowing, always tipping his hat to the blues.
[music clip "Relaxin" 01:39 - 02:09] Unfortunately, there are not many other jazz records released by Hank Garland due to his tragic incident right after recording this one. However, there are a couple of albums that are worth checking out by the way. So there is "After the Riot at Newport" it was recorded by the Nashville All Stars (of course with Hank) and that's after their cancellation of their Newport Jazz Festival appearance. It's a very fun listen, as it was recorded informally after a big gig cancellation, which it gives a very special energy. Another album I would recommend is listening to "Subtle Swing", which is a reissue of the original tracks recorded only 6 days after "Jazz Winds From a New Direction" with the same group of musicians. Thank you for listening to this episode of Album Deep Dives, I hope you've enjoyed it. Although Hank Garland's career was tragically cut short, he was present in several of the most important recordings of his era. So that's ranging from artists such as you know, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, and The Everley Brothers. And not only this, but we just heard what a superb jazz guitarist he was, and the impact he had on jazz icons such as you know, we mentioned George Benson. Hank passed away in 2004, but he will always be present in his astoundingly vast and varied recorded contributions to popular music.
