As demonstrated in this space so many times before, there's a lot of Miles Davis sidemen who have gone on to have notable careers of their own.
Just among keyboardists, you've got your Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea.
There's another fine piano player who belongs in that exalted group, too: a smooth character from Dallas, Texas named Red Garland.
True, Red never made any music that changed jazz the way that most of those cats did, but he was obviously deeply respected among his peers, influenced some of those Miles pianists who followed him and consistently made some darned good music before his death in 1984.
His contributions to seminal Miles albums like Cookin' and Milestones (where Miles sat out on "Billy Boy" because he found nothing to add to Garland's piano work) were important. Garland also co-led albums with Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane — we previously profiled a track from that collaboration — and played for other notables like Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Art Pepper.
Miles liked Garland for an uncluttered approach that reminded him of Ahmad Jamal and for his immense ability to swing. Moreover, Garland's trademark pretty block chords was a style that was a good match for Davis' music during his 1955-58 stint in the Miles Davis Quintet.
Even before Garland departed Miles' first great quintet, he was already making trio records with Davis bandmate Paul Chambers on bass and the prolific Art Taylor on drums. They're all good records, even if there's not much to distinguish one from the other, but the third one Groovy (1957) is most probably the pick of the litter.
There's been a lot of standout versions of Duke Ellington's "C-Jam Blues" recorded, but the version rendered here is the most memorable to me. Garland shows his tremendous sense of swing and deep understanding of the blues. As with his other records of the time, Red follows a burner with a ballad, and this time it's the rueful "Gone Again" that's a nice display of Red's fluid block chords.
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