Red Garland 1956 Trio With Paul Chambers & Art Taylor CD

This CD reunites all the trio studio recordings made by Red Garland in 1956, featuring Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. It comprises the complete A Garland of Red LP, plus the integral December 14 session (originally divided into two different albums, Groovy and Red Garland's piano), plus a single trio tune ('Ahmad's Blues') recorded during Miles Davis' final marathon sessions for Prestige. In the aforementioned track, Philly Joe Jones plays drums instead of Art Taylor.

This European compilation, drawn from recordings originally released in the U.S. by Prestige Records, is in essence the Red Garland album A Garland of Red with bonus tracks. After the nine tracks making up that LP, most of them show music and Tin Pan Alley covers recorded in August 1956, the compilers add four tracks by the same performers, Garland and his rhythm section of Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Taylor (drums), from a December 1956 session, two of which originally appeared on the LP Groovy and two on Red Garland's Piano. The CD concludes with "Ahmad's Blues," actually recorded under the rubric of the Miles Davis Quintet for that group's album Workin' in May 1956, even though only Garland, Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones are present on the track. The pianist is assured throughout, and Chambers gets generous space, notably playing some extended arco solos, making this an outstanding collection of 1950s piano trio jazz. ~ William Ruhlmann

Personnel: Red Garland (piano); Paul Chambers (bass instrument); Art Taylor (drums).