QUALITY TIME WITH RED GARLAND

I stopped by Melodies and Memories today, a record store in Roseville, MI. Last year, I went to M&M for the first time. I was blown away by their massive jazz section According to the owner, the shop has over ten thousand jazz albums. It would take the average jazz enthusiast two life-time to comb through all the jazz cds and albums that were fighting for my attention.

I went to M&M to purchase two rare solo albums by pianist Red Garland a friend had told me about, but refused to loan me because I still have his copies of A Tribute To Blackwell featuring Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell, and Dewey Redman's African Venus.

M&M didn't have the albums. However, they did have It's A Blue World and Moods Ville Volume 1 (The Red Garland Trio+ Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis.),which I bought.

Lately, I've been heavily into Garland thanks to another jazz friend who discovered the pianist work a few months ago. She speaks of Garland with such awe the last time we hung out I felt compelled to revisit some of his albums on the Prestige record label that I purchased years ago.

I haven't listened to It's A Blue World and Mood Ville Volume 1 yet. This weekend while my wife is out shopping with her mother, I will spend a few hours listening to those recordings. I hope they are comparable to his other Prestige albums.