6. Erroll GarnerEldorado
Erroll Garner is a guy that was a seminal in my love of jazz. My dad brought home a record called Erroll Garner Plays Misty when I was an early teenager. I love everything that he does. He’s a uniquely joyful piano player. If you go onto YouTube, you can see a black and white version of him and his band performing ‘Eldorado’ on some TV show that just knocks me out, and I just played it over and over again for awhile. Whenever I would have to do photo shoots, I would ask them to just play it over and over again because it makes me feel very happy.
Did your dad often bring back jazz music, and did you have that playing in your house when you were younger?
Yes he sure did! We had a lot of different kind of music in the house, but they loved acting and they would go to New York and bring back cast albums from musical theater. My dad loved jazz, and particularly Erroll Garner because he was sort of blue collar, and not tall. Erroll always sat on a telephone book while he played. He’d put it on the Hi-Fi set and say, "Look how unfancy he is! Just listen to this guy. Listen to how he pauses so bravely.” My dad was just a music appreciator.
