The Chetboard

I know this is kinda far afield from fingerpicking stuff but I've been entrieged about Hank Garland especially when I heard that no less than Chet Atkins in an interview when asked who was the best guitarist ever to come to Nashville, he said without a pause, Hand Garland. That is mighty high praise from our hero. I know that he went up to New York to play a set of bebop Jazz at a time when that was the thing in jazz. I read that "all the cats" were there and he wowed them. I have heard the resulting album "Jazz winds from a new direction" and was impressed many years ago. Subsequently he had a tragic car accident which prevented him from playing guitar again. His brother who hid him for over 10 years said that Hank had thought that someone was trying to kill him. I wonder if that accident was caused by some nefarious New York people who thought he was too good! I have never seen a timeline of when Hank Garland went up there to play and when the awful accident happened. But he was a great guitarist.

Are Hank's recordings still available?

For Chet to say you are the best is sure the highest praise any guitar picker could ever dream of.

I think Roger Hardin can answer this. He got to meet and know Hank toward to end.

Back in the early 2000's I sent off for a boxed set of Hank's CDs from the man himself. It arrived with a signed photo of Hank .... "To Michael, Best wishes, Hank Garland". It's a treasured possession. The CDs are: Velvet Guitar, Jazz Winds From A New Direction, Unforgettable Guitar, Jazz In New York and Live At The Carousel.

I'm not sure if they would still be available, but the contact address is: Legend Enterprises, PO Box 7002, Orange Park, FL 32073.

His playing is quite amazing ... especially on Jazz Winds. That should be compulsory listening for any would be straight ahead jazz guitar player.

Regards
Mike

No problem finding Hank Garland records on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hank+garland ... b_ss_i_1_7

Thank you, Vidar. I have Amazon Prime which includes Amazon Music and I found Hank's album "Move...The Guitar Artistry of Hank Garland". I had to listen to it in a different way because what I heard was a lot of single string playing over a background of other instruments. This isn't inspiring to me, as a solo finger-style player but I listened to his lines in relation to the background chord structure and there was a lot of coordination that demonstrated creativity.