As well as the comprehensive reissue programme of Garner’s albums for his dedicated imprint Octave Records (see Jazzwise 247, 252 and 255) released ahead of his centenary this year, Mack Avenue have also come up with some previously unreleased material.

This Boston concert is heard as listed above in nine tracks, mixing ancient standards and the more recent ‘Bernie’s Time’ with Garner originals, while the complete 27-track performance is apparently available as part of an expensive/expansive boxed set called Liberation In Swing. There’s no knowing how the selection process was organised, but this LP-length album is entirely typical of Erroll’s unique style. Rooted in the swing era, the rhythmic figures (and sometimes clichés) of his right hand are always enlivened by deliberately lagging behind the metronomically grooving left hand. One interesting thing is that, for all the stories of his abstruse and sometimes abstract intros keeping accompanists guessing, maybe this only applied to his nightclub performances. Here in a prestigious concert, the regular team of Calhoun and Martin immediately slot into the required key and tempo, as though working from a printed set-list. But the sense of surprise is still intact for us, the audience, and it works a treat.