By MARY NIEDERBERGER - Associated Press - Monday, June 15, 2015
Photo: community.berkleejazz.org
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The man who wrote the music to the song “Misty” is long gone, but his legacy will live in his hometown.
The professional materials of internationally renowned jazz pianist Erroll Garner, an East Liberty native who died in 1977, have been donated to the University of Pittsburgh Library System by the estate of Martha Glaser, Garner’s longtime agent and manager and a civil-rights advocate who also grew up in Pittsburgh.
The announcement was made today, which would have been Garner’s 94th birthday. He died of lung cancer at age 55 and is buried in Homewood Cemetery.
“He was one of the major pianists in the history of jazz, and so by definition this is an important acquisition,” said Bill Kirchner, author of the “Oxford Companion to Jazz,” who noted that Mr. Garner was self-taught. “What is amazing is he couldn’t read a word of music. Everything he did was totally by ear.”
After graduating from Westinghouse High School, Garner left for New York City in 1944. Ten years later, he composed the music to “Misty,” his most well-known ballad, which was recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1954, becoming his signature song.
The donated materials include correspondence, performance and recording contracts, photographs, sheet music, awards and sound and video recordings. They also include such memorabilia as a cocktail napkin with a sketch of Garner made in a Paris jazz club and a telephone book. Under his contract with Sol Hurok, a fabled impresario and producer in the mid-20th century, Garner insisted on a telephone directory for the New York City borough of Manhattan that he could sit on while playing because of his short stature, Kirchner said.
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