Arv Garrison
Electric Guitar
About
Arv Garrison was a bebop electric guitarist and one of the few players of his generation with the technique and imagination to bring the guitar into the new music. After leading his own groups from 1941, he became a fixture on New York's 52nd Street by 1945. Charlie Parker personally requested Garrison for his landmark 1946 Dial Records sessions, which produced bebop classics including "Ornithology," "Yardbird Suite," and "A Night in Tunisia." He also recorded with Dizzy Gillespie and Howard McGhee. With his wife, bassist Vivien Garry, he co-led the Vivien Garry Trio, which toured both coasts through 1948. Critic Barry Ulanov called him "one of the great guitarists of our time," and Django Reinhardt praised him as "the best of the new crop." Epilepsy forced Garrison from professional music in the late 1940s, and he spent his final years in Toledo, where he died in 1960.
Trivia
Django Reinhardt himself called Garrison "the best of the new crop" of jazz guitarists. Garrison appeared on the cover of Down Beat magazine on July 1, 1946, at the height of his 52nd Street prominence. He taught his wife Vivien Garry to play upright bass; she went on to become recognized as the first notable female jazz bassist. His participation in Earle Spencer's "Five Guitars in Flight" marked the first time a guitar ensemble had ever performed within a big band.
Early Life
Arvin Charles Garrison was born on August 17, 1922, in Toledo, Ohio, and grew up in a musical household where his mother taught him to read music. He was self-taught on ukulele beginning at age nine and soon switched to guitar, becoming skilled enough to play local dances and functions by the age of twelve. An early guitar teacher discouraged him and advised him to quit, but the rejection only fueled more diligent self-study. He practiced obsessively along with Django Reinhardt records, developing a distinctive tremolo-picked style and advanced harmonic sensibility. Pianist Bill Cummerow discovered Garrison at a high school variety show in 1938 and helped launch his professional career. Garrison attended DeVilbiss High School in Toledo but dropped out mid-senior year to pursue music full-time, moving to Albany, New York, where he was leading his own bands by 1941.
Arv Garrison Solos
1946
Electric Guitar solo - Diggin' Diz - 1946
4/4 swing in C major at 205 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - Yardbird Suite - 1946
4/4 swing in C major at 215 BPM
Electric Guitar solo - A Night In Tunisia - 1946
4/4 swing in D minor at 178 BPM