Billboard : 06/24/1957
Score of 70

A thoroughly pleasant piano LP of standards rendered in a direct, rhythmic manner somewhat reminiscent of Nat Cole. Tight-knit, understanding rhythmic support all the way, plus Garland‘s clean-cut technique and well developed sense of shading give this set an edge. Nature of material and the fact that Garland’s style is accessible lend sales potential beyond the jazz coterie. Help from dealer is indicated for Garland is still not too well known.

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Cash Box : 6/29/1957

This is the second Prestige pressing featuring pianist Red Garland. The artist has an expressiveness and warmth that skillfully attains a melodic and feathery appeal, an appeal which lends itself to the collection of evergreen ballads (The Very Thought Of You, But Not For Me, If I Were A Bell). Noteworthy support from Chambers on bass and Taylor on drums. Relaxed piano work.

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Miami Herald
Fred Sherman : 10/20/1957

Warmth is something you usually get from blankets, whisky and chili way out west. But there is a kind of warmth you can get from a picture. And from music.

The piano trio is suited to this kind of warmth giving; a warmth of tones. You’ll find this feeling heated to proper temperature in an album called Red Garland’s Piano. It’s a twin to an earlier success called Garland of Red with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor with the drums. The album sets forth with an extended and tender treatment of Please Send Me Someone to Love. It sets the high style for the session. Only eight tracks here, including a couple of modern ballads that have never been treated so handsomely. Garland shares solo time with Chambers’ rolling bass sounds. Taylor’s drum is discreet throughout.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 11/12/1957

Just about the last thing you would expect a boxer to end up as, especially if you’re a follower of Dan Parker and A.J. Liebling’s riotous reportage of that sport, is a piano player.

Yet William (Red) Garland of Dallas, Texas, did exactly that. His interest in music, however, was stronger than his interest in fighting. He is reputed to have once shared a ring with Sugar Ray Robinson. What this may have had to do with his decision to keep his hands on the keyboard and out of 8 ounce Everlasts is not known.

A couple of years ago, Garland was relatively unknown as a musician. True, he had worked with Hot Lips Page, Coleman Hawkins and other groups but he hadn’t attracted any attention from the jazz public. Then Garland joined the Miles Davis Quintet and was featured on a number of Prestige and Columbia LPs on which his fluid, warm, romantic yet strongly swinging style won him an immediate audience.

This pas year, Garland had two LPs released on Prestige. They were made under his own leadership and present him playing piano with accompaniment by Paul Chambers; his bass playing sidekick from the Davis group, and drummer Art Taylor. (Philly Joe Jones, who drummed with Garland in the Davis Quintet was supposed to make the dates but overslept!)

Both of these LPs are among the best piano albums of the year. I have become increasingly fond of the first one, A Garland of Red not only for the delightfully mellow way Garland plays ballads, but also for his deeply rooted, natural sounding approach to the blues in a song called Blue Red.

I have only recently come into the possession of the second Garland LP, although it has been out for some time. It’s called Red Garland’s Piano and like the first Garland LP, it has eight tunes. One of them, again, is a particularly rewarding blues, Please Send Me Someone to Love.

Describing Garland’s piano style is rather difficult. He sounds like a solid mixture of Bud Powell, Nat Cole and Erroll Garner. From Powell he has learned how to create swiftly flowing long lines of improvisation. From Cole he has learned the trick of thinking in phrases long enough to give his improvisation a singing quality as well as a type of swinging rhythm that is reminiscent of a series of waves lapping a beach. From Garner (and from Milt Buckner, too) he has picked up the locked-hands style in which he plays whole choruses with full chords periodically throughout his playing. Garland is a particularly restful pianist to listen to: you can play his albums by the hour all day long and they never bore you. It must be said that Chambers is a great asset on these albums, he fits Garland’s style like a glove.

I suspect that Red Garland is about to become the important new pianist in jazz.

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Down Beat : 08/22/1957
Don Gold : 3 stars

Garland, who has been playing piano with Miles Davis‘ group, joins two of his compatriots in that group, Chambers and Taylor, to form a trio for these sides. The results are appreciably different from those achieved by Miles’ group, or, for that matter, the achievements of other modern trios.

Garland plays reasonably direct piano, free of florid growths. He performs pleasantly but is not profoundly moving in an emotional or intellectual sense. There is a valid simplicity to his playing, but this is offset by a relatively sterile conception.

Chambers, it should be noted, plays in typically inspired fashion, with plastic fingers and bow. Taylor assists ably, as well.

The liner notes indicate that Garland was responsible for Miles’ including If I Were A Bell in his group’s book. If this is true, Garland certainly deserves commendation. Also, if Garland performed on record as I have heard him perform in person, LPs such as this would have greater value. His essential simplicity is, I feel, a virtue. If he can combine it with inspired conception, he could create lucid, provocative jazz piano statements.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Red Garland‘s piano is an instrument effulgent with warm emotion. Red Garland is a pianist who eschews the flowery and champions the direct approach in a simple, subtle manner. His basic, solid style, developed along personal lines out of Nat Cole and Bud Powell, encompasses all moods and tempos with equal ease. Never syrupy on the ballads in ballad tempo or merely fleet on the up tempos, Red is especially buoyant in a soul lifting way on the middle ground. Here is a musician who even if he played every cocktail lounge in the country could never be considered a cocktail lounge pianist.”

During the past year, Red has not appeared in any cocktail lounges but he did travel over the United States with the Miles Davis quintet and acquainted many people with his singular keyboard delivery. As many of you know, there was a first album too. In A Garland Of Red (Prestige LP 7064) we were given a close-up view of the Garland piano in a trio setting. Here, in a second intimate visit, Red is again more than ably assisted by Paul Chambers and Arthur Taylor. Paul, in addition to his sensitive and complementary support, also contributes solos of the high caliber standard for which he has become known Arthur functions just as a trio drummer should, he is felt more than heard.

Red’s head for tunes is not the least of his attributes. While he was with the Davis group, he was responsible for Miles playing tunes new to him (Davis) such as If I Were A Bell which Red does here with an appropriate introduction and presentation of the melody, leading into a solidly grooving exposition.

A tune of older vintage which Red revives is the ballad I Know Why. Then there are the evergreens I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, But Not For Me, The Very Thought Of You, Stompin’ At The Savoy and the young spruce Almost Like Being In Love which keep their original value and benefit from the added luster of Garlandizing. Finally there is the blues ballad, made popular by singer Percy Mayfield several years ago, Please Send Me Someone To Love. Red has captured the warmth of that good old blues feeling here in his succinct, chordal way.

The theme of love can be found running through almost every selection in this album. This is not the only love involved. There is also the obvious loving care with which the keys of Red Garland’s piano are caressed.