Touring and Publicity
Erroll Garner on the Road
Contributed by Deanna Witkowski
A life of performing may look glamorous when reading the dates, cities, and venues comprising a tour itinerary. For many musicians, being “on the road” is a huge part of their labor. Putting together this collection in the spring of 2021 while the global coronavirus is still with us, I am aware of how the majority of performing musicians (myself included) have had our livelihoods threatened by scores of canceled or yet-to-be-rescheduled concert dates. Whether we are examining Erroll Garner’s overseas tour dates in the 1950s and ‘60s or a contemporary jazz musician’s regional American tour, we must take into account the labor necessary to make these dates happen long before the artist steps on stage. Indeed, many artists state that they are paid to do all of the work that entails procuring the gig and getting to the performance venue. The playing is the “easy” part.
This collection examines the “not-so-easy” part: the legwork involved not only in getting Garner and his trio mates to the gig, but the behind-the-scenes work of Garner’s manager, Martha Glaser, in finding the gig, communicating with regional producers, renting venues, dealing with road mishaps, and the detailed minutiae involved with setting the groundwork for a successful Garner tour.
Setting the Stage: Radio Airplay
In November of 1956, Glaser sent Garner a list of four radio disc jockeys, asking him to thank them personally for giving him airplay. The second name on the list, Joe Rico, became a key regional player in Garner's 1959 Buffalo appearance at Kleinhans Music Hall.
This note provides one example of how both Glaser as the artist manager and Garner as the artist had to not only generate publicity but follow up after the publicity had taken place (in modern terms, this is often called "servicing a gig").
1959 Buffalo Performance: Two Regional Players
Joe Rico
Joe Rico's name surfaces again in the Garner archive in this February 3, 1959 note from Glaser. Glaser’s frequent notes to Joe Rico in early February 1959, as well as later notes from February 27 and March 3, reveal the urgency with which she needed to receive publicity information.
It appears that Glaser had not received information as to the date when the tickets for Garner's April 1959 performance at Buffalo's Kleinhans Music Hall went on sale. In her February 5 letter, she expressed that she immediately needed ticket pricing to create a publicity material print run of “heralds and cards.”
Winifred Corey
A month prior to her first letter to Rico, Glaser had written to Winifred Corey, director of the still-new Kleinhans Music Hall, in order to procure a rental lease for the venue. Unlike Rico, Corey responded promptly six days later (and Rico’s name surfaces in Corey’s January 15, 1959 response).
Learn how researching Joe Rico's name opened up a treasure trove of Buffalo's rich jazz history at my Erroll Garner Tuesdays post, "BUFFALO JUMPS FOR JOE: Kleinmans Music Hall, Winifred Easton Corey, and Joe Rico."
Overseas Dates- 1966 English Tour
In May and June of 1966, Erroll Garner played in London for several weeks with his longtime triomates, bassist Eddie Calhoun and drummer Kelly Martin. Leslie (Les) Perrin and Associates, publicity firm for the Rolling Stones and other big name pop acts, served as Garner’s publicist for his English tour dates.
On June 12, after Garner had already been in England for over two weeks, Glaser typed a letter to Perrin, chastising him for not contacting her with any press coverage of Garner’s tour dates thus far—or, for that matter, with any news at all. Dispensing with formal niceties, Glaser begins her correspondence using all capital letters: “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING RECEIVED FROM YOU (EXCEPT BRIEF CABLE THIS WEEK) since tour began. Our disappointment beyond expression. We needed reviews for Variety ad. Blew the space reservation since you didn’t send reviews.”
Enclosed with her letter Glaser includes a marked-up copy of a document titled “Backgrounder to Erroll Garner,” a one-sheet apparently created by Perrin for local press reporters. Claiming to provide “a fact-a-phrase for journalists-in-a-hurry,” the document is a list of twelve bullet-point facts about Garner.
In response to two of the points, Glaser pens handwritten corrections:
Where the one-sheet reads:
“ERROLL was a classmate of Dodo Marmarosa, brilliant contemporary of Charlie Parker at the advent of the bop era.”
Glaser responds:
“Garner had nothing to do with the “bop” scene—“ and “Why do you keep repeating Parker in the Garner bio?”). The truth is that Garner was indeed a childhood friend of bop pianist Marmarosa, who recorded with Parker on numerous occasions. Garner recorded with Parker as well, but was not a bop pianist, while Marmarosa was closely identified with that musical style.
And where the sheet reads:
“GARNER was also an early associate of Ellington’s colleague Billy Strayhorn.”
Glaser simply writes:: “False info.”
Perrin did respond to Glaser. Although his reply is undated, it likely followed soon after, as he references recent British concert dates and signs off promising “more tomorrow.” Most importantly, he sends ten quotes on Garner’s appearances from press including Melody Maker, the Evening News, and New Musical Express. He only includes this material, however, after making a snide comment: “My dear Martha, It is a warm afternoon, the shadows are creeping across the desk, and I am asking myself, “Do you think that Martha came to the Albert Hall after all? Because the concert was at the Royal Festival Hall?”
Snide comment or not, Perrin produced the results that Glaser was asking for.
Learn more about these 1966 letters at my Erroll Garner Tuesdays post,
"The 'Swinging City Revolution': Garner in the Land of the Rolling Stones"
These two touring examples from 1959 and 1966 as well as the 1956 radio DJ list illustrate a portion of Glaser and Garner's behind-the-scenes labor as well as the necessity of regional actors such as Winifred Corey and Joe Rico. These typically untold stories give new import to each date, city, and venue on Garner’s tour itinerary and also remind us that a performer is part of a wider community that contributes to his or her success.