One of the best-selling jazz albums of the 1950s was the 1956 Erroll Garner record “Concert by the Sea.” It was released by Columbia Records on October 13, 1955, and by 1958 had sold more than a million dollars worth of retail copies. The concert took place on September 19, 1955, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

The Erroll Garner trio had been working at a San Francisco nightclub and on an off day their manager, Martha Glaser, booked them to play a one-night gig about 120 miles down the Pacific coast at the Sunset School Auditorium in Carmel. An Armed Forces Radio DJ named Will Thornbury had secured permission to record evening’s music so that he could play it on the base radio station at nearby Fort Ord. Glaser gave Thornbury permission with the proviso that after his broadcast she would be given the tape. After receiving the tape, Glaser edited into album form and played it for Columbia records A&R man George Avakian who worried that the quality of the tape was not such that it could be used to make a record. But, after setting Columbia’s engineers loose on the project, they brought the sound up to an acceptable quality and the record was released less than a month after the concert.

Along with Garner the trio includes Eddie Calhoun on bass and Denzil Best on drums. “Concert by the Sea” has been called by AllMusic “arguably the finest record pianist Erroll Garner ever made.” They awarded the album five stars. The original cover photograph was taken by Art Kane, who later took the famous 1958 “Great Day in Harlem” photograph for Esquire magazine.

Here is a link to one of the 11 tracks on the original pressing of “Concert by the Sea:”

"AUTUMN LEAVES"