I’ve seen jazz pianist Michael Garrick referred to as the “British Ellington,” but the fluid, graceful, and exploratory way he played those keys at a recent London gig reminded me more of Bill Evans, mixed with the playfulness of Thelonious Monk. At one point he reached inside the opened piano and played by plucking at strings. He’d laugh or shout out when a band member did something he liked. And he seemed to enjoy choosing precisely how to end each piano solo as he did starting each one up.

This particular show was an inauspicious affair. Garrick’s quartet was situated on a small stage in the back room of a pub in a sleepy, southwest nook of London just over the Barnes Bridge. There to see Garrick were about six people.

The full blog post at INTELLIGENT LIFE.