Erroll Garner

Though he never learned to read music, Erroll Garner had a natural pianistic gift that gave rise to a remarkable breadth of expression, inspiring countless musicians. By turns mightily swinging, orchestral, swooningly romantic, and mercilessly outré, Garner's tumbling, percussive, and humorous style was entirely his own. Recording throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s almost exclusively in a trio or solo context, he regularly reinterpreted jazz standards and his own tunes, "Misty" being the best-known.