The sound is atrocious and the piano is out of tune, yet this live trio recording from September 9, 1955, in Carmel, California, was a bestselling album. Garner brings a wealth of imagination to every performance of every song. On uptempo numbers like "I'll Remember April" and "Red Top" he hammers away with intense left-handed figures while unleashing relentless cascades of improvised lines with his right. On ballads like "Teach Me Tonight" and "April in Paris" he plays with the softest of touches, changing tempo from verse to verse for dramatic effect. His performance of "Autumn Leaves" is so over-the-top it could have gone to parody, but not in the hands of this master entertainer. His humming, grunting vocal accompaniment--he seems to be commenting on "They Can't Take That Away from Me" as he plays it--provides a kind of side show to the performance. More than 30 years later it's still starkly original work. --John Swenson
