Hank Garland was born in 1930 in Cowpens, a small town near Spartanburg, South Carolina. He first started playing guitar around the age of six, and by the time he reached his teens guitar playing had become the great passion in his life.
In 1945 Hank was heard playing in a music store by band leader Paul Howard whose band "The Arkansas Cotton Pickers" played in the Western Swing idiom. He invited Hank to play with his band at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and Hank did briefly join him until it was discovered that he was not allowed to do so by law, being under the age of 16.
Hank became friendly with Nashville guitarists Harold Bradley and Billy Byrd who took the young player under their wing, in the process introducing him to jazz. Hank became a busy studio musician on the Nashville scene often playing on several recording sessions in a single day backing country and pop artists such as Patsy Cline, and The Everly Brothers. He played on several Elvis Presley records during the 1950s and also live at Elvis' 1961 concert in Honolulu alternating lead guitar with Scotty Moore.
Despite this hectic recording schedule, Hank would often play jazz at night in Nashville venues, particularly the Carousel Club, and his reputation as a jazz player began to grow. Hank was listening to players like Tal Farlow, and when in New York he undertook some jazz studies with Barry Galbraith. In 1959 he cut his first real jazz recording in a trio line up with bass and drums. This was issued as "Velvet Guitar". On later recordings Hank teamed up with vibraphonist Gary Burton and other Nashville musicians. This group also played at the Newport Jazz festival in 1960.
Columbia Records decided to team Hank and Gary with two top New York musicians - bassist Joe Benjamin and drummer Joe Morello - for Hank's next LP - the much acclaimed "Jazz Winds from a New Direction". This record made it very clear that Hank was now a major force in jazz guitar.
Tragically, just as his jazz career was taking off in parallel with his country and pop session work, in September 1961 Hank was involved in a near-fatal car crash and was in a coma for some time. Such was the regard for Hank that for a long time afterwards the Nashville session players would take it in turns to sign his name on their session sheets thus ensuring that Hank continued to receive an income. But although he did make a recovery of sorts and eventually managed to play some guitar again, it was clear that his brain had been affected by the accident and things would never return to where they were. Hank adopted a quiet lifestyle living in Florida with his mother and brother and he passed away on December 27th 2004 aged 74. Fortunately for posterity much of Hank's recorded jazz guitar legacy has been made available on CD today.
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