“I’m Beginning To See The Light” sheet music.

Words & Music by Harry James, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges & Don George.

“I’m Beginning to See the Light” is a popular song and jazz standard, with music written by Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, and Harry James and lyrics by Don George and published in 1944.

Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny recorded a version in 1945, that was on the pop song hits list for six weeks in 1945.

A competing 1945 recording by Harry James and his Orchestra, with lead vocal by Kitty Kallen reached No. 1 for two weeks in January of that year. James’ version of the song reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Second Annual High School Survey in 1945.

Duke Ellington also released in 1945 a version, vocal by Joya Sherrill, which reached the top ten.

I’m Beginning to See the Light by Erroll Garner with Woody Herman, Fats Heard, Wyatt Ruther and Candido Camero:

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Steve Allen who first hosted “The Tonight Show” remembered Erroll Garner with particular affection: “There was always a rare kind of excitement when Erroll Garner played. The audience first of all could be observed to be smiling, which they would not always do If say listening to Oscar Peterson. They might be open-mouthed In awe listening to Oscar, but the smiling thing would be unlikely to happen. But with Erroll there would be this happy look on the audience’s faces and then an actual cheer when he finished. And sometimes cheers would happen during the performance, like at an athletic contest when somebody sinks a long basket to win the game. It was almost like that kind of outburst when the man would perform”.

Erroll Garner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 15, 1921. His brother Linton was also an excellent pianist, principally a solo artist, but he did also record with various big bands.

Erroll received some piano tuition, but never learned to read music. He began playing with a teenagers’ group in his home town, then from 1938 to 1941 he worked with the Leroy Brown band. Garner moved to New York in 1944, making his debut appearances at pianist Luckey Robert s “Rendez-vous Club” and in Brooklyn. When John Levy opened the new “Tondelayo’s” on 52nd Street, Erroll Garner moved In and proved an instant success. Baron Timme Rosenkrantz, then married to singer Inez Cavanaugh, often invited Garner to his New York apartment, where the pianist was extensively recorded before his first official studio session

In late 1944, Garner replaced Art Tatum in Slam Stewart s successful trio, meaning he often found himself playing two clubs on the same evening: as soloist at “Tondelayo’s” and as member of Siam’s trio at the “Three Deuces”. In 1945, “Metronome” magazine described Garner as “this year’s 52nd Street sensation”.

Garner then moved to the West Coast, where he spent the better part of the late forties. His recordings with Charlie Parker, plus some magnificent trio sides (a few of them for Ross Russell’s Dial label), earned him further popularity. In 1948, Erroll visited Europe for the first time, a trip that took him to Paris. From the fifties to the mid-seventies, he toured and recorded regularly, becoming one of the best-loved and most original performers in jazz. Erroll Garner ultimately succumbed to his relentless touring schedule, dying of a heart-attack in Los Angeles on January 2, 1977.

Volume 16 of the recordings of Erroll Garner presented in chronological order, concludes the monumental sessions of March 30 1953. It is hard to believe Just how much magnificent music Garner, Wyatt Ruther and Eugene “Fats” Heard recorded on that one day. The material is varied as usual and also included some surprises, notably “Holiday for Strings”, a highly melodic piece form the light classic repertory written by David Rose who had also recorded it under his own name in 1943.

Glenn Miller’s staff arranger Jerry Gray then wrote a neat chart for Glenn’s Army Big Band, complete with a part for strings and a hot jazz segment. It seems George Avakian who produced and supervised Garner’s Columbia sessions, must have remembered the tune which was rarely played by jazz artists.

The recordings from July 1954 with Woody Herman, made more than a year later, are quite daring. The band leader had often sung in the thirties and threw in the occasional vocal with his Herds but was never featured exclusively as a singer. A rather ephemeral but pleasing date.