Arv Garrison

File:Vivien Garry and two.jpg

Teddy Kaye, Vivien Garry, and Arv(in) Charles Garrison c.1947

Arvin Charles "Arv" Garrison (August 17, 1922, Toledo, Ohio – July 30, 1960, Toledo) was an American jazz guitarist.

Garrison taught himself ukulele at age nine and played guitar for dances and local functions from age twelve. He led his own band at a hotel in Albany, New York, in 1941. Following time with Don Seat, he put together a trio which played on both the East and West coasts of the United States until 1948; after 1946 it was called the Vivien Garry Trio, after his wife and bassist.

Garrison recorded on Dial Records with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and was active on the early bebop scene in New York City in the 1940s. Jazz critic Leonard Feather interviewed Garrison extensively about playing with Parker. In the 1950s he returned to Toledo and played locally. He died in 1960 by drowning during an epileptic seizure.

Discography

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• 1974 Central Avenue Breakdown, Vol. 1 (Onyx #212; shared various artists LP with Teddy Edwards and Dodo Marmarosa; includes 6 of the 8 tracks that Arv and wife Vivien Garry's quartet recorded for Sarco Records in 1945).
• 2000 Swing To Bop Guitar: Guitars In Flight 1939-1947 (Hep #66; various artists CD anthology; includes Arv's famous "Five Guitars In Flight" recorded for Black & White Records in 1946 with Earle Spencer's Orchestra).
• 2014 The Complete Dial Modern Jazz Sessions (Mosaic #MD9-260; various artists 9CD box set anthology; includes Arv's February 1946 Dial Records session with Dizzy Gillespie's Tempo Jazzmen [disc 2], his March 1946 session with Charlie Parker's Septet [disc 2], and his October 1946 session with the Howard McGhee/Dodo Marmarosa Sextet [disc 3]).

References

• Arv Garrison at Allmusic
• Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford, 1999, pp. 247–48.