Pianist Leon ‘Poison’ Garner (1907-1970) was an ever-present figure on and around LA's legendary Central Avenue in its mid-century heyday yet surprisingly little was known about him. Until now, that is. Expert compiler Bob Fisher tracked down all his known recordings, 27 sides in all, mostly from the Juke Box and Imperial labels, culled info from the black press and has created what must be the definitive portrait of the man, musical and personal.

As Fisher says, Gardner was evidently ‘a boogie pianist of remarkable talent who displayed originality’ who also vocalised in easy-going fashion. Clearly an engaging keyboard entertainer, he first made it as a broadcaster and then as a cabaret attraction, forging a varied career which took him successively from Akron to New York and Cleveland before he arrived in Los Angeles in 1940.

There he successfully joined the fraternity of blues and boogie pianists who catered to that city's newly-arrived African American settlers from the South excelling with what Billboard called ‘effective back room blues.’

Recorded as Poison Gardner and His All Stars, he often shared the vocals with the obscure but nicely assertive blues shouter Fat Man Hamilton.

The rolling piano figures just kept on coming, Myers and the omnipresent Davis soloing forcefully on things like ‘Between Midnight and Day' and the idiosyncratic ‘Big Leg Mama Blues’, the band taking the limelight on the vocal-free ‘52nd Street Stomp’.

If there is some degree of repetition here, it's wise to remember that these tracks were issued originally as singles so it's a case of dip in and enjoy.