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Art Tatum -Part 2 - A bit more about a Piano Genius
For a musician of such stature, there is very little published information available about Tatum's life. Only one full-length biography of Tatum has been published, Too Marvelous for Words, by James Lester.[3] Lester interviewed many Tatum contemporaries for the book and drew from many articles published about Tatum.[4]
Tatum drew inspiration from his contemporaries James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, who exemplified the stride piano style, and from the more 'modern' Earl Hines,[13] six years Tatum's senior. A major event in his meteoric rise to success was his appearance at a cutting contest in 1933 at Morgan's bar in New York City that included Waller, Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Standard contest pieces included Johnson's "Harlem Strut" and "Carolina Shout" and Fats Waller's "Handful of Keys." Tatum triumphed with his arrangements of "Tea for Two" and "Tiger Rag", in a performance that was considered to be the last word in stride piano.[14] Tatum's debut was historic because he outplayed the elite competition and heralded the demise of the stride era. He was not challenged further until stride specialist Donald Lambert initiated a half-serious rivalry with him.
In 1941 Tatum recorded two sessions for Decca Records with singer, Joe Turner, the first of which included "Wee Wee Baby Blues", which attained national popularity. Two years later Tatum won Esquire Magazine's first jazz popularity poll. Perhaps believing there was a limited audience for solo piano, Tatum formed a trio in 1943 with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart, whose perfect pitch enabled him to follow Tatum's excursions. Tatum recorded exclusively with the trio for almost two years, but abandoned the trio format in 1945 and returned to solo piano work. Although Tatum was idolized by many jazz musicians, his popularity faded in the mid to late forties with the advent of bebop - a movement which Tatum did not embrace.
Style
Tatum built upon stride and classical piano influences to develop a novel and unique piano style. He introduced a strong, swinging pulse to jazz piano, highlighted with spectacular cadenzas that swept across the entire keyboard. His interpretations of popular songs were exuberant, sophisticated, grandiose and intricate. He sometimes improvised lines that presaged bebop and later jazz genres but generally he did not venture far from the original melodic lines of songs. Jazz soloing in the 1930s had not yet evolved into the free-ranging extended improvisations that flowered in the bebop era of the 1940s and 50's and beyond. But Tatum embellished those melodic lines with an array of signature devices and runs that appeared throughout his repertoire, sometimes too 'repetitiously' in the view of some. As he matured, Tatum became more adventurous in abandoning the melodies and elongating those improvisations.
Tatum was an innovator in reharmonizing melodies by changing the supporting chord progressions or by altering the root movements of a tune so as to more effectively apply familiar harmonies. Many of his harmonic concepts and larger chord voicings (e.g., 13th chords with various flat or sharp intervals) were well ahead of their time in the 1930s (except for their partial emergence in popular songs of the jazz age) and they would be explored by bebop-era musicians a decade later. He worked some of the upper extensions of chords into his lines, a practice which was further developed by Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, which in turn was an influence on the development of 'modern jazz'. Tatum also pioneered the use of dissonance in jazz piano, as can be heard, for example, on his recording of "Aunt Hagar's Blues",[17] which uses extensive dissonance to achieve a bluesy effect. In addition to using major and minor seconds, dissonance was inherent in the complex chords that Tatum frequently used.
Tatum could also play the blues with authority,[18] but his repertoire was predominantly Broadway and popular standards, whose chord progressions and variety better suited his talents. His approach was prolix, pyrotechnic, dramatic and joyous. His protean style combined stride, jazz, swing, boogie-woogie and classical elements, while the musical ideas flowed in rapid-fire fashion. He was playful, spontaneous and often inserted quotes from other songs into his improvisations.[19] Tatum was not inclined toward understatement or expansive use of space. He seldom played in a simplified way, preferring interpretations that displayed his great technique and clever harmonizations.[20] A handful of critics have complained that Tatum played too many notes or was too ornamental[21] or was even 'unjazzlike'.
From the foundation of stride, Tatum made great leaps forward in technique and harmony and he honed a groundbreaking improvisational style that extended the limits of what was possible in jazz piano. His innovations were to greatly influence later jazz pianists, such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans and Chick Corea. One of Tatum's innovations was his extensive use of the pentatonic scale, which may have inspired later pianists to further mine its possibilities as a device for soloing. Herbie Hancock described Tatum's unique tone as "majestic" and devoted some time to unlocking this sound and to noting Tatum's harmonic arsenal.[22]
The sounds that Tatum produced with the piano were also distinctive. It was said that he could make a bad piano sound good. Generally playing at mezzoforte volume, he employed the entire keyboard from deep bass tones to sonorous mid-register chords to sparkling upper register runs. He used the sustain pedal sparingly so that each note was clearly articulated and chords were cleanly sounded. Tatum's harmonic invention produced tonal colors that identified his musical palette. He played with boundless energy and occasionally his speedy and precise delivery produced an almost mechanical effect not unlike the sound of a player piano.
Technique
Critic Gunther Schuller declared "On one point there is universal agreement: Tatum's awesome technique."[23] That technique was marked by a calm physical demeanor and efficiency. He did not indulge in theatrical physical or facial expression.[24] The effortless gliding of his hands over difficult passages puzzled most who witnessed the phenomenon. He especially mystified other pianists to whom Tatum appeared to be "playing the impossible."[25] Even when playing scintillating runs at high velocity, it appeared that his fingers hardly moved. Using self-taught fingering, including an array of two-fingered runs, he executed the pyrotechnics with meticulous accuracy and timing. His execution was all the more remarkable considering that he drank prodigious amounts of alcohol when performing,[26] yet his recordings are never sloppy. Tatum also displayed phenomenal independence of the hands and ambidexterity, which was particularly evident while improvising counterpoint. Ira Gitler declared that Tatum's "left hand was the equal of his right." [27] Around 1950 when Bud Powell was opening for Tatum at Birdland, Powell reportedly said to Tatum: "Man, I'm going to really show you about tempo and playing fast. Anytime you're ready." Tatum laughed and replied: "Look, you come in here tomorrow, and anything you do with your right hand, I'll do with my left." Powell never took up the challenge.[28]
Tatum played chords with a relatively flat-fingered technique compared to the curvature taught in classical training.[29] Jimmy Rowles said "Most of the stuff he played was clear over my head. There was too much going on — both hands were impossible to believe. You couldn't pick out what he was doing because his fingers were so smooth and soft, and the way he did it — it was like camouflage."[30] When his fastest tracks of "Tiger Rag" are slowed down, they still reveal a coherent, syncopated rhythm.
After Hours
After regular club dates, Tatum would decamp to after-hours clubs to hang out with other musicians who would play for each other. Biographer James Lester notes that Tatum enjoyed listening to other pianists and preferred to play last when several pianists played. He frequently played for hours on end into the dawn, to the detriment of his marriages.[26] Tatum was said to be more spontaneous and creative in those free-form nocturnal sessions than in his scheduled performances.[26] Evidence of this can be found in the recording entitled "20th Century Piano Genius" which consists of 40 tunes recorded at private parties at the home of Hollywood music director Ray Heindorf in 1950 and 1955. According to the review by Marc Greilsamer, "All of the trademark Tatum elements are here: the grand melodic flourishes, the harmonic magic tricks, the flirtations with various tempos and musical styles. But what also emerges is Tatum's effervescence, his joy, and his humor. He seems to celebrate and mock these timeless melodies all at once."[31]
Group Work
Tatum tended to work and to record unaccompanied, partly because relatively few musicians could keep pace with his lightning-fast tempos and advanced harmonic vocabulary. Other musicians expressed amazed bewilderment at performing with Tatum. Drummer Jo Jones, who recorded a 1956 trio session with Tatum and bassist Red Callendar is quoted as quipping, "I didn't even play on that session [...] all I did was listen. I mean, what could I add? [...] I felt like setting my damn drums on fire."[32] Buddy DeFranco said that playing with Tatum was "like chasing a train."[27] Tatum said of himself: "A band hampers me."[33]
Tatum did not readily adapt or defer to other musicians in ensemble settings. Early in his career he was required to restrain himself when he worked as accompanist for vocalist Adelaide Hall in 1932-33. Perhaps because Tatum believed there was a limited audience for solo piano, he formed a trio in 1943 with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart, whose perfect pitch enabled him to follow Tatum's excursions. He later recorded with other musicians, including a notable session with the 1944 Esquire Jazz All-Stars, which included Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and other jazz greats, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He also recorded memorable group sessions for Norman Granz in the early 1950s.
Repertoire
Tatum's repertoire consisted mainly of music from the Great American Songbook -- Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and other popular music of the 20's, 30's and 40's. He played his own arrangements of a few classical piano pieces as well, most famously Dvořák's Humoresque no. 7. Although Tatum was not a composer, his versions of popular numbers were so original as to border on composition.
Emulators
Mainstream jazz piano has gone in a different direction than that pioneered by Tatum. Nevertheless, transcriptions of Tatum are popular and are often practiced assiduously.[34] But perhaps because his playing was so difficult to copy, only a handful of musicians — such as Oscar Peterson, Johnny Costa, Johnny Guarnieri, Adam Makowicz, Luther G. Williams, Steven Mayer and Christopher Jordan — have attempted to seriously emulate or challenge Tatum. Although Bud Powell was of the bebop movement, his prolific and exciting style showed Tatum influence. Phineas Newborn's playing, such as his recording of "Willow Weep For Me", is closely modeled on Tatum.
Recordings
Tatum recorded commercially from 1932 until near his death. Although recording opportunities were somewhat intermittent for most of his career due to his solo style, he left copious recordings.[35] He recorded for Decca (1934–41), Capitol (1949, 1952) and for the labels associated with Norman Granz (1953–56). Tatum demonstrated remarkable memory when he recorded 68 solo tracks for Norman Granz in two days, all but three of the tracks in one take. He also recorded a series of group recordings for Granz with, among others, Ben Webster, Jo Jones, Buddy DeFranco, Benny Carter, Harry Sweets Edison , Roy Eldridge and Lionel Hampton.
Film
Although only a small amount of film showing Tatum playing exists today, several minutes of professionally-shot archival footage can be found in Martin Scorsese's documentary The Blues. Tatum appeared in the 1947 movie The Fabulous Dorseys, first playing a solo and then accompanying Dorsey's band in an impromptu song.
Tatum appeared on Steve Allen's Tonight Show in the early 1950s, and on other television shows from this era. Unfortunately, all of the kinescopes of the Allen shows, which were stored in a warehouse along with other now defunct shows, were thrown into a local rubbish dump to make room for new studios. However, the soundtracks were recorded off-air by Tatum enthusiasts at the time, and many are included in Storyville Records extensive series of rare Tatum recordings.
Tatum is portrayed briefly (by actor Johnny O'Neill) in Ray, a 2004 biopic about R&B artist Ray Charles. When Charles enters a nightclub he remarks "Are my ears deceiving me or is that Art Tatum?" O'Neill captures Tatum's cool and collected presence at the keyboard.
Death
Art Tatum died at Queen of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from the complications of uremia (as a result of kidney failure). He was originally interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, but was moved to the Great Mausoleum of Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery in 1991. He was survived by his wife, Geraldine Tatum.
Legacy and tributes
Tatum posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989.
Numerous stories exist about other musicians' respect for Tatum. Perhaps the most famous is the story about the time Tatum walked into a club where Fats Waller was playing, and Waller stepped away from the piano bench to make way for Tatum, announcing, "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."[36] Fats Waller's son confirmed the statement. [37]
Charlie Parker (who helped develop bebop) was highly influenced by Tatum. When newly arrived in New York, Parker briefly worked as a dishwasher in a Manhattan restaurant where Tatum was performing and often listened to the legendary pianist. Parker once said “I wish I could play like Tatum’s right hand!”[38]
When Oscar Peterson was still a young boy, his father played him a recording of Art Tatum performing "Tiger Rag". Once the young Peterson was finally persuaded that it was performed by a single person, Peterson was so intimidated that he did not touch the piano for weeks.[39] Interviewing Oscar Peterson in 1962, Les Tompkins asked "Is there one musician you regard as the greatest?" Peterson replied "I’m an Art Tatum–ite. If you speak of pianists, the most complete pianist that we have known and possibly will know, from what I’ve heard to date, is Art Tatum."[40] "Musically speaking, he was and is my musical God, and I feel honored to remain one of his humbly devoted disciples."[41]
"Here's something new .... " pianist Hank Jones remembers thinking when he first heard Art Tatum on radio in 1935, " .... they have devised this trick to make people believe that one man is playing the piano, when I know at least three people are playing."[42]
The jazz pianist and educator Kenny Barron commented that "I have every record [Tatum] ever made — and I try never to listen to them … If I did, I'd throw up my hands and give up!"[43] Jean Cocteau dubbed Tatum "a crazed Chopin." Count Basie called him the eighth wonder of the world. Dave Brubeck observed, "I don't think there's any more chance of another Tatum turning up than another Mozart."[44]
Dizzy Gillespie said "First you speak of Art Tatum, then take a long deep breath, and you speak of the other pianists."[45]
The elegant pianist Teddy Wilson observed, "Maybe this will explain Art Tatum. If you put a piano in a room, just a bare piano. Then you get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."[45]
Other luminaries of the day including Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Leopold Godowsky and George Gershwin marveled at Tatum's genius.[26]
Jazz critic Leonard Feather has called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."[45]
In 1993, an MIT student invented a term that is now in common usage in the field of computational musicology: The Tatum. It means "the smallest perceptual time unit in music."[46]
The Toledo Jazz Society presents an annual event dedicated to Tatum entitled the Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival.[47]
Zenph Studios, a software company focused on precisely understanding how musicians perform, recorded a new album of Tatum’s playing with Sony Masterworks in 2007. They created re-performances of Tatum’s first four commercial tracks, from March 21, 1933, and the nine tracks from the April 2, 1949 live concert at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium. Sony recorded these anew in the same venue, in front of a live audience. These 13 tracks are on the album, “Piano Starts Here: Live from The Shrine,” which was recorded in high-resolution surround-sound and in binaural, as well as regular stereo. The binaural recording, when heard in headphones, let you hear what Tatum may have heard as he played on stage, with the piano spatially in front (bass on the left, treble on the right) and the live audience clearly downstage on the righthand side.[48] Zenph’s re-performances have been performed live in numerous venues, including the Toronto Jazz Festival [49] and New York’s Apollo Theater. Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson requested a live presentation, which he heard in an emotional re-performance in his home in March 2007.
Tatum's work was used and referenced heavily in the WB TV series Everwood (2002-2006), with some actual sound recordings used and compositions being performed in concerts by Ephram Brown (portrayed by Gregory Smith) in select episodes. James Earl Jones' character Will Cleveland introduced these works to young Ephram, who was an aspiring pianist, in the second season episode "Three Miners From Everwood".
For his 2008 album “Act Your Age,” Gordon Goodwin wrote a new big band arrangement to accompany Zenph’s re-performance of “Yesterdays,” and the track was recognized with a Grammy Nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement.[50]
Tatum drew inspiration from his contemporaries James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, who exemplified the stride piano style, and from the more 'modern' Earl Hines,[13] six years Tatum's senior. A major event in his meteoric rise to success was his appearance at a cutting contest in 1933 at Morgan's bar in New York City that included Waller, Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Standard contest pieces included Johnson's "Harlem Strut" and "Carolina Shout" and Fats Waller's "Handful of Keys." Tatum triumphed with his arrangements of "Tea for Two" and "Tiger Rag", in a performance that was considered to be the last word in stride piano.[14] Tatum's debut was historic because he outplayed the elite competition and heralded the demise of the stride era. He was not challenged further until stride specialist Donald Lambert initiated a half-serious rivalry with him.
In 1941 Tatum recorded two sessions for Decca Records with singer, Joe Turner, the first of which included "Wee Wee Baby Blues", which attained national popularity. Two years later Tatum won Esquire Magazine's first jazz popularity poll. Perhaps believing there was a limited audience for solo piano, Tatum formed a trio in 1943 with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart, whose perfect pitch enabled him to follow Tatum's excursions. Tatum recorded exclusively with the trio for almost two years, but abandoned the trio format in 1945 and returned to solo piano work. Although Tatum was idolized by many jazz musicians, his popularity faded in the mid to late forties with the advent of bebop - a movement which Tatum did not embrace.
Style
Tatum built upon stride and classical piano influences to develop a novel and unique piano style. He introduced a strong, swinging pulse to jazz piano, highlighted with spectacular cadenzas that swept across the entire keyboard. His interpretations of popular songs were exuberant, sophisticated, grandiose and intricate. He sometimes improvised lines that presaged bebop and later jazz genres but generally he did not venture far from the original melodic lines of songs. Jazz soloing in the 1930s had not yet evolved into the free-ranging extended improvisations that flowered in the bebop era of the 1940s and 50's and beyond. But Tatum embellished those melodic lines with an array of signature devices and runs that appeared throughout his repertoire, sometimes too 'repetitiously' in the view of some. As he matured, Tatum became more adventurous in abandoning the melodies and elongating those improvisations.
Tatum was an innovator in reharmonizing melodies by changing the supporting chord progressions or by altering the root movements of a tune so as to more effectively apply familiar harmonies. Many of his harmonic concepts and larger chord voicings (e.g., 13th chords with various flat or sharp intervals) were well ahead of their time in the 1930s (except for their partial emergence in popular songs of the jazz age) and they would be explored by bebop-era musicians a decade later. He worked some of the upper extensions of chords into his lines, a practice which was further developed by Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, which in turn was an influence on the development of 'modern jazz'. Tatum also pioneered the use of dissonance in jazz piano, as can be heard, for example, on his recording of "Aunt Hagar's Blues",[17] which uses extensive dissonance to achieve a bluesy effect. In addition to using major and minor seconds, dissonance was inherent in the complex chords that Tatum frequently used.
Tatum could also play the blues with authority,[18] but his repertoire was predominantly Broadway and popular standards, whose chord progressions and variety better suited his talents. His approach was prolix, pyrotechnic, dramatic and joyous. His protean style combined stride, jazz, swing, boogie-woogie and classical elements, while the musical ideas flowed in rapid-fire fashion. He was playful, spontaneous and often inserted quotes from other songs into his improvisations.[19] Tatum was not inclined toward understatement or expansive use of space. He seldom played in a simplified way, preferring interpretations that displayed his great technique and clever harmonizations.[20] A handful of critics have complained that Tatum played too many notes or was too ornamental[21] or was even 'unjazzlike'.
From the foundation of stride, Tatum made great leaps forward in technique and harmony and he honed a groundbreaking improvisational style that extended the limits of what was possible in jazz piano. His innovations were to greatly influence later jazz pianists, such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans and Chick Corea. One of Tatum's innovations was his extensive use of the pentatonic scale, which may have inspired later pianists to further mine its possibilities as a device for soloing. Herbie Hancock described Tatum's unique tone as "majestic" and devoted some time to unlocking this sound and to noting Tatum's harmonic arsenal.[22]
The sounds that Tatum produced with the piano were also distinctive. It was said that he could make a bad piano sound good. Generally playing at mezzoforte volume, he employed the entire keyboard from deep bass tones to sonorous mid-register chords to sparkling upper register runs. He used the sustain pedal sparingly so that each note was clearly articulated and chords were cleanly sounded. Tatum's harmonic invention produced tonal colors that identified his musical palette. He played with boundless energy and occasionally his speedy and precise delivery produced an almost mechanical effect not unlike the sound of a player piano.
Technique
Critic Gunther Schuller declared "On one point there is universal agreement: Tatum's awesome technique."[23] That technique was marked by a calm physical demeanor and efficiency. He did not indulge in theatrical physical or facial expression.[24] The effortless gliding of his hands over difficult passages puzzled most who witnessed the phenomenon. He especially mystified other pianists to whom Tatum appeared to be "playing the impossible."[25] Even when playing scintillating runs at high velocity, it appeared that his fingers hardly moved. Using self-taught fingering, including an array of two-fingered runs, he executed the pyrotechnics with meticulous accuracy and timing. His execution was all the more remarkable considering that he drank prodigious amounts of alcohol when performing,[26] yet his recordings are never sloppy. Tatum also displayed phenomenal independence of the hands and ambidexterity, which was particularly evident while improvising counterpoint. Ira Gitler declared that Tatum's "left hand was the equal of his right." [27] Around 1950 when Bud Powell was opening for Tatum at Birdland, Powell reportedly said to Tatum: "Man, I'm going to really show you about tempo and playing fast. Anytime you're ready." Tatum laughed and replied: "Look, you come in here tomorrow, and anything you do with your right hand, I'll do with my left." Powell never took up the challenge.[28]
Tatum played chords with a relatively flat-fingered technique compared to the curvature taught in classical training.[29] Jimmy Rowles said "Most of the stuff he played was clear over my head. There was too much going on — both hands were impossible to believe. You couldn't pick out what he was doing because his fingers were so smooth and soft, and the way he did it — it was like camouflage."[30] When his fastest tracks of "Tiger Rag" are slowed down, they still reveal a coherent, syncopated rhythm.
After Hours
After regular club dates, Tatum would decamp to after-hours clubs to hang out with other musicians who would play for each other. Biographer James Lester notes that Tatum enjoyed listening to other pianists and preferred to play last when several pianists played. He frequently played for hours on end into the dawn, to the detriment of his marriages.[26] Tatum was said to be more spontaneous and creative in those free-form nocturnal sessions than in his scheduled performances.[26] Evidence of this can be found in the recording entitled "20th Century Piano Genius" which consists of 40 tunes recorded at private parties at the home of Hollywood music director Ray Heindorf in 1950 and 1955. According to the review by Marc Greilsamer, "All of the trademark Tatum elements are here: the grand melodic flourishes, the harmonic magic tricks, the flirtations with various tempos and musical styles. But what also emerges is Tatum's effervescence, his joy, and his humor. He seems to celebrate and mock these timeless melodies all at once."[31]
Group Work
Tatum tended to work and to record unaccompanied, partly because relatively few musicians could keep pace with his lightning-fast tempos and advanced harmonic vocabulary. Other musicians expressed amazed bewilderment at performing with Tatum. Drummer Jo Jones, who recorded a 1956 trio session with Tatum and bassist Red Callendar is quoted as quipping, "I didn't even play on that session [...] all I did was listen. I mean, what could I add? [...] I felt like setting my damn drums on fire."[32] Buddy DeFranco said that playing with Tatum was "like chasing a train."[27] Tatum said of himself: "A band hampers me."[33]
Tatum did not readily adapt or defer to other musicians in ensemble settings. Early in his career he was required to restrain himself when he worked as accompanist for vocalist Adelaide Hall in 1932-33. Perhaps because Tatum believed there was a limited audience for solo piano, he formed a trio in 1943 with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart, whose perfect pitch enabled him to follow Tatum's excursions. He later recorded with other musicians, including a notable session with the 1944 Esquire Jazz All-Stars, which included Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and other jazz greats, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He also recorded memorable group sessions for Norman Granz in the early 1950s.
Repertoire
Tatum's repertoire consisted mainly of music from the Great American Songbook -- Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and other popular music of the 20's, 30's and 40's. He played his own arrangements of a few classical piano pieces as well, most famously Dvořák's Humoresque no. 7. Although Tatum was not a composer, his versions of popular numbers were so original as to border on composition.
Emulators
Mainstream jazz piano has gone in a different direction than that pioneered by Tatum. Nevertheless, transcriptions of Tatum are popular and are often practiced assiduously.[34] But perhaps because his playing was so difficult to copy, only a handful of musicians — such as Oscar Peterson, Johnny Costa, Johnny Guarnieri, Adam Makowicz, Luther G. Williams, Steven Mayer and Christopher Jordan — have attempted to seriously emulate or challenge Tatum. Although Bud Powell was of the bebop movement, his prolific and exciting style showed Tatum influence. Phineas Newborn's playing, such as his recording of "Willow Weep For Me", is closely modeled on Tatum.
Recordings
Tatum recorded commercially from 1932 until near his death. Although recording opportunities were somewhat intermittent for most of his career due to his solo style, he left copious recordings.[35] He recorded for Decca (1934–41), Capitol (1949, 1952) and for the labels associated with Norman Granz (1953–56). Tatum demonstrated remarkable memory when he recorded 68 solo tracks for Norman Granz in two days, all but three of the tracks in one take. He also recorded a series of group recordings for Granz with, among others, Ben Webster, Jo Jones, Buddy DeFranco, Benny Carter, Harry Sweets Edison , Roy Eldridge and Lionel Hampton.
Film
Although only a small amount of film showing Tatum playing exists today, several minutes of professionally-shot archival footage can be found in Martin Scorsese's documentary The Blues. Tatum appeared in the 1947 movie The Fabulous Dorseys, first playing a solo and then accompanying Dorsey's band in an impromptu song.
Tatum appeared on Steve Allen's Tonight Show in the early 1950s, and on other television shows from this era. Unfortunately, all of the kinescopes of the Allen shows, which were stored in a warehouse along with other now defunct shows, were thrown into a local rubbish dump to make room for new studios. However, the soundtracks were recorded off-air by Tatum enthusiasts at the time, and many are included in Storyville Records extensive series of rare Tatum recordings.
Tatum is portrayed briefly (by actor Johnny O'Neill) in Ray, a 2004 biopic about R&B artist Ray Charles. When Charles enters a nightclub he remarks "Are my ears deceiving me or is that Art Tatum?" O'Neill captures Tatum's cool and collected presence at the keyboard.
Death
Art Tatum died at Queen of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from the complications of uremia (as a result of kidney failure). He was originally interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, but was moved to the Great Mausoleum of Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery in 1991. He was survived by his wife, Geraldine Tatum.
Legacy and tributes
Tatum posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989.
Numerous stories exist about other musicians' respect for Tatum. Perhaps the most famous is the story about the time Tatum walked into a club where Fats Waller was playing, and Waller stepped away from the piano bench to make way for Tatum, announcing, "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."[36] Fats Waller's son confirmed the statement. [37]
Charlie Parker (who helped develop bebop) was highly influenced by Tatum. When newly arrived in New York, Parker briefly worked as a dishwasher in a Manhattan restaurant where Tatum was performing and often listened to the legendary pianist. Parker once said “I wish I could play like Tatum’s right hand!”[38]
When Oscar Peterson was still a young boy, his father played him a recording of Art Tatum performing "Tiger Rag". Once the young Peterson was finally persuaded that it was performed by a single person, Peterson was so intimidated that he did not touch the piano for weeks.[39] Interviewing Oscar Peterson in 1962, Les Tompkins asked "Is there one musician you regard as the greatest?" Peterson replied "I’m an Art Tatum–ite. If you speak of pianists, the most complete pianist that we have known and possibly will know, from what I’ve heard to date, is Art Tatum."[40] "Musically speaking, he was and is my musical God, and I feel honored to remain one of his humbly devoted disciples."[41]
"Here's something new .... " pianist Hank Jones remembers thinking when he first heard Art Tatum on radio in 1935, " .... they have devised this trick to make people believe that one man is playing the piano, when I know at least three people are playing."[42]
The jazz pianist and educator Kenny Barron commented that "I have every record [Tatum] ever made — and I try never to listen to them … If I did, I'd throw up my hands and give up!"[43] Jean Cocteau dubbed Tatum "a crazed Chopin." Count Basie called him the eighth wonder of the world. Dave Brubeck observed, "I don't think there's any more chance of another Tatum turning up than another Mozart."[44]
Dizzy Gillespie said "First you speak of Art Tatum, then take a long deep breath, and you speak of the other pianists."[45]
The elegant pianist Teddy Wilson observed, "Maybe this will explain Art Tatum. If you put a piano in a room, just a bare piano. Then you get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."[45]
Other luminaries of the day including Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Leopold Godowsky and George Gershwin marveled at Tatum's genius.[26]
Jazz critic Leonard Feather has called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."[45]
In 1993, an MIT student invented a term that is now in common usage in the field of computational musicology: The Tatum. It means "the smallest perceptual time unit in music."[46]
The Toledo Jazz Society presents an annual event dedicated to Tatum entitled the Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival.[47]
Zenph Studios, a software company focused on precisely understanding how musicians perform, recorded a new album of Tatum’s playing with Sony Masterworks in 2007. They created re-performances of Tatum’s first four commercial tracks, from March 21, 1933, and the nine tracks from the April 2, 1949 live concert at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium. Sony recorded these anew in the same venue, in front of a live audience. These 13 tracks are on the album, “Piano Starts Here: Live from The Shrine,” which was recorded in high-resolution surround-sound and in binaural, as well as regular stereo. The binaural recording, when heard in headphones, let you hear what Tatum may have heard as he played on stage, with the piano spatially in front (bass on the left, treble on the right) and the live audience clearly downstage on the righthand side.[48] Zenph’s re-performances have been performed live in numerous venues, including the Toronto Jazz Festival [49] and New York’s Apollo Theater. Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson requested a live presentation, which he heard in an emotional re-performance in his home in March 2007.
Tatum's work was used and referenced heavily in the WB TV series Everwood (2002-2006), with some actual sound recordings used and compositions being performed in concerts by Ephram Brown (portrayed by Gregory Smith) in select episodes. James Earl Jones' character Will Cleveland introduced these works to young Ephram, who was an aspiring pianist, in the second season episode "Three Miners From Everwood".
For his 2008 album “Act Your Age,” Gordon Goodwin wrote a new big band arrangement to accompany Zenph’s re-performance of “Yesterdays,” and the track was recognized with a Grammy Nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement.[50]
Friday, February 12, 2010
Jimmy Page - Guitar Player - Led Zepplin member
Jimmy Page is described by Allmusic as "unquestionably one of the all-time most influential, important, and versatile guitarists and songwriters in rock history".
Together with friends Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, he is one of 3 British born guitarists who have most influenced modern music in so many ways.
He first started playing the instrument at the age of thirteen years. He was largely self-taught. His early influences were guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played with Elvis Presley. His first guitar was a second hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso, which was later replaced by a Telecaster.[6][7]
Page's musical tastes included skiffle and acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin. "Basically, that was the start: a mixture between rock and blues." At the age of 13, Page appeared in a performance which aired on BBC TV in 1957. While still a student, Page would often jam on stage at The Marquee with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.
Page was the favoured session guitarist of producer Shel Talmy, and therefore he ended up doing session work on songs for The Who and The Kinks as a direct result of the Talmy connection.[12] Page's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By", The Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road", The Rolling Stones' "Heart of Stone" (released on Metamorphosis), Van Morrison & Them's "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes the Night", Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" and "My Baby Left Me", and Brenda Lee's "Is It True". Under the auspices of producer Talmy, Page contributed to The Kinks' 1964 debut album and he played six-string rhythm guitar on the sessions for The Who's first single "I Can't Explain
In 1965 Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe, Twice as Much and Eric Clapton. Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon. He also composed and recorded songs for the John Williams (not the classical guitarist) album The Maureeny Wishful Album with Big Jim Sullivan. Page worked as session musician on the Al Stewart album Love Chronicles in 1969, and played guitar on five tracks of Joe Cocker's debut album, With a Little Help from My Friends.
In late 1964, Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but he declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend. In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, and because he was still worried about his health under touring conditions, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck.
On 16 May 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded "Beck's Bolero" in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who's John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums. However, the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems prevented the project from getting off the ground. During this time, Moon suggested the name "Lead Zeppelin" for the first time, after Entwistle commented that the proceedings would take to the air like a lead balloon.
Within weeks, Page attended a Yardbirds concert at Oxford. After the show he went backstage where Paul Samwell-Smith announced that he was leaving the group.[6] Page offered to replace Samwell-Smith and this was accepted by the group. He initially played electric bass with the Yardbirds before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck.
While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Clapton never played in the original group at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.
On his decision to form Led Zeppelin, Page said: "Once the other Yardbirds decided not to continue, then I was going to continue. And shift the whole thing up a notch ... The whole thing was putting a group together and actually being able to play together. There were a lot of virtuoso musicians around at the time who didn't gel as a band. That was the key: to find a band that was going to fire on all cylinders."
To this end, Page recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and he was also contacted by John Paul Jones who asked to join. During the Scandinavian tour the new group appeared as "The New Yardbirds", but soon recalled the old joke by Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Page stuck with that name to use for his new band. Peter Grant changed it to "Led Zeppelin", to avoid a mispronunciation of "Leed Zeppelin."[17]
Page has explained that he had a very specific idea in mind as to what he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, from the very beginning:
"I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses -- a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music."
Led Zeppelin was successful beyond anyone's imagination - thanks in large part to Page's innovative guitar playing, Plant's plaintive singing, Bonham's steady beat and Jones backup bass. The music went beyond just the playing - it soared into something new based on entirely old genres, particularly the blues, rockabilly, jazz and world beat.
Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham at Page's home, The Old Mill House at Clewer in Berkshire. For some time Page refused to touch a guitar out of sadness for the loss of his friend Bonham, but he eventually made a return to the stage at a Jeff Beck show in March 1981. Also in 1981 Page joined with Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White to form a supergroup called XYZ (for ex-Yes-Zeppelin). He became involved with various other friends and acquaintances in the following years, but really performed only sporadically.
Page continues to be involved in various projects. His days of influence are in the past, but he remains a force. His talent shines through, despite any foibles related to the usual drugs, irreverence and other negatives that seem to be the purview of Rock and Roll musicians (and others).
Listen, learn and enjoy.
Born
James Patrick Page on Jan 9, 1944 in Heston, Middlesex, England
Years Active
1910
Genre
Styles
* Pop/Rock
* Rock & Roll
* Blues
* Hard Rock
* British Invasion
* British Blues
* Album Rock
* Regional Blues
Together with friends Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, he is one of 3 British born guitarists who have most influenced modern music in so many ways.
He first started playing the instrument at the age of thirteen years. He was largely self-taught. His early influences were guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played with Elvis Presley. His first guitar was a second hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso, which was later replaced by a Telecaster.[6][7]
Page's musical tastes included skiffle and acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin. "Basically, that was the start: a mixture between rock and blues." At the age of 13, Page appeared in a performance which aired on BBC TV in 1957. While still a student, Page would often jam on stage at The Marquee with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.
Page was the favoured session guitarist of producer Shel Talmy, and therefore he ended up doing session work on songs for The Who and The Kinks as a direct result of the Talmy connection.[12] Page's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By", The Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road", The Rolling Stones' "Heart of Stone" (released on Metamorphosis), Van Morrison & Them's "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes the Night", Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" and "My Baby Left Me", and Brenda Lee's "Is It True". Under the auspices of producer Talmy, Page contributed to The Kinks' 1964 debut album and he played six-string rhythm guitar on the sessions for The Who's first single "I Can't Explain
In 1965 Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe, Twice as Much and Eric Clapton. Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon. He also composed and recorded songs for the John Williams (not the classical guitarist) album The Maureeny Wishful Album with Big Jim Sullivan. Page worked as session musician on the Al Stewart album Love Chronicles in 1969, and played guitar on five tracks of Joe Cocker's debut album, With a Little Help from My Friends.
In late 1964, Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but he declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend. In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, and because he was still worried about his health under touring conditions, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck.
On 16 May 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded "Beck's Bolero" in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who's John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums. However, the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems prevented the project from getting off the ground. During this time, Moon suggested the name "Lead Zeppelin" for the first time, after Entwistle commented that the proceedings would take to the air like a lead balloon.
Within weeks, Page attended a Yardbirds concert at Oxford. After the show he went backstage where Paul Samwell-Smith announced that he was leaving the group.[6] Page offered to replace Samwell-Smith and this was accepted by the group. He initially played electric bass with the Yardbirds before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck.
While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Clapton never played in the original group at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.
On his decision to form Led Zeppelin, Page said: "Once the other Yardbirds decided not to continue, then I was going to continue. And shift the whole thing up a notch ... The whole thing was putting a group together and actually being able to play together. There were a lot of virtuoso musicians around at the time who didn't gel as a band. That was the key: to find a band that was going to fire on all cylinders."
To this end, Page recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and he was also contacted by John Paul Jones who asked to join. During the Scandinavian tour the new group appeared as "The New Yardbirds", but soon recalled the old joke by Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Page stuck with that name to use for his new band. Peter Grant changed it to "Led Zeppelin", to avoid a mispronunciation of "Leed Zeppelin."[17]
Page has explained that he had a very specific idea in mind as to what he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, from the very beginning:
"I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses -- a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music."
Led Zeppelin was successful beyond anyone's imagination - thanks in large part to Page's innovative guitar playing, Plant's plaintive singing, Bonham's steady beat and Jones backup bass. The music went beyond just the playing - it soared into something new based on entirely old genres, particularly the blues, rockabilly, jazz and world beat.
Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham at Page's home, The Old Mill House at Clewer in Berkshire. For some time Page refused to touch a guitar out of sadness for the loss of his friend Bonham, but he eventually made a return to the stage at a Jeff Beck show in March 1981. Also in 1981 Page joined with Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White to form a supergroup called XYZ (for ex-Yes-Zeppelin). He became involved with various other friends and acquaintances in the following years, but really performed only sporadically.
Page continues to be involved in various projects. His days of influence are in the past, but he remains a force. His talent shines through, despite any foibles related to the usual drugs, irreverence and other negatives that seem to be the purview of Rock and Roll musicians (and others).
Listen, learn and enjoy.
Born
James Patrick Page on Jan 9, 1944 in Heston, Middlesex, England
Years Active
1910
Genre
Styles
* Pop/Rock
* Rock & Roll
* Blues
* Hard Rock
* British Invasion
* British Blues
* Album Rock
* Regional Blues
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Django Reinhardt - One of the alltime great guitar players
He was an amazing guitar player. Before Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnston and a host of others became known as innovators on the guitar, Django was known throughout Europe. He played in all styles - in fact, he invented the styles. There are hundreds of recordings available and I defy anyone to say just what genre he was residing in... ok, it was kind of jazz, lots of improv... but, there is blues, there is gypsy (he was Roma), there is classical, there is just so much... and his virtuosity. Plus, he was missing the use of several of his fingers ...!
He played and recorded a lot with another unbelievable great, Stephane Grappelli, violinist - who stands tall in his own right.
Listen and enjoy.
Here is some background from Winamp.com:
Django Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe. A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn’t the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim. Yet Reinhardt came up with a unique way of propelling the humble acoustic guitar into the front line of a jazz combo in the days before amplification became widespread. He would spin joyous, arcing, marvelously inflected solos above the thrumming base of two rhythm guitars and a bass, with Stephane Grappelli’s elegantly gliding violin serving as the perfect foil. His harmonic concepts were startling for their time -- making a direct impression upon Charlie Christian and Les Paul, among others -- and he was an energizing rhythm guitarist behind Grappelli, pushing their groups into a higher gear.
Not only did Reinhardt put his stamp upon jazz, his string band music also had an impact upon the parallel development of Western swing, which eventually fed into the wellspring of what is now called country music. Although he could not read music, with Grappelli and on his own, Reinhardt composed several winsome, highly original tunes like "Daphne," "Nuages" and "Manoir de Mes Reves," as well as mad swingers like "Minor Swing" and the ode to his record abel of the ’30s, "Stomping at Decca." As the late Ralph Gleason said about Django’s recordings, "They were European and they were French and they were still jazz."
A violinist first and a guitarist later, Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt grew up in a gypsy camp near Paris where he absorbed the gypsy strain into his music. A disastrous caravan fire in 1928 badly burned his left hand, depriving him of the use of the fourth and fifth fingers, but the resourceful Reinhardt figured out a novel fingering system to get around the problem that probably accounts for some of the originality of his style.
According to one story, during his recovery period, Reinhardt was introduced to American jazz when he found a 78 RPM disc of Louis Armstrong’s "Dallas Blues" at an Orleans flea market. He then resumed his career playing in Parisian cafes until one day in 1934 when Hot Club chief Pierre Nourry proposed the idea of an all-string band to Reinhardt and Grappelli. Thus was born the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which quickly became an international draw thanks to a long, splendid series of Ultraphone, Decca and HMV recordings.
In 1946, Reinhardt took up the electric guitar and toured America as a soloist with the Duke Ellington band. Starting in Jan. 1946, Reinhardt and Grappelli held several sporadic reunions where the bop influences are more subtly integrated into the old, still-fizzing swing format. In the 1950s, Reinhardt became more reclusive, remaining in Europe, playing and recording now and then until his death from a stroke in 1953.
His Hot Club recordings from the `30s are his most irresistible legacy; their spirit and sound can be felt in current groups like Holland’s Rosenberg Trio. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
YouTube Blue Drag - Django Reinhardt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ahaXnO_tE
He played and recorded a lot with another unbelievable great, Stephane Grappelli, violinist - who stands tall in his own right.
Listen and enjoy.
Here is some background from Winamp.com:
Django Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe. A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn’t the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim. Yet Reinhardt came up with a unique way of propelling the humble acoustic guitar into the front line of a jazz combo in the days before amplification became widespread. He would spin joyous, arcing, marvelously inflected solos above the thrumming base of two rhythm guitars and a bass, with Stephane Grappelli’s elegantly gliding violin serving as the perfect foil. His harmonic concepts were startling for their time -- making a direct impression upon Charlie Christian and Les Paul, among others -- and he was an energizing rhythm guitarist behind Grappelli, pushing their groups into a higher gear.
Not only did Reinhardt put his stamp upon jazz, his string band music also had an impact upon the parallel development of Western swing, which eventually fed into the wellspring of what is now called country music. Although he could not read music, with Grappelli and on his own, Reinhardt composed several winsome, highly original tunes like "Daphne," "Nuages" and "Manoir de Mes Reves," as well as mad swingers like "Minor Swing" and the ode to his record abel of the ’30s, "Stomping at Decca." As the late Ralph Gleason said about Django’s recordings, "They were European and they were French and they were still jazz."
A violinist first and a guitarist later, Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt grew up in a gypsy camp near Paris where he absorbed the gypsy strain into his music. A disastrous caravan fire in 1928 badly burned his left hand, depriving him of the use of the fourth and fifth fingers, but the resourceful Reinhardt figured out a novel fingering system to get around the problem that probably accounts for some of the originality of his style.
According to one story, during his recovery period, Reinhardt was introduced to American jazz when he found a 78 RPM disc of Louis Armstrong’s "Dallas Blues" at an Orleans flea market. He then resumed his career playing in Parisian cafes until one day in 1934 when Hot Club chief Pierre Nourry proposed the idea of an all-string band to Reinhardt and Grappelli. Thus was born the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which quickly became an international draw thanks to a long, splendid series of Ultraphone, Decca and HMV recordings.
In 1946, Reinhardt took up the electric guitar and toured America as a soloist with the Duke Ellington band. Starting in Jan. 1946, Reinhardt and Grappelli held several sporadic reunions where the bop influences are more subtly integrated into the old, still-fizzing swing format. In the 1950s, Reinhardt became more reclusive, remaining in Europe, playing and recording now and then until his death from a stroke in 1953.
His Hot Club recordings from the `30s are his most irresistible legacy; their spirit and sound can be felt in current groups like Holland’s Rosenberg Trio. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
YouTube Blue Drag - Django Reinhardt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ahaXnO_tE
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Art Tatum - The Greatest Piano Player
Art Tatum, played the piano like no one before and no one since.
To hear him is to wonder: How does he do that? Luckily, there are many recordings that have been left behind.
He played tunes from popular songs, Broadway shows, whatever and then turned them into his own particular forms of virtuosity. And he knew how to swing. Whether he played solo or with supporting players.
Dizzy Gillespie, the great jazz trumpet player said "First you speak of Art Tatum, then take a long deep breath, and you speak of the other pianists."[45]
The elegant pianist Teddy Wilson observed, "Maybe this will explain Art Tatum. If you put a piano in a room, just a bare piano. Then you get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."[45]
Here is a short synopsis:
Arthur "Art" Tatum Jr. (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. He was nearly blind.
Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.[1] Critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries ... Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists."[2]
There is a lot to discover. Here is more from Answers.com:
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(born Oct. 13, 1909, Toledo, Ohio, U.S. — died Nov. 5, 1956, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. jazz pianist. Tatum was blind from birth. Influenced by Fats Waller and Earl Hines, his playing represents a synthesis of stride and swing piano traditions. He developed an unprecedented technical and harmonic control on the instrument and was capable of astonishing speed and intricate elaborations of melody. By 1937 he was recognized as the outstanding pianist in jazz. He formed a trio with guitar and bass in 1943 but frequently made solo performances that showcased his unique mastery.
*
*
American jazz pianist. He played in nightclubs and on radio before going to New York in 1932 and made many recordings. He worked with bands and his own trio but usually appeared as a soloist in clubs. His technical abilities, lightness of touch and control of the instrument's range were unprecedented; he had an unerring sense of rhythm and swing, a seemingly unlimited capacity to expand and enrich a melody and a profound grasp of substitute harmonies.
Career
Won amateur contest which led to appearance on WSPD radio, 1927; worked clubs and speakeasies in Toldeo and Cleveland; moved to New York City in 1932 as accompanist for singer Adelaide Hall; Onyx Club, soloist, 1933; recorded for Brunswick label, 1933-34; performed in Cleveland, 1935; appeared on the "Fleischman Hour" radio program, 1935; performed at Three Dueces in Chicago and formed a small band at the club, 1936; played Los Angeles clubs and Hollywood parties, 1936-37; performed and recorded in Los Angeles and New York City; toured England and recorded for Decca, 1938; played Los Angeles and New York, 1939-40; hit record, "Wee Wee Baby Blues," 1941; formed trio, 1943-45; concert stage debut, 1945; continued to play concert dates until mid-1950s; recorded for Verve records 1953-56.
Life's Work
Idolized by jazz instrumentalists and lauded by musicians such as Vladimir Horowitz and composer George Gerschwin, jazz pianist Art Tatum possessed a name synonymous with genius. Like trumpeter Louis Armstrong, Tatum had an impact on the entire strata of jazz instrumentation. As A.B. Spellman observed in the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Tatum was "blessed with fingers that moved almost as fast as his endless stream of ideas." Tatum's repertoire consisted primarily of a few original compositions, popular songs, jazz standards, and concert music pieces by such composers as Antonin Dvorak and Jules Massenet. Despite gaining popularity with a trio during the 1940s, Tatum's numerous solo performances still awe listeners and represent some of the finest music of the twentieth century America.
Arthur Tatum Jr. was born partially blind on October 13, 1909, in Toledo, Ohio. Tatum's father, Art Sr., a mechanic, and his mother, Mildred Hoskins, were members of the Grace Presbyterian Church. Art Sr. played the guitar and Mildred played the piano. Family members later recalled three year old Tatum playing melodies on piano. Tatum studied violin and later, around age 13, took up the piano. He learned to read Braille at Toledo's Jefferson School. In 1924, 15-year-old Tatum attended The School For the Blind in Columbus. As Tatum's biographer, James Lester, asserted in Too Marvelous For Words, "Clearly, the Tatum's wanted to do everything they could for their son, and the move to Columbus was made easier by the fact that a cousin was there who would keep tabs on him." In 1925 Tatum enrolled at the Toledo School (Conservatory) of Music where he studied with a classically trained African American instructor, Overton G. Rainey. At home he listened to a wide range of music including jazz piano rolls and recordings of concert pianists.
With end of his formal education in 1927, 16-year-old Tatum embarked on a professional music career in the jazz idiom which offered creative and lucrative opportunities. As Lester wrote, "Within jazz [Tatum] could improvise a career, make a career out of improvising, invent a path for himself, take advantage of fast-changing musical developments, and even influence the course of those developments." He first played in local dance bands, and around 1927 won a local amateur contest which led to his regular appearance on Toledo radio station WSPD. The broadcast was eventually picked up nationally on NBC Blue Network. Tatum's weekday fifteen minute show sometimes featured his playing duets with another young pianist, Teddy Wilson. In the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Wilson recounted that Tatum already employed, "flatted fifths and all the added tones, and improvising these wonderful progressions in the middle of a tune....No other pianist had, even remotely, that conception of playing."
Tatum's employment in Toledo speakeasies and premiere nightclubs allowed him to work out the music he had formally learned by instruction and by listening to records and radio. Even as a teenager Tatum astounded fellow musicians. Noting Tatum's impact on musicians, Benny Green stressed in The Reluctant Art, "Tatum shattered everyone; Tatum caused all other musicians to lose confidence; Tatum terrified those who thought they knew how far jazz could be taken." In 1929, the "father of the tenor saxophone" Coleman Hawkins, then a member of Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, heard Tatum at a small Toledo club and immediately incorporated the pianist's harmonic ideas into his playing. Around this time, Duke Ellington encountered Tatum in Cleveland and encouraged him to move to New York City.
Relocated To New York City
Tatum went to New York City in 1932 as the accompanist for singer Adelaide Hall. He recorded four sides with Hall and toured with her, until landing jobs as a solo pianist in New York City. "His first visit to New York," recounted Duke Ellington in his memoir, Music is My Mistress, "stirred up quite a storm. In a matter of hours, it got to all piano players--and musicians who played other instruments, too--that a real Bad Cat had arrived...." Not long after his arrival, Tatum agreed to meet Harlem's three leading pianists--James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Fats Waller--at Morgan's, a Harlem bar with a suitable piano. Pitted in a piano battle against these musical giants, Tatum, overwhelmed his challengers. Looking back on that evening Waller confessed, as quoted in Fats Waller, "That Tatum, he was just too good....He had too much technique. When that man turns on the powerhouse don't know one play him down. He sounds like a brass band." Tatum had bested his rivals and thus established himself as one of the greatest pianists on the New York City jazz scene.
In 1933 Tatum played the Onyx Club on 52nd Street. In March of that same year, he recorded his first official solo session, which included "Tiger Rag," "Tea For Two," "St. Louis Blues," and Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady." In assessing these first sides recorded for the Brunswick label, Leonard Feather, in the liner notes to Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here, observed "The characteristics that were to remain Tatum's trademarks until the day he died were already evident: the incessantly creative left hand, now striding, now playing four different chords to the bar; the use of substitute chords and unprecedented harmonic subtlety; the sixteenth note runs at tempos that gave most pianists trouble maintaining an even flow of eighth notes."
In August and September of 1934 Tatum returned to the studio, and in the following year, without steady work in New York City, he performed in Cleveland. In 1935 he performed on the "Fleischman Hour" radio program hosted by Rudy Valee. He also played the Three Dueces in Chicago, and eventually formed a quartet at the club. After the end of his stint at the Three Deuces in 1936, Tatum traveled to Los Angeles, where his reputation had already been established. He played Hollywood parties and venues like the Tracadero, Paramount, and the Club Alabam on Central Avenue in the heart of Los Angeles's black entertainment scene. After several months in Los Angeles Tatum returned to New York City in 1936, and then, during the following year, returned to the west coast and recorded with a group, Art Tatum and His Swingsters. In 1937 he also recorded for the Brunswick label in New York City, producing the numbers "Stormy Weather," "The Sheik of Araby," "Chlo-e," and "Gone With the Wind."
Traveled Overseas
In 1938 Tatum left for England on the Queen Mary, and played a three month engagement in various English clubs and appeared on the BBC. As Lester explained in Too Marvelous For Words, "Art's appearances in England were not concerts," but the quiet attentiveness of the audiences "made them something closer to concerts than anything Tatum had experienced at home." By 1938 Tatum's music began to be transcribed and notated in publications, and his bookings resulted in residencies at various clubs. His recordings for Decca included Jules Massenet's "Elegie" (1938) and eighteen numbers in 1939, including "Get Happy" and Atonin Dvorak's "Humoresque." His 1940 output for Decca included a more popular version of "Humoresque," "Cocktails For Two," and "Begin the Beguine."
Between 1939 and 1940 Tatum worked in New York City and made frequent trips to Los Angeles where he made seventeen sides for Decca. A recently issued live recording, Art Tatum, California Melodies, captures the pianist in a series of Los Angeles (KHJ) broadcasts that aired from April to July of 1940. Tatum's recordings from this weekly program "is perhaps the most valuable and historically important addition to [Tatum's] recorded legacy," noted Stephen C. LaVere in the liner notes to California Melodies.
Art Tatum Trio
During January of 1941 Tatum recorded a Decca session under the title Art Tatum and His Band, a small pickup group including blues vocalist Joe Turner. The session produced four numbers including the big-selling number, "Wee Wee Baby Blues." The success of "Wee Wee Baby Blues" prompted another recording session with Turner, and in June of 1941, four sides were cut, including "Corrine Corina." His next commercial recordings did not emerge until 1943, when he won Esquire's first jazz popularity poll. Without steady bookings as a solo artist, Tatum looked to other opportunities to support himself; in 1943 he formed a trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Leroy "Slam" Stewart. The trio, observed Lyons in The Great Jazz Pianists, "was celebrated for the inventive communication among the players as well as for Tatum's blistering speed, as they achieved a unity of sound that was rare at any tempo." Tatum's 1944 recordings were entirely made up of his trio work. During 1945 he appeared on the radio, attended only two studio sessions, and finally decided to quit working in a trio format.
At end of the Second World War in 1945, observed Lester in Too Marvelous For Words, Tatum's "standing and reputation were established beyond challenge, but his popularity," primarily due to the emergence of bebop, "faded seriously in the remainder of the 1940s." Tatum's music did not follow this modernist jazz trend, but it did have profound influence on its leading musicians, like Charlie Parker who, for one year, washed dishes in a Harlem restaurant just to listen to Tatum's playing in the front room, and bebop piano genius Bud Powell idolized the keyboard master from Toledo.
In the spring of 1949 Tatum performed at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. That same year, Tatum signed with Capitol Records and recorded several critically acclaimed numbers. He made his concert stage debut in 1945, and subsequently played a circuit of university and community halls across the country, while continuing to play club and concert dates into the mid 1950s, including San Francisco's Black Hawk Club in 1955, and the Hollywood Bowl in August 1956.
Recorded For The Verve Label
In 1953 Tatum signed with Norman Granz's Clef/Verve label, for which he recorded over 120 piano solos. Discussing Tatum's recorded repertoire that included many of the same selections, Lyons, noted that, even during the 1950s, he "rarely repeated himself in his treatment of material. His harmonic variations were startling, especially when he soloed. Where another pianist might go directly from one chord to the next, Tatum's left hand would walk crablike through a cycle of four to six new chords between the original two. Meanwhile, his right hand would spin out a web of interconnecting lines of thirty-second notes."
Apart from his solo recordings the Verve label recorded Tatum in several small group settings with jazzmen such as Benny Carter, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. His session with Webster, recorded in September of 1956, is considered by most critics as the finest of these small group recordings. In his review of The Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet for Jazz Review, critic Dick Katz, stated, as reprinted in the book Jazz Panorama, how "Tatum's and Webster's respective conceptions complement each other beautifully....Art Tatum and Ben Webster represent to me a kind of romanticism in jazz which has now itself become classic. Theirs is a an artistry rarely matched in any era of jazz."
But this session would be Tatum's last. For years Tatum, a heavy beer drinker, had, later in his life, suffered from diabetes. By the mid 1950s he fell ill with uremia. He died in Queens Hospital in Los Angeles, on November 5, 1956. In tribute to the keyboard master, Leonard Feather wrote, in the liner notes to Art Tatum the Piano Starts Here, "How many frustrations Tatum had to suffer during his forty six years, none of us can ever quite know. He was black in a society that awarded honors to white musicians with a tenth of his talent." But Tatum's legacy is one of a committed brilliant musician. Not long after Tatum's death, Benny Green, wrote in his collected work of essays, The Reluctant Art, that "Tatum has been the only jazz musician to date who has made an attempt to conceive a style based upon all styles, to master the mannerisms of all schools and then synthesize those into something personal." In the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Spellman also emphasized that "Tatum conceived a style based on all styles...No one more than Tatum summarized the art of his generation, and no one more than he pointed the way to the generation of pianists who followed him."
Awards
Esquire jazz popularity poll 1943; Esquire gold medal, 1945, silver medal, 1947.
Works
Selected Discography
* Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Time-Life, 1982.
* Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here, Columbia, 1995.
* The Complete Brunswick....1931-1941 (box set), Affinity.
* Art Tatum, Classic Early Sides (1934-1937), Decca, 1991.
* Art Tatum Solos (1940), Decca, 1990.
* Art Tatum, California Melodies, (rec 1940) Memphis Archives, 1994.
* Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Vol. I - Vol. 8, Pablo.
* The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces, (box set) Pablo.
* Art Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. I - Vol. 8, Pablo.
* Art Tatum Twentieth Century Genius, Verve, 1996.
* God is in the House, High Note, 1998.
* Art Tatum Selected by Hank Jones, Verve, 1999.
* Art Tatum's Finest Hour, Verve, 2000.
Further Reading
Books
* Ellington, Edward Kennedy, Music is My Mistress, Da Capo, 1973.
* Green, Benny, The Reluctant Art: Five Studies in the Growth of Jazz, Da Capo, 1992.
* Jazz Panorama: From The Pages of The Jazz Review, Collier Books, 1964.
* Lester, James, Too Marvelous For Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum, Oxford University Press, 1994.
* Lyons, Len, The Great Jazz Pianists, Da Capo, 1983.
* Waller, Maurice, with Anthony Calabrese Fats Waller.
Other
* Additional information for this profile was obtained from the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Time-Life Records, 1982; Art Tatum, California Melodies, Memphis Archives, 1994; and Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here, Columbia, 1995; and from the films The Famous Dorsey's, 1947; and Jazz, (episode four: "A True Welcome"), 2000.
— John Cohassey
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Worked With:
Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Red Callender, Oscar Pettiford, Coleman Hawkins, Edmond Hall, Norman Granz, Al Casey, Big Sid Catlett, Barney Bigard
Formal Connection With:
Tiny Grimes, Slam Stewart
*
Art Tatum was among the most extraordinary of all jazz musicians, a pianist with wondrous technique who could not only play ridiculously rapid lines with both hands (his 1933 solo version of "Tiger Rag" sounds as if there were three pianists jamming together) but was harmonically 30 years ahead of his time; all pianists have to deal to a certain extent with Tatum's innovations in order to be taken seriously. Able to play stride, swing, and boogie-woogie with speed and complexity that could only previously be imagined, Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries.
To hear him is to wonder: How does he do that? Luckily, there are many recordings that have been left behind.
He played tunes from popular songs, Broadway shows, whatever and then turned them into his own particular forms of virtuosity. And he knew how to swing. Whether he played solo or with supporting players.
Dizzy Gillespie, the great jazz trumpet player said "First you speak of Art Tatum, then take a long deep breath, and you speak of the other pianists."[45]
The elegant pianist Teddy Wilson observed, "Maybe this will explain Art Tatum. If you put a piano in a room, just a bare piano. Then you get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."[45]
Here is a short synopsis:
Arthur "Art" Tatum Jr. (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. He was nearly blind.
Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.[1] Critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries ... Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists."[2]
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(born Oct. 13, 1909, Toledo, Ohio, U.S. — died Nov. 5, 1956, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. jazz pianist. Tatum was blind from birth. Influenced by Fats Waller and Earl Hines, his playing represents a synthesis of stride and swing piano traditions. He developed an unprecedented technical and harmonic control on the instrument and was capable of astonishing speed and intricate elaborations of melody. By 1937 he was recognized as the outstanding pianist in jazz. He formed a trio with guitar and bass in 1943 but frequently made solo performances that showcased his unique mastery.
*
*
American jazz pianist. He played in nightclubs and on radio before going to New York in 1932 and made many recordings. He worked with bands and his own trio but usually appeared as a soloist in clubs. His technical abilities, lightness of touch and control of the instrument's range were unprecedented; he had an unerring sense of rhythm and swing, a seemingly unlimited capacity to expand and enrich a melody and a profound grasp of substitute harmonies.
Career
Won amateur contest which led to appearance on WSPD radio, 1927; worked clubs and speakeasies in Toldeo and Cleveland; moved to New York City in 1932 as accompanist for singer Adelaide Hall; Onyx Club, soloist, 1933; recorded for Brunswick label, 1933-34; performed in Cleveland, 1935; appeared on the "Fleischman Hour" radio program, 1935; performed at Three Dueces in Chicago and formed a small band at the club, 1936; played Los Angeles clubs and Hollywood parties, 1936-37; performed and recorded in Los Angeles and New York City; toured England and recorded for Decca, 1938; played Los Angeles and New York, 1939-40; hit record, "Wee Wee Baby Blues," 1941; formed trio, 1943-45; concert stage debut, 1945; continued to play concert dates until mid-1950s; recorded for Verve records 1953-56.
Life's Work
Idolized by jazz instrumentalists and lauded by musicians such as Vladimir Horowitz and composer George Gerschwin, jazz pianist Art Tatum possessed a name synonymous with genius. Like trumpeter Louis Armstrong, Tatum had an impact on the entire strata of jazz instrumentation. As A.B. Spellman observed in the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Tatum was "blessed with fingers that moved almost as fast as his endless stream of ideas." Tatum's repertoire consisted primarily of a few original compositions, popular songs, jazz standards, and concert music pieces by such composers as Antonin Dvorak and Jules Massenet. Despite gaining popularity with a trio during the 1940s, Tatum's numerous solo performances still awe listeners and represent some of the finest music of the twentieth century America.
Arthur Tatum Jr. was born partially blind on October 13, 1909, in Toledo, Ohio. Tatum's father, Art Sr., a mechanic, and his mother, Mildred Hoskins, were members of the Grace Presbyterian Church. Art Sr. played the guitar and Mildred played the piano. Family members later recalled three year old Tatum playing melodies on piano. Tatum studied violin and later, around age 13, took up the piano. He learned to read Braille at Toledo's Jefferson School. In 1924, 15-year-old Tatum attended The School For the Blind in Columbus. As Tatum's biographer, James Lester, asserted in Too Marvelous For Words, "Clearly, the Tatum's wanted to do everything they could for their son, and the move to Columbus was made easier by the fact that a cousin was there who would keep tabs on him." In 1925 Tatum enrolled at the Toledo School (Conservatory) of Music where he studied with a classically trained African American instructor, Overton G. Rainey. At home he listened to a wide range of music including jazz piano rolls and recordings of concert pianists.
With end of his formal education in 1927, 16-year-old Tatum embarked on a professional music career in the jazz idiom which offered creative and lucrative opportunities. As Lester wrote, "Within jazz [Tatum] could improvise a career, make a career out of improvising, invent a path for himself, take advantage of fast-changing musical developments, and even influence the course of those developments." He first played in local dance bands, and around 1927 won a local amateur contest which led to his regular appearance on Toledo radio station WSPD. The broadcast was eventually picked up nationally on NBC Blue Network. Tatum's weekday fifteen minute show sometimes featured his playing duets with another young pianist, Teddy Wilson. In the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Wilson recounted that Tatum already employed, "flatted fifths and all the added tones, and improvising these wonderful progressions in the middle of a tune....No other pianist had, even remotely, that conception of playing."
Tatum's employment in Toledo speakeasies and premiere nightclubs allowed him to work out the music he had formally learned by instruction and by listening to records and radio. Even as a teenager Tatum astounded fellow musicians. Noting Tatum's impact on musicians, Benny Green stressed in The Reluctant Art, "Tatum shattered everyone; Tatum caused all other musicians to lose confidence; Tatum terrified those who thought they knew how far jazz could be taken." In 1929, the "father of the tenor saxophone" Coleman Hawkins, then a member of Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, heard Tatum at a small Toledo club and immediately incorporated the pianist's harmonic ideas into his playing. Around this time, Duke Ellington encountered Tatum in Cleveland and encouraged him to move to New York City.
Relocated To New York City
Tatum went to New York City in 1932 as the accompanist for singer Adelaide Hall. He recorded four sides with Hall and toured with her, until landing jobs as a solo pianist in New York City. "His first visit to New York," recounted Duke Ellington in his memoir, Music is My Mistress, "stirred up quite a storm. In a matter of hours, it got to all piano players--and musicians who played other instruments, too--that a real Bad Cat had arrived...." Not long after his arrival, Tatum agreed to meet Harlem's three leading pianists--James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Fats Waller--at Morgan's, a Harlem bar with a suitable piano. Pitted in a piano battle against these musical giants, Tatum, overwhelmed his challengers. Looking back on that evening Waller confessed, as quoted in Fats Waller, "That Tatum, he was just too good....He had too much technique. When that man turns on the powerhouse don't know one play him down. He sounds like a brass band." Tatum had bested his rivals and thus established himself as one of the greatest pianists on the New York City jazz scene.
In 1933 Tatum played the Onyx Club on 52nd Street. In March of that same year, he recorded his first official solo session, which included "Tiger Rag," "Tea For Two," "St. Louis Blues," and Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady." In assessing these first sides recorded for the Brunswick label, Leonard Feather, in the liner notes to Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here, observed "The characteristics that were to remain Tatum's trademarks until the day he died were already evident: the incessantly creative left hand, now striding, now playing four different chords to the bar; the use of substitute chords and unprecedented harmonic subtlety; the sixteenth note runs at tempos that gave most pianists trouble maintaining an even flow of eighth notes."
In August and September of 1934 Tatum returned to the studio, and in the following year, without steady work in New York City, he performed in Cleveland. In 1935 he performed on the "Fleischman Hour" radio program hosted by Rudy Valee. He also played the Three Dueces in Chicago, and eventually formed a quartet at the club. After the end of his stint at the Three Deuces in 1936, Tatum traveled to Los Angeles, where his reputation had already been established. He played Hollywood parties and venues like the Tracadero, Paramount, and the Club Alabam on Central Avenue in the heart of Los Angeles's black entertainment scene. After several months in Los Angeles Tatum returned to New York City in 1936, and then, during the following year, returned to the west coast and recorded with a group, Art Tatum and His Swingsters. In 1937 he also recorded for the Brunswick label in New York City, producing the numbers "Stormy Weather," "The Sheik of Araby," "Chlo-e," and "Gone With the Wind."
Traveled Overseas
In 1938 Tatum left for England on the Queen Mary, and played a three month engagement in various English clubs and appeared on the BBC. As Lester explained in Too Marvelous For Words, "Art's appearances in England were not concerts," but the quiet attentiveness of the audiences "made them something closer to concerts than anything Tatum had experienced at home." By 1938 Tatum's music began to be transcribed and notated in publications, and his bookings resulted in residencies at various clubs. His recordings for Decca included Jules Massenet's "Elegie" (1938) and eighteen numbers in 1939, including "Get Happy" and Atonin Dvorak's "Humoresque." His 1940 output for Decca included a more popular version of "Humoresque," "Cocktails For Two," and "Begin the Beguine."
Between 1939 and 1940 Tatum worked in New York City and made frequent trips to Los Angeles where he made seventeen sides for Decca. A recently issued live recording, Art Tatum, California Melodies, captures the pianist in a series of Los Angeles (KHJ) broadcasts that aired from April to July of 1940. Tatum's recordings from this weekly program "is perhaps the most valuable and historically important addition to [Tatum's] recorded legacy," noted Stephen C. LaVere in the liner notes to California Melodies.
Art Tatum Trio
During January of 1941 Tatum recorded a Decca session under the title Art Tatum and His Band, a small pickup group including blues vocalist Joe Turner. The session produced four numbers including the big-selling number, "Wee Wee Baby Blues." The success of "Wee Wee Baby Blues" prompted another recording session with Turner, and in June of 1941, four sides were cut, including "Corrine Corina." His next commercial recordings did not emerge until 1943, when he won Esquire's first jazz popularity poll. Without steady bookings as a solo artist, Tatum looked to other opportunities to support himself; in 1943 he formed a trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Leroy "Slam" Stewart. The trio, observed Lyons in The Great Jazz Pianists, "was celebrated for the inventive communication among the players as well as for Tatum's blistering speed, as they achieved a unity of sound that was rare at any tempo." Tatum's 1944 recordings were entirely made up of his trio work. During 1945 he appeared on the radio, attended only two studio sessions, and finally decided to quit working in a trio format.
At end of the Second World War in 1945, observed Lester in Too Marvelous For Words, Tatum's "standing and reputation were established beyond challenge, but his popularity," primarily due to the emergence of bebop, "faded seriously in the remainder of the 1940s." Tatum's music did not follow this modernist jazz trend, but it did have profound influence on its leading musicians, like Charlie Parker who, for one year, washed dishes in a Harlem restaurant just to listen to Tatum's playing in the front room, and bebop piano genius Bud Powell idolized the keyboard master from Toledo.
In the spring of 1949 Tatum performed at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. That same year, Tatum signed with Capitol Records and recorded several critically acclaimed numbers. He made his concert stage debut in 1945, and subsequently played a circuit of university and community halls across the country, while continuing to play club and concert dates into the mid 1950s, including San Francisco's Black Hawk Club in 1955, and the Hollywood Bowl in August 1956.
Recorded For The Verve Label
In 1953 Tatum signed with Norman Granz's Clef/Verve label, for which he recorded over 120 piano solos. Discussing Tatum's recorded repertoire that included many of the same selections, Lyons, noted that, even during the 1950s, he "rarely repeated himself in his treatment of material. His harmonic variations were startling, especially when he soloed. Where another pianist might go directly from one chord to the next, Tatum's left hand would walk crablike through a cycle of four to six new chords between the original two. Meanwhile, his right hand would spin out a web of interconnecting lines of thirty-second notes."
Apart from his solo recordings the Verve label recorded Tatum in several small group settings with jazzmen such as Benny Carter, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. His session with Webster, recorded in September of 1956, is considered by most critics as the finest of these small group recordings. In his review of The Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet for Jazz Review, critic Dick Katz, stated, as reprinted in the book Jazz Panorama, how "Tatum's and Webster's respective conceptions complement each other beautifully....Art Tatum and Ben Webster represent to me a kind of romanticism in jazz which has now itself become classic. Theirs is a an artistry rarely matched in any era of jazz."
But this session would be Tatum's last. For years Tatum, a heavy beer drinker, had, later in his life, suffered from diabetes. By the mid 1950s he fell ill with uremia. He died in Queens Hospital in Los Angeles, on November 5, 1956. In tribute to the keyboard master, Leonard Feather wrote, in the liner notes to Art Tatum the Piano Starts Here, "How many frustrations Tatum had to suffer during his forty six years, none of us can ever quite know. He was black in a society that awarded honors to white musicians with a tenth of his talent." But Tatum's legacy is one of a committed brilliant musician. Not long after Tatum's death, Benny Green, wrote in his collected work of essays, The Reluctant Art, that "Tatum has been the only jazz musician to date who has made an attempt to conceive a style based upon all styles, to master the mannerisms of all schools and then synthesize those into something personal." In the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Spellman also emphasized that "Tatum conceived a style based on all styles...No one more than Tatum summarized the art of his generation, and no one more than he pointed the way to the generation of pianists who followed him."
Awards
Esquire jazz popularity poll 1943; Esquire gold medal, 1945, silver medal, 1947.
Works
Selected Discography
* Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Time-Life, 1982.
* Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here, Columbia, 1995.
* The Complete Brunswick....1931-1941 (box set), Affinity.
* Art Tatum, Classic Early Sides (1934-1937), Decca, 1991.
* Art Tatum Solos (1940), Decca, 1990.
* Art Tatum, California Melodies, (rec 1940) Memphis Archives, 1994.
* Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces Vol. I - Vol. 8, Pablo.
* The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces, (box set) Pablo.
* Art Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. I - Vol. 8, Pablo.
* Art Tatum Twentieth Century Genius, Verve, 1996.
* God is in the House, High Note, 1998.
* Art Tatum Selected by Hank Jones, Verve, 1999.
* Art Tatum's Finest Hour, Verve, 2000.
Further Reading
Books
* Ellington, Edward Kennedy, Music is My Mistress, Da Capo, 1973.
* Green, Benny, The Reluctant Art: Five Studies in the Growth of Jazz, Da Capo, 1992.
* Jazz Panorama: From The Pages of The Jazz Review, Collier Books, 1964.
* Lester, James, Too Marvelous For Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum, Oxford University Press, 1994.
* Lyons, Len, The Great Jazz Pianists, Da Capo, 1983.
* Waller, Maurice, with Anthony Calabrese Fats Waller.
Other
* Additional information for this profile was obtained from the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, Art Tatum, Time-Life Records, 1982; Art Tatum, California Melodies, Memphis Archives, 1994; and Art Tatum, Piano Starts Here, Columbia, 1995; and from the films The Famous Dorsey's, 1947; and Jazz, (episode four: "A True Welcome"), 2000.
— John Cohassey
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Worked With:
Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Red Callender, Oscar Pettiford, Coleman Hawkins, Edmond Hall, Norman Granz, Al Casey, Big Sid Catlett, Barney Bigard
Formal Connection With:
Tiny Grimes, Slam Stewart
*
Art Tatum was among the most extraordinary of all jazz musicians, a pianist with wondrous technique who could not only play ridiculously rapid lines with both hands (his 1933 solo version of "Tiger Rag" sounds as if there were three pianists jamming together) but was harmonically 30 years ahead of his time; all pianists have to deal to a certain extent with Tatum's innovations in order to be taken seriously. Able to play stride, swing, and boogie-woogie with speed and complexity that could only previously be imagined, Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries.
John Coltrane
Listen to John Coltrane playing ballads & fall under a spell like no other. There was no one quite like him, although com temporaries like Charlie Parker & Sonny Rollins also elevated the saxophone to similar, but differing new levels.
Coltrane played various styles & forms, within jazz. He died tragically young at age 40. He is closely associated with Miles Davis (trumpet) & others of the so-called Bebop movement.
You don't have to "understand" his original compositions & improvisations to "get him". The recording "A Love Supreme" is considered a masterpiece - but, give a listen to his unbelievable rendition of "My Favorite Things".
There is a recent book out about him....
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound (Paperback)
Ben Ratliff (Author)
Here is an excerpt from Wikpedia:
John William "Trane" Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967[1]) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He was prolific, making about fifty recordings as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension.
He influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history.
Coltrane played various styles & forms, within jazz. He died tragically young at age 40. He is closely associated with Miles Davis (trumpet) & others of the so-called Bebop movement.
You don't have to "understand" his original compositions & improvisations to "get him". The recording "A Love Supreme" is considered a masterpiece - but, give a listen to his unbelievable rendition of "My Favorite Things".
There is a recent book out about him....
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound (Paperback)
Ben Ratliff (Author)
Here is an excerpt from Wikpedia:
John William "Trane" Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967[1]) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz. He was prolific, making about fifty recordings as a leader during his recording career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension.
He influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Louis Armstrong
It is difficult to say that he has been underestimated, but Louis Armstrong was so great that he ought to be elevated into a unique Hall of Music that includes but a very few. Then again, we have the fact that there are so many his recordings from throughout his career. Whenever, Louis (LOO ISS apparently was his preferred pronunciation), played, the angels sang.
Here is a snippet from Wikipedia:
"Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or vocalizing using syllables instead of actual lyrics.
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and deep, instantly recognizable voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extended well beyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the '60s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general: critic Steve Leggett describes Armstrong as "perhaps the most important American musician of the 1900's."
My purpose here is to introduce, let you discover - regardless of biases - throw out the "genre" label. Without Louis (aka "Satchmo", "Pops"), the world would be a lesser place.
Lots more to write - on him - on many others.
Next? Hey, how about someone like the unbelievable pianist, Art Tatum - a big guy, who was virtually blind ... yeah, like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder afterward... but, no one played those keys like Tatum. Well, maybe, Oscar Peterson ... another great.
And, hey, I don't know "everything" ... I know what I know and am always discovering... so, if anyone has something to add... I'm all ears.
Here is a snippet from Wikipedia:
"Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers. With his distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or vocalizing using syllables instead of actual lyrics.
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and deep, instantly recognizable voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extended well beyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the '60s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general: critic Steve Leggett describes Armstrong as "perhaps the most important American musician of the 1900's."
My purpose here is to introduce, let you discover - regardless of biases - throw out the "genre" label. Without Louis (aka "Satchmo", "Pops"), the world would be a lesser place.
Lots more to write - on him - on many others.
Next? Hey, how about someone like the unbelievable pianist, Art Tatum - a big guy, who was virtually blind ... yeah, like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder afterward... but, no one played those keys like Tatum. Well, maybe, Oscar Peterson ... another great.
And, hey, I don't know "everything" ... I know what I know and am always discovering... so, if anyone has something to add... I'm all ears.
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