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| 3.190 Ft
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| 1. | Tea for Two
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| 2. | St. Louis Blues
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| 3. | Tiger Rag
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| 4. | Aunt Hagar's Blues
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| 5. | Humoresque
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| 6. | Sweet Lorraine
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| 7. | Get Happy
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| 8. | The Jitterbug Waltz
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| 9. | Tatum Pole Boogie
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| 10. | Cherokee
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| 11. | Lover, Come Back to Me!
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| 12. | Elegy
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| 13. | Hallelujah
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| 14. | Willow Weep for Me
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| 15. | Emaline
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| 16. | Yesterdays
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| 17. | I Know That You Know
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Jazz / Boogie-Woogie, Stride
Art Tatum
Bonnie Silver Producer
Norbert Kraft Engineer, Producer
Steven Mayer Liner Notes, Piano
Art Tatum, arguably the greatest pianist in the history of jazz, combined Harlem stride, ingenious pianistic extensions, humor, harmony that stretched its language to the limits and the subtlest of improvisational techniques. The Afro-American pianist Art Tatum was nearly blind from childhood. He made an early reputation for himself as a solo player and in his recordings, as well as with various bands. His achievement lay in his development of the New York Harlem Stride school of jazz-playing, under the influence of Fats Waller. This collection presents improvised and embellished (jazz-style) versions of classic tunes in the style that Art Tatum made famous. Credited by the New York Times with "piano playing at its most awesome," Steven Mayer has brought jazz greats Art Tatum, Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson to listeners world wide, together with acclaimed interpretations of Ives, Liszt and Mozart.
Pianist Steven Mayer is either a very brave man or a very foolhardy man -- or both. Even superstar classical pianists like Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff were dumbstruck when they ventured into the depths of New York City to hear Art Tatum, the most astounding jazz pianist of the 20th century. Undaunted, Mayer -- who is one mean technician himself, with recordings of Liszt and the hugely difficult Ives "Concord" Sonata behind him -- went ahead and recorded 17 numbers that Tatum himself cut, in what Naxos purports to be "the exact way that Tatum made famous." Um...not quite, for this is not a virtual Tatum album, literally or even stylistically. There is no doubt that Mayer has lots of dexterity and a better feeling for a jazz pulse than most classical pianists. Understandably, Mayer doesn't even attempt to replicate every note of what Tatum actually played; rather, these are improvisations on improvisations, which is more truthful to the jazz tradition. Yet they do not even begin to approximate the daring of Tatum's harmonic thought; his unpredictable shifts in rhythm; his barely reined-in outbreaks of wild super-stride; his outrageously rapid runs, classical quotes, and shafts of na�ve humor. Mayer's rhythm tends to be quite regular in comparison to Tatum's, more in a traditional stride manner. Mayer's touch is heavier, and he applies some of Tatum's trademark flourishes in a self-conscious way. That said, listeners who can put the Tatum originals out of their minds briefly can find much attractive piano playing to enjoy here, and a few tunes (like "Yesterdays" and "I Know That You Know") do come closer than others in evoking the Tatum style. Moreover, an hour of Mayer isn't nearly as fatiguing to the ear as an hour of Tatum can be if you are concentrating on every passage. But you won't get the electric charge that the originals, when heard one at a time, can provide. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
Art Tatum
Active Decades: '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s
Born: Oct 13, 1909 in Toledo, OH
Died: Nov 05, 1956 in Los Angeles, CA
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Boogie-Woogie, Swing, Stride
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.
Born nearly blind, Tatum gained some formal piano training at the Toledo School of Music but was largely self-taught. Although influenced a bit by Fats Waller and the semi-classical pianists of the 1920s, there is really no explanation for where Tatum gained his inspiration and ideas from. He first played professionally in Toledo in the mid-'20s and had a radio show during 1929-1930. In 1932 Tatum traveled with singer Adelaide Hall to New York and made his recording debut accompanying Hall (as one of two pianists). But for those who had never heard him in person, it was his solos of 1933 (including "Tiger Rag") that announced the arrival of a truly major talent. In the 1930s, Tatum spent periods working in Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and (in 1938) England. Although he led a popular trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes (later Everett Barksdale) and bassist Slam Stewart in the mid-'40s, Tatum spent most of his life as a solo pianist who could always scare the competition. Some observers criticized him for having too much technique (is such a thing possible?), working out and then keeping the same arrangements for particular songs, and for using too many notes, but those minor reservations pale when compared to Tatum's reworkings of such tunes as "Yesterdays," "Begin the Beguine," and even "Humoresque." Although he was not a composer, Tatum's rearrangements of standards made even warhorses sound like new compositions.
Art Tatum, who recorded for Decca throughout the 1930s and Capitol in the late '40s, starred at the Esquire Metropolitan Opera House concert of 1944 and appeared briefly in his only film in 1947, The Fabulous Dorseys (leading a jam session on a heated blues). He recorded extensively for Norman Granz near the end of his life in the 1950s, both solo and with all-star groups; all of the music has been reissued by Pablo on a six-CD box set. His premature death from uremia has not resulted in any loss of fame, for Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists.
---Scott Yanow, All Music Guide |
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