Jazz - What's your bag, man?

[Seán]

More from Mr. Webster:

I am not familiar with that recording, more's the pity.

[Fran]

[Fran]

Despite the sibilance, still a lovely work. I picked this up in Tower on vinyl the other day.

[mcq]

This weekend I've been dipping into one of my most treasured possessions, Art Tatum's breathtaking solo performances recorded in the 1950s and collectively released as The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces. One of Norman Granz's most notable accomplishments was sitting Tatum down at a piano stool and recording him at length between 1953 and 1956 in both solo and group situations. Tatum had never been given such freedom in the studio before and for once he could relax, just like in a live environment, outside of the recording bounds of the 78 rpm record, which is how the majority of his studio output had previously been recorded. Tatum's achievements were to significantly extend the vocabulary of jazz piano, harmonically stretching the music beyond the stride-influenced accomplishments of Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller. Without his work, we would not have witnessed the pioneering advances of Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell and Cecil Taylor, all of whom pushed the music onwards in their own respective ways. It's impossible to understand what these later musicians are doing without listening closely to Art Tatum.

Listen to the following performance of the standard All The Things You Are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkgYw7Q ... ure=relmfu

The man's harmonic absorption of the melody is complete but the way he ruminates inwardly on what this music means to him emotionally is a source of constant wonder to me. Listen to how he constantly varies tempo and rhythm, modifying the time signature whilst retaining the basic harmonic structure of the melody, and then suddenly he will interrupt his improvisation to launch into a breathless arpeggio or a descending run of the bass notes. I prefer to liken these interruptions to small musical epiphanies that flashed into Tatum's mind as he was playing. Such leaps of cognitive intuition are endemic to all of the musical pioneers. Technically, this is fearsomely complex playing but his technique is always at the service of the music. This is a man who has listened deeply, intently and closely to the music and then proceeds to set down his thoughts in a performance that is unvarnished or untroubled by thoughts of virtuousity. The speed and fleetness of his harmonic thought is breathtaking, embracing both lyrical and tonal voicings as well as more dissonant thoughts.

Here are some more examples of the man's art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCx6ghqg ... ure=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adgK8tau ... re=related (a priceless link this, comprising his singular 1940 take on Body and Soul and a more extended rumination recorded in 1953)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fj7Ny6l ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KnptwcrbcA (this performance of Over the Rainbow never fails to break my heart)

Is the famous story of Fats Waller spotting Tatum in the audience at a show in 1938 and drolly quipping, "I just play the piano, but God is in the house tonight", apocryphal? I think not. Nor is it mere legend that Tatum's pianism reduced Vladimir Horowitz to tears. Personally, I love the story of Charlie Parker taking a job as a dishwasher at a club where Tatum was playing just so that he could watch the man at work. What he must have learned between shifts must have been a masterclass in harmonic invention to the young man, but Parker was - thankfully for us - musically astute enough to be able to assimilate what he was witnessing into his own musical playing.

A hallmark of great art is its sheer inexhaustability. No matter how many times you encounter it, you are confronted with new things and are refreshed and renewed. And another thing that is common to all great art is its uncanny ability to offer us a creative enlargement of the world around us, which would be an infinitely poorer thing without its presence. Tatum's music has a been a fountain of constant musical nourishment for me for over 20 years, and yet I feel at times that I have only skimmed the surface of what it contains. There is a lifetime of learning in this great man's music.

[Seán]

This weekend I've been dipping into one of my most treasured possessions, Art Tatum's breathtaking solo performances recorded in the 1950s and collectively released as The Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces....

Well done Paul, that is a lovely tribute to Tatum's music-making. He had geat technique and he always performed with great feeling for the music he was playing, he was a particular favourite of mine too.

[mcq]

I appreciate the kind words, Sean. Thank you.

[Fran]

_goes off to look up more art tatum_

[Seán]

This has always been one of my favourite LPs in my collection, I just had to return to it this morning:

[Gerry D]

Lovely ...

[dhyantyke]