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The following article on Art Tatum appeared on December 27, 1999 in The Toledo Blade as part of the newspaper’s millennium series, which included articles on influential Toledoans during the century. Time-tested Tatum Toledo jazz pianist was the best there ever was By David Yonke - Blade Pop Music Writer "Art Tatum lived only 47 years, but his music will live forever and, according to many musicians and scholars, will never be equaled. “Any serious jazz pianist knows that Art Tatum is, and always will be, the greatest of all time. He will never be eclipsed,” said Benny Green, a New York-based pianist who records for the Blue Note label. “When you talk about the art of jazz piano,” said Jimmy Amadie, a pianist and educator from Philadelphia, “Art Tatum stands alone. His playing today would have been considered just as phenomenal as it was back then and, the thing is, a thousand years from now it will be just as phenomenal.” “He was the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument,” Leonard Feather, the esteemed jazz critic, wrote in the liner notes of Tatum’s, “Piano Starts Here” CD. His admirers included George Gershwin, Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein and virtually every jazz artist, including saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker, who once remarked: “I wish I could play like Tatum’s right hand!” Born Oct. 13, 1909, in a yellow, two-story frame house on Mill Street in South Toledo, near Dorr Street and City Park, he was all but blind from birth, with limited vision in his right eye only. His father, Arthur Tatum, Sr., was a guitarist and an elder at Grace Presbyterian Church, where his mother played piano. He lost most of his sight due to illness at age 3, but soon after began picking out tunes on the piano. He learned to read music in Braille and would entertain fellow pupils during recess at the Jefferson School. His piano teacher, Overton G. Rainey, recognized the youngster’s prodigious talent and tried to steer him into a career in classical music. Tatum, however, was more fascinated by the adventurous jazz piano of Fats Waller and James P. Johnson. And, as he knew all too well, in those days the prospects for African-American pianists in classical music were not exactly bountiful. Tatum played piano in Speed Web’s dance band and led his own group in concert at local venues such as Chateau La France and Chicken Charlie’s. At 17, he was featured playing interludes on WSPD radio, which were so popular the station gave him his own 15-minute program. Tatum moved to New York City in 1931, originally hired as an accompanist by singer Adelaide Hall. But he soon became a phenomenon on 52nd Street, which was lined with clubs featuring the jazz world’s greatest artists. “Tatum’s appearance on the jazz scene in the early ’30s upset all the standards for jazz pianists,” Feather, the jazz critic, once recalled. “His fantastic technique and original harmonic variations placed him incomparably far ahead of earlier artists.” Tatum made his mark immediately in a legendary “cutting contest,” where musicians try to outplay each other, in Harlem by playing a version of “Tiger Rag” that knocked Willie “The Lion” Smith and two of Tatum’s idols, Waller and Johnson, off the throne. One night Tatum walked into the Yacht Club on West 52nd Street while Waller was performing. After the song, Waller announced: “I just play the piano, but God is in the house tonight.” Not only did Tatum have the ability to play with blinding speed, sending cascades of solo notes flying from his right hand while brisk, sturdy chords resonated from the left, but he also played with stunning clarity, every note precisely articulated. And his improvisational skills were dazzling, taking brilliant new approaches to the same songs every time. “When I was 13 years old,” said Green, the 34-year-old jazz piano ace, “my parents bought me the reissues of the solo recordings that Tatum had recorded for [producer and record owner] Norman Granz. “As I listened to it, I knew that it was a monumental experience for me. .. On a superficial level, anyone can recognize his dexterity. But there’s so much more subtlety to Tatum’s playing. His harmonic palette was absolutely the most sophisticated ever. “He stands forever as a landmark, as a testament, to how beautiful this instrument can sound.” Jason Moran, a 24-year-old jazz pianist who recently made his debut as a band leader on Blue Note, said he has spent months transcribing Tatum’s piano solos, carefully recording every note and then trying to duplicate songs that Tatum played spontaneously. “The amazing thing about him, at least for me, is not only the incredible technique but the mind power that he put into the music,” Moran said. “To get past the notes and just to try to get into what he was thinking about, man, this guy was so inventive! He never played the same song the same way twice. "Technically, harmonically, rhythmically, in every sense of the word, he was a true artist and genius.” Claude Black, the veteran Toledo jazz pianist and member of The Murphy’s Trio, saw Tatum at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit shortly before the jazz legend’s death in 1956. “Oh man, I thought he was just terrific. The best, I think, of anybody I ever heard,” Black said. He met Tatum after the show. “He seemed to be a quiet, laid-back person,” Black added. “He just sat there and talked.” Amadie, the Philadelphia jazz artist, said he was a teenage piano player when he went to see Tatum perform at the city’s Academy of Music in 1955. “I couldn’t believe it, I just couldn’t believe it,” Amadie said, his voice rising in excitement even 44 years later. “ I remember talking to three keyboard players at the time who also happened to see Tatum. One said, ‘I think I’m going to quit. I’m never going to play again.’ Another said, ‘I think I’m going to get a day job.’ The third said, ‘I also play a little drums. I think I’ll start concentrating on the drums.’ “I said, ‘I’ve been practicing seven or eight hours a day, I think I’m going to start playing 10 or 12.’ He motivated me. He’ll keep you humble. He’ll make you understand that you have to study the rest of your life.” “Anything you say about him is an understatement,” Green said. “To say he was an orchestra, to say he was the greatest solo pianist of all time, ultimately the music tells the tale. And his music is some of the most heavenly sounds I have ever heard or ever hope to hear in life.” As a musician, Tatum’s abilities were beyond question. But as with many of history’s greatest artists, his level of fame and fortune never rose to his level of artistic achievement. “How many frustrations Tatum had to suffer during his 46 years, none of us can ever quite know,” Feather once wrote. “He was black in a society that awarded honors to white musicians with a tenth of his talent. ... Beyond this was having come into jazz, his talent in full flower, during an era where there was no such thing as a jazz concert. During the peak creative years he was confined for the most part to small nightclubs.” Tatum died of kidney disease on Nov. 5, 1956 at age 47 in Los Angeles.

Tjazz: Sent you an e-mail and a PM

Guided by Chuck´s advice, and now there´s a thread about transcriptions / broadcastings, I finally purchased Storyville´s 2CD “Standard transcriptions”. Very impressive, as everything I´ve heard from Tatum. 13 tracks from 1935; 14 tracks from 1938; 15 tracks from 1939; 19 tracks from 1945 All Tatum solo piano Sixteen of the tunes were never again recorded by him (among them “I can´t get started”, “Oh you crazy moon”, “All God´s chillum got rhythm” or “Day in day out”). Many others are his first recorded presentation of some of his favourites songs, such as “Elegie”, “Begin the beguine” and “Humoresque”. Most of the tracks are really short, with Tatum extracting what is essential from a tune. The later ones show a more restrained and controlled Tatum . His renditions of “The shout” and “Tiger rag” (about a year after his first recorded and famous version) are simply incredible. These are two tunes which Tatum often chose to play in the after hours competitions (to blow other player´s ass from the piano). Tatum emulates a complete orchestra (many listeners and even musicians, through the times, believed there were more than one pianist here!). Another favorite of mine is “Monday in Manhattan”. In the last chorus Tatum uses his left thumb to create a new line: looks like he has a third hand playing contrapuntal melody.

I lurked through their site and couldn´t find if they offer outside the USA. I´m afraid they don´t. Thanks for your interest!

Thanks for the information, brownie. That website looks great. Above all, the photographic section contains many, many superb photos! The swingin´est band ever wouldn´t have been the same without Freddie Green.

I´m looking for these RCA/Bluebird Fats Waller sets which are, as far as I know, OOP: -Breaking the ice: The early years Part 1 (34-35) 2CD set GOT IT -I´m gonna sit right down: The early years Part 2 (35-36) 2CD set GOT IT -Fractious fingering: The early years Part 3 (36) 2CD set STILL ON SEARCH OF IT -The middle years Part 1 (36-38) 3CD set GOT IT -A good man is hard to find: The middle years Part 2 (38-40) 3CD set GOT IT I´d buy them or we could swap CDs (let me know what you´re interested in). Any help/information would be very appreciated.

I finally picked Classics 692: Willie the Lion Smith 1938-40. What a superb disc! The 14 tracks the Lion did for Commodore on 1-10-1939 are among the best piano music I´ve ever listened. I like, above all, his eight compositions ( Morning air, Echoes of spring, Concentrating, Fading star, Passionette, Rippling waters, Sneakaway and Finger buster). To these ears, some of these 14 songs are not "pure" stride piano: I can´t hear those left-hand patterns (oom-pahs). But it´s great music anyway.

And two curious CDs more, with Evans overdubbed: Conversations with myself (Verve, 1963), where Evans plays three piano parts with overdubbing. and Further conversations with myself (Verve, 1967) with Evans playing only two overdubbed pianos. I have only have the first one and dig it, specially "Just you, just me", "Stella by starlight" and "Blue Monk".

What do you think about "From left to right" (Verve, 1970 ) where Evans shifts from playing electric to accoustic piano and back again, sometimes within the same piece? Not my cup of tea, actually.

A very interesting (IMHO) 1963 Steeplechase date, with Tete Montoliú and flugelhornist Allan Botschinsky (live concert from the Montmartre Jazzhus in Copenhagen):

Just picked this one yesterday. Great disc! Is it just my copy (one of those blue-ish Spanish Time Life Blue Notes) or is Ron Carter´s bass recorded at a very, very, very low volume??? I can hardly hear him (even when soloing or comping with Tony Williams)

Thanks. I have that album on vinyl (was it ever released on CD?), but haven't listened to it in a while. Need to dig it out and give it a listen. Yes, it is on CD. I only recently got it. It's either Atlantic or Rhino, probably Rhino. And probably OOP. ubu For those interested, it´s available at buy.com for $13.98

WHAT IS STRIDE?........... ....HARLEM STRIDE PIANO by Mike Lipskin "Stride is a jazz piano style originating after the end of World War I, a vibrant and rich jazz idiom with a unique place in American piano. It is special and separate from other formative jazz piano styles, being the most classical/pianistic of jazz styles and drawing on the rich traditions of American pop music as well as Chopin. Like few other jazz piano styles, Stride influenced our pop music and was influenced by it. You can hear George Gershwin and Cole Porter in Stride and you can hear Stride’s influence in George Gershwin and Cole Porter. Of course Duke Ellington was a fine Stride pianist, and his 1920s recordings sometimes sounded like orchestrated James P. Johnson and Willie The Lion Smith. Art Tatum was a Stride pianist, as was Count Basie, and early on, Thelonious Monk and Erroll Garner. The most influential Stride artists, Fats Waller, Willie The Lion Smith, and above all, James P. Johnson, revered classical music and had some formal training. Consequently they were concerned with pianistic dynamics and tone more than those who worked in other styles: boogie woogie, “trumpet style,” “New Orleans” sound and later the “swing” style of Jess Stacy or Joe Sullivan (not to denigrate these other great jazz piano sounds). Waller and Johnson also were song writers with many pop tunes and several hit Broadway shows. Stride is so called because the left hand “strides” or alternates between low octaves or tenths (if you can stretch them) and chords toward middle C, a musical language that must be studied over a period of years so that the performer no longer has to think about each left hand alternation but can mentally program ahead several bars or figures. As most jazz, it is impossible to play properly by reading sheet music, and when younger pianists try to play a Waller or Johnson piece note for note from a written transcriptions, the unique swing and feeling of the style are completely lost. Unfortunately as time passes there is less and less understanding of what is Stride and what is not. Some fault lies with misguided “jazz history” teachers and commentators who bunch much pre-bop piano together, showing their lack scholarly analysis or understanding of this music. The confusion is compounded by other styles where the left hand alternates between the lower bass notes and the middle ones on the keyboard. Ragtime, a simple three theme written non-jazz music is sometimes mistaken for Stride because it preceded the form, and has the alternating left hand. Often the listener, who really cannot hear and is concerned about sounding knowledgeable calls Stride, ragtime). The harmonics and rhythms of ragtime are much simpler, more repeated, and it derives from fewer sources. Some think that Teddy Wilson, Jess Stacey and Jelly Roll Morton play Stride because alternating left hands occur in their performance. However in Stride there is a far different tension and release between the hands in rhythm and between parts of a performance in both time and dynamics. Then there is the disappointing fact that many hear a little of mislabeled Stride, actually Disneyland music, (played by some who started at Disneyland and pizza joints) think it’s the real thing. Finally, to play Stride means playing a whole song with variations on a theme for several minutes, not just 2 or 4 bars of imitative Stride with mistakes in the left hand, between whatever other style you are playing. It means subtly varying the dynamics, with minute retard and anticipation between right and left hands. The sense of order underlying improvisation is sonic craftsmanship supreme. Now, if I really liked the style I would have written more effusively about it. " Mike Lipskin

Anyone heard these two? ( both available at jazzconnaisseur )

This is how stridepiano.com defines stride piano generations: Generation 1 James P Johnson Willie "the Lion" Smith Luckey Roberts Thomas "Fats" Waller Donald Lambert Bobby Henderson Stephen "the Beetle" Henderson Claude Hopkins Joe Turner Pat Flowers Hank Duncan Cliff Jackson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Generation 2 Dick Wellstood Ralph Sutton Don Ewell Dick Hyman Johnny Guarnieri Mike Lipskin Neville Dickie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Generation 3 Louis Mazetier Francois Rilhac Jeff Barnhart Bernd Lhotsky Judy Carmichael Jim Turner Tom Roberts Tom McDermott Marcus Roberts Chris Hopkins Paul Asero Grant Simpson John Royen Olivier Lancelot Any further recommendations? I´m looking forward to buying some Ralph Sutton releases. Where to start?

But you don´t know the name of Eli Robinson´s grandmother???

And I think kh1958 nailed it and that´s the correct definition. But, if my memory serves me right, there are a few reissues released as "transcriptions" which were recorded as live broadcastings. Must check this assertion.

I agree with Jim and Harold regarding the sound quality. A couple of good examples could be the Fats Waller Associated Transcriptions (1935-39) or the Art Tatum Standard Transcriptions (1935-45) released by Storyville, with a MUCH BETTER sound than the commercial recordings of this period! Besides these two, another favorite of mine are the Duke Ellington Transcriptions from 1946-47. An orchestra in a stage of change, but a great one!

Extracted from a Storyville release: "In the 1930´s radio was the mass medium for dissemination of music in the US. Although 78 rpm records and even player piano rolls were widely available, the proliferation of broadcast spurred the demand for new musical performances. Since this period coincided with the post-depression years, smaller stations in particular needed a cost effective way to air fresh material. The transcriptions companies met this need. Transcriptions were typically sixteen inch discs recorded at 33-1/3 rpm by the companies from original performances for which they contracted. They were not intended for consumer release and were offered to radio stations on a rental basis, often on an exclusive basis in their markets. In 1934-35 and the years following, transcription labels such us Standard, World, Thesaurus, Keystone, Sesac, MacGregor, Associated, Langworth and Miller made their first appearance. Keystone later acquired rights to and issued many Standard recordings. In February of 1935 radio station WNEW in NY presented Martin Block and his "Make Believe Ballroom" program, claimed to be the first of the disc jockey shows. As this type of broadcast began to proliferate, the demands for original material provided on transcription gradually diminished over the ensuing years and the business was no longer viable...." I´d like to hear some comments from our knowledgeable members on this type of releases, these trancription labels, the importance of this stuff in the development of jazz.... Thanks in advance! BTW: which are your favorite transcriptions reissues?

Regarding the definition and description of “stride piano” I find very interesting the liner notes for the above mentioned Storyville Donald Lambert release, written by stride pianist Dick Wellstood: “Since this is an album of stride piano classics by a noted stride pianist, Donald Lambert, it seems to me a good occasion to set down a description of some of the basic characteristics of stride. I would like to say, first, that I don´t like the term “stride” any more than I like the term “jazz”. When I was a kid the old-timers used to call stride piano “shout piano”, an agreeably expressive description, and when once I mentioned stride to Eubie Blake, he replied “My God, what won´t they call ragtime next?” Terms, terms. Terms make music into a bundle of objects – a box of stride, a pound of Baroque – Lambert played music, not “stride”, just as Bach wrote music, not “Baroque”. Musicians make music, which critics later label, as if to fit it into so many jelly jars. Bastards. Having demurred thus, may I say that stride is indeed a sort of ragtime, looser than Joplin´s “classic rag”, but sharing with it the marchlike structures and oom-pah bass. Conventional wisdom has it that striding is largely a matter of playing a heavy oom-pah in the left hand, but conventional wisdom is mistaken, as usual. Franz Liszt, Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, and Pauline Alpert all monger a good many oom-pahs, and whatever their other many virtues, none of them play stride. To begin with, stride playing requires a certain characteristic rhythmic articulation, for the nature of which I can only refer you to recordings by such as Eubie Blake, Luckey Roberts, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Willie The Lion Smith and Donald Lambert. The feel of stride is a kind of soft-shoe 12/8 rather than the 8/8 of ragtime, and though the left hand plays oom-pahs, the total feeling is frequently an accented four-beat rather than the two-beat you might expect. For instance, the drummer Jo Jones once told me that when Basie played stride he would play a soft four on his brass drum, accenting however, the first and third beats. This would be perfect. A straight four is too confining; a simple two makes you seasick. At any rate, the characteristic rhythms of stride are provided by the right hand, not the left. It is possible to play an otherwise impeccable stride bass and ruin it by playing inappropriate right hand patterns. By pulling and tugging at the rhythms of the left, the right hand provides the swing. Now, if the right hand is to be able to do this, the left hand must be, not only quasimetronomic, but also totally in charge. The propulsion, what musicians nowadays call the “time” must always be in the left hand. This is what Eubie Blake means when he says, “The left hand is very important in ragtime”. To a non-performer, the lefthand dominance probably seems either unimportant or self-evident, but it is the crux of a successful stride performance. If, in the heat of battle, the time switches to the right hand (because perhaps of a series of heavily accented figures), leaving the left hand merely to wag, then the momentum goes out the window. The left hand must always be the boss and leave the right hand free to use whatever vocalized inflections the player desires. Stride bass is not just an old oom-pah, either. The bass note, the “oom”, should be in the register of the string bass a full two octaves or more below middle C – an octave or so lower than was used by Joplin or Morton. And the “pah” chord is usually voiced around middle C – one or two inversions higher than Joplin or Morton (here, as elsewhere, I´m referring strictly to Lambert-style fast stride and am also generalizing wildly, of course). Moreover, the bass note is ideally a single note, not an octave, except in certain emphatic passages. The use of an octave would shorten the stretch between bass note and chord, and it is this wide stretch that gives stride its full sound. The wide stretch means that the player can activate the overtones of the piano by pedalling techniques ususable by Joplin or Morton, the denser tenture of whose playing would have been unbearably muddied by the sophisticated pedalling of, say, Waller. Stride bass lines move in scalar patterns, too. Ragtime stuck largely to roots and fifths with most of the scalar motion in the tenor parts but stride pianists. Having more room in the bass, can walk up and down scales in a way that is very difficult in the shorter span of the earlier pianists. One can also use in the left hand what pianists called in my youth “back beats”, where one disrupts the rhythm temporally by playing oom-pah, oom-pah, oom-oom-pah, oom-pah, oom-oom-pah, and so on. With luck it comes out even, without sounding like one of Leonard Bernstein´s early works. To stride is to have patience, not to be in a hurry to get things over with. Lambert could play pieces in which the melody would allow a harmonic change perhaps only every four bars, requiring his left hand to pump patiently away for what seems like hours. And the late Ben Webster was an ardent stride pianist, whose pet piece was a version of East Side, West Side in long meter with lots of left hand, to wit: (East!)-oom-pah, oom-pah, (Side!)-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah, (West!)-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah, (Side!)-pah, oom-pah, oom-pah, and so on, ad infinitum, ad wolgast Fantastic patience! If all this sounds rather difficult and complicated, you may be sure that it is. In a world full of pianists who can rattle off fast oom-pahs or Chick Corea solo transcriptions or the Elliot Carter Sonata, there are perhaps only a dozen who can play stride convincingly at any length and with the proper energy….”

Just picked over 20 of this Blue Note Time Life CDs for 5,5 € at a local store!

FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS, COUW!!!!! We happen to be the same age (32). Oh, that 1971 vintage!

Just picked the Storyville Donald Lambert release Chris mentioned above. Amazing playing! Here you have some data from the Storyville website: DONALD LAMBERT Recorded 1959-1961 LABEL: Storyville Records CATALOG NUMBER: 101 8376 GENRE: Jazz BARCODE: 717101837625 Donald Lambert (Piano) Anitra’s Dance / Tea For Two / Liza / I’ve Got A Feeling That I’m Falling/Don’t Let It Bother You / Harlem Strut / Beautiful Love/Sweet Lorraine / People Will Say We’re In Love / Hold Your Temper / Moonlight Sonata / Save Your Sorrow / I Know That You Know / As Time Goes By / Sextet From Lucia Di Lammermoor / Hallelujah / The Trolley Song / Daintiness Rag / When Your Lover Has Gone / Keep Off The Grass / Carolina Shout / I’m Just Wild About Harry / You Can’t Do What My Last Man Did / If Dreams Come True / How Can You Face Me / Russian Lullaby This 69-minute CD (24 tunes), featuring Donald Lambert playing solo piano exclusively, was recorded live in 1959-61; the music has never been released before. The music was recorded in a relaxed, intimate club setting and features standards, show tunes, and many numbers by stride-piano masters such as James P. Johnson and Eubie Blake. Donald Lambert was a stride pianist, where a strong rhythm is always patiently kept by the left hand, without much improvising. Lambert had a fierce left hand – in the tradition of James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Willie ”The Lion” Smith - while his right hand was often delicate, lyrical and his phrasing exquisite. This CD is full of brilliant stride piano classics, such as ”Hallelujah”, ”Trolley Song” and the powerful ”Keep Off the Grass” - plus Beethoven’s ”Moonlight Sonata”(!).

After a few spins, all I can say is WONDERFUL!!! (in any case, as expected ) - 5 solos performance from 1934 (radio broadcasts), less than a year after the release of his first four solo recordings on Brunswick. Tatum began to perform on the radio when he was nineteen years old in Toledo, but none of the earliest broadcasts are known to have survived. Great playing. My favorite is his cover of Carmichael´s "Star Dust" -2 solos from 1938 and one solo from 1939: more restrained Tatum (less fireworks), but every note is worth!!! -6 tracks by the Art Tatum trio, with Tiny Grimes (g) and Slam Stewart ( b ) (5 from 1943 for the AFRS Jubilee series, almost one year before the first commercial recording date of this trio -Jan 5, 1944- and one from 1944). Great music, though the sound of the piano is somehow overshadowed by the guitar. -4 tracks by Tatum plus the Les Paul Trio -Les Paul and Calvin Goodin (g) and Clinton Nordquist ( b ) and 2 solo performances ("Humoresque" and "It had to be you") recorded on Los Angeles c.1944 -A private recording from Frenchie´s Pink Pig by Michael J. Cudahy, april 1944 of the Art Tatum trio playing "Exactly like you" The sound, except for the first five tracks, is OK to these ears, taking into account the original sources (private tapes, acetates, transcriptions) and the era of these recordings!

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS, JIM!