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Art Tatum's 1949 Capitol Recordings · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jett Disler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  Well, what can you say about Art Tatum, who by critical consensus was considered to be
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  the greatest virtuoso among jazz pianists?
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  When you hear Art Tatum for the first time, you first notice the most dazzling, rapid
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  runs that go up and down the keyboard and that they're tossed off with seemingly no
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  effort.
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  And then you notice a light, yet clearly defined and transparent touch that makes most other
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  pianists sound thick, including classical pianists.
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  And you also notice Art Tatum's incredible sense of rhythmic equilibrium and a fullness
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  of texture that still gives the impression of showing the air in between the notes.
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  I think that's something that is easier to hear than to perceive it through my talking
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  about it.
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  And also his unbelievable harmonic sense.
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  My goodness.
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  His harmonic imagination is just beyond belief.
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  When Art Tatum first came on the scene as a soloist in the early 1930s, his recorded
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  performances tended to be flashy show-off pieces with hundreds of ideas converging all
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  at once at rapid speed and packed with some of the fastest and most accurate stride piano
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  passages ever captured by a recording device.
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  But by the late 1930s, Tatum's style had become, I guess, less hyper and more solidly swinging.
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  And along with the razzle dazzle, you had more strategic silences and you had more rhythmic
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  momentum generated by implication where syncopation came more and more into play.
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  And of course, the harmonic imagination that I talked about before.
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  Some of Tatum's best early recordings were the solos that he made for American Deca in
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  the late 1930s and in 1940.
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  He plays Harold Arlen's song Get Happy with a long introduction where the left hand plays
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  nothing but a syncopated drone on F natural.
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  And this continues through when Tatum states the actual theme and then the second chorus
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  breaks out into joyous stride piano.
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  And there's also Tatum's recording from 1940 of Sweet Lorraine where you have this easy
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  lope that's often interrupted by wonderful fast runs and sly quotes from popular songs.
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  And then there's Tiger Rag, which is a stride piano tour de force.
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  And he recorded that for Columbia or Brunswick, I think, in 1933.
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  I think there's also a 1932 recording.
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  Yes, there is.
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  But the Deca version I like so much better because it just swings more and there's a
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  lightness and a lilt that I really love.
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  However, the Art Tatum recordings that I really want to recommend to you, and these are the
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  Tatum recordings that I think you should hear first if you've never heard Art Tatum before,
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  are the solo piano sides that he made for the Capitol label in 1949.
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  I think by and large, I would even call these the best recorded examples of Art Tatum on
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  record.
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  First of all, his harmonic palette has incrementally increased since nine years earlier, if you
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  can believe that.
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  And there's a lot more rhythmic syncopation and lots of interplay in between the hands.
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  There's more contrast and there's more momentum.
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  And also, the engineering of these Capitol recordings captured Tatum's wonderful tone
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  to better effect than in any of his recordings up to then.
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  Now Tatum made an extensive series of solo recordings for Norman Granz between 1953 and
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  1955.
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  And these have amazing things, although sometimes the solos tend to ramble a bit.
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  But I think the Capitol recordings are models of proportion and rhythmic tension and they
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  always seem to surprise you with incredible details, no matter how many times you listen.
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  For example, his amazing way with Willow Weep for Me as it unfolds.
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  And also that extraordinary Ant Hagar's Blues, the WC Handy piece.
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  And that recording of Ant Hagar's Blues has so many cool rhythmic sleights of hand that
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  sometimes you might get lost as you're listening, but Tatum never derails.
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  He never gets lost.
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  There are wonderful versions of blue skies and dancing in the dark.
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  And there's a really irreverent and even kind of rabble rousing version of Sweet Lorraine
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  that is quite playful, much more so than the Deca recording.
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  So Art Tatum's 1949 solos for Capitol have floated around on numerous reissues, legitimate
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  or otherwise.
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  But there is an authorized edition.
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  It's part of a two CD set containing Tatum's complete Capitol recordings.
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  You get all of the 1949 solos, which also includes selections that were not issued until
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  years after Tatum's death, like Tenderly and How High the Moon.
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  And you also get some amazing 1952 recordings with the Art Tatum Trio with guitarist Everett
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  Barksdale and bassist Slam Stewart.
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  Tatum Stewart, by the way, was one of the most in demand bass players of the 1940s and
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  early 1950s.
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  And he was famous for bowing his solos while singing along with the solos in unison an
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  octave higher.
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  And on these trio sides, Tatum's technique is on incendiary form.
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  I mean, he's almost hyper.
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  It's almost like he just doesn't seem like he can wait to unleash the fastest runs in
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  the West.
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  And even to the point of playing over his colleagues, if you take their recording of
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  Anton Rubinstein's Melody in F, which goes at quite a clip and Tatum goes absolutely
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  bonkers, it's so much fun to listen to.
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  But those 1949 solos really exemplify Tatum's ability to create tension while sounding absolutely
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  relaxed and totally effortless.
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  This is Jed Disler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  And thank you so much for listening and I look forward to being with you for the next
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  episode.