1. Tea For Two
2. St. Louis Blues
3. Tiger Rag
4. Sophisticated Lady
5. Humoresque
6. Tatum Pole Boogie
7. Someone To Watch Over Me
8. How High the Moon
9. Yesterdays
10. Willow Weep For Me
11. The Kerry Dance
12. Gershwin Medley
13. I Know That You Know
14. Tea For Two
15. St. Louis Blues
16. Tiger Rag
17. Sophisticated Lady
18. Humoresque
19. Tatum Pole Boogie
20. Someone To Watch Over Me
21. How High the Moon
22. Yesterdays
23. Willow Weep For Me
24. The Kerry Dance
25. Gershwin Medley
26. I Know That You Know
Imagine sitting in a theatre,
waiting for a performance. There is a grand
piano on the stage, and it starts playing
- but nobody is playing it. The piano is performing
tunes recorded decades ago by Art Tatum and
now remastered with the wonders of modern
technology. This actually happened last year
at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, where
Art Tatum had actually recorded some of these
tracks as part of a live album in 1949. But
Tatum died in 1956 and, in his place last
year, there was a pole topped by a "dummy
head" which contained a binaural microphone.
Whether or not the 2007 audience
got the feeling that they were really at an
Art Tatum performance, it all sounds a rather
odd way of presenting a new version of some
classic recordings. At any rate, here they
are - although, equally oddly, in two separate
versions: one a "stereo surround version";
the other called "a binaural stereo version
- the ultimate headphone experience". In other
words, the first 13 tracks are for listening
on your hi-fi, while the same tunes are repeated
for you to hear through headphones.
Discounting the odd presentation,
what you have here is a cleaned-up version
of four early Tatum recordings from 1933,
followed by tunes recorded at a "Just Jazz"
concert in 1949. Certainly the sound is much
improved over the original recordings, so
that you can just sit back and enjoy Art Tatum's
magnificent piano playing. It certainly is
magnificent, justifying the awe in which he
is held by most jazz pianists as well as jazz
fans. His technique was genuinely astounding,
as is evident in the headlong Tiger Rag
and the brilliant I Know That You Know.
Strangely, he sounds less impressive in Tatum
Pole Boogie, where some of the boogie
rhythm notes seem to be missing, and the pianist
occasionally even appears to stumble.
The listener can also savour
Tatum's unique approach to classical pieces
like Humoresque and folk songs like
The Kerry Dance. The former
displays his fondness for arpeggios which
can sometimes seem excessive. Yet you can
set against this his lightness of touch and
the superb rhythmic sense which meant that,
however many liberties he took with the beat,
there was still an underlying rhythm. And
The Kerry Dance illustrates
his humorous side: giving the tune an almost
Irish lilt. Most tracks are simply stunning
in their technical wizardy: like the Gershwin
Medley, which somehow moves through The
Man I Love, Summertime, I Got
Plenty o' Nuttin', It Ain't Necessarily So
and back to The Man I Love with such
seamless transitions that they are hardly
noticeable.
All in all, this is a fine
remembrance of a superlative pianist. But
I would rather hear this album at home than
sit in a theatre staring at a piano on a stage,
apparently played by a robot.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Zenph
by Sony 88697-22218-2
