Tatum had such a massive musical vocabulary and knowledge of the western system of music - including the elements of European classical and folk music as well as American blues, ragtime, stride, and popular music of his time - that he had so much raw material to choose from when putting together a piece for a 3-minute recording that it's no wonder some of his music just overwhelms the listener, as he tries to cram as many interesting and logical ideas into a very brief space and time. Perhaps that's why he played so fast ! This piece (Elegy) was considered by many for a long time as perhaps the greatest piano solo ever captured on vinyl in that era. It stunned everybody in both the jazz and classical worlds. To me, his 1949 recording of "Aunt Hagar's Blues" is just as emblematic of Tatum's genius of putting together all kinds of musical elements to create something so stunningly original that no other player would have thought of it in a million years. Plus "Aunt Hagar's Blues" is much simpler than "Elegy", but is no less brilliant in what Tatum does with it. I would highly recommend listening to that piece for those interested in Tatum's other stellar performances.
So for the last week I have had , “ This is Art Tatum” on my Spotify.. a true musical genius, and I have mostly listened in awe of the huge, rich harmonies (way ahead of his time), the lightening speed runs and the fast paced stride in the bass.. wow! Thanks for slowing it all down a bit and analyzing for us mere mortals 🎹 lol
@@luvzrsvpsheets9713 Johnny Costa was a wonderful player, and had that marvelous technique of the 19th century European virtuosos, as did Tatum. And Costa could imitate Tatum note-for-note. I and many others really admired his abilities. Oscar Petersen tells an interesting story to Andre Previn about meeting Johnny Costa (though Oscar declined to name Costa directly as a courtesy, true gentleman that Oscar was). The way Oscar tells it, someone very impressed with Costa asked Petersen to meet him and give him a listen one day when he was in that town (Pittsburgh, since that's where Costa, like so many other jazz musicians, was from). Johnny played a couple of Tatum's more popular arrangements like "Tea for Two" and "Sweet Lorraine", note for note as Tatum had recorded them. Of course, anyone who can imitate Tatum note-for-note is impressive...and piano students in conservatories around the world work at mastering Tatum arrangements just as they do Liszt and Rachmaninoff. But Oscar, himself quite capable of imitating Tatum, asked Costa to play something that Tatum hadn't recorded himself...to get an idea of how Costa approaches a piece in his own way, instead of Tatum's way. So Oscar asked him to play Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm", a tune which Tatum had not himself recorded. Shockingly, Costa froze...said he didn't know the song. But "surely you know the tune", Petersen replied. Costa indeed knew the tune, as did the whole world, but told Petersen he had never tried to play it before, and declined to attempt to play it. To Petersen, it was like Johnny couldn't play a piece unless he had heard how someone else (i.e., Tatum) played it first. The moral of Petersen's story was that a player like Costa had impeccable technique, but lacked the improvisational creativity to put all that technique to effective use in the jazz idiom. He excelled at playing a piece as "written", as classical pianists are trained to do to a large extent, and could play anything put in front of him. But coming up with his own ideas for treating and playing a piece of music just was not Costa's strong suit...which is probably why Costa never became the jazz pianist of Petersen's or Erroll Garner's or Bill Evans' world-class stature, though he certainly had the chops and did record a couple of albums where his playing is lovely and flawless. It was also Petersen's way of describing what put Tatum so high above other great piano players in the jazz and classical worlds...the depth of his musical imagination and insights combined with his stunning fluency that allowed him to disassemble and then reassemble a musical piece in ways other players could never dream of. And the speed and depth at which he could think, improvise, and execute on the fly put Tatum in a class of his own. Oscar's story about meeting Costa was certainly not to insult him. Nobody can deny that Johnny Costa was a wonderful pianist. It's just that Oscar was describing the main thing that separates a great classical performer from a great jazz performer. In the classical world, acquiring virtuoso technique is pretty much the finish line, whereas in jazz - especially since Tatum - instrumental virtuosity is the START line, with the finish line being as far as your musical imagination and creativity can take you.
I really appreciate the way you break down what he's doing, at a slower speed that is easier to comprehend, highlighting the melody, and taking the complex performance apart into its component parts and explaining each one, before putting them together to see how they all fit and work. That's a really great way to look at it, rather than attempting to explain it all at once, as many others may do. I need to go to bed but will check out the rest of the video when I have time, since I've only gotten 4 minutes into it.
In Toledo Ohio they have a library with an entire section dedicated to Art Tatum's music (Kent Library, Collingwlod and Central Ave) great resource! Thanks for the insights....
I never 'got' Art's music, it always seemed like he was playing at 78 or 156 rpm! then I'd hear some of the best stride notes in creation and just when I started to enjoy them, off he'd go into the wild blue yonder! You've done an amazing job of explaining with good cheer why it is that he 'loses me' so often. Thanks Dave!
Thank you Dave! if I could offer you a suggestion for your Master Class, it would be the most famous jazz-guitarist in history: Django Reinhardt, along with the best jazz-violinist Stephen Grapelli. You have a great talent for describing the joy of music!
The section in the beginning where he played the melody in his left hand is probably borrowed from the piano piece "Elegie no 5 " by classical composer Jules Massenet
Lol. Well I got to hear Oscar Peterson play live, solo, 1978, Stratford, Ontario… Lol… Until they kicked me out for being a waitress without a permit… I was an American actress…… Anyway… Errol Gardener has always been and always will be my ultimate favorite… But ask her, or Tatum and Erroll Garner… Gods. Gods, Kings, gods, don’t get me started. Thank you so much, Dave, this was terrific! Art Tatum. U are SOMETHING ELSE !- PS- Art and Oscar both had huge hands. You have to admit, it’s amazing but Erroll Garner got to do, his little 5 foot two self come up with those little, strong muscular hands. So. There you go. PS, can we talk about Rachmaninoff here, speaking of Hugh Jan’s? My music teacher in Indiana… Before we move to Belgium and then I was an actress in England… And a singer… Blah blah blah blah… Anyway… my beloved music teacher in South Bend Indiana… Junior high years, early 1970s… Thais Gates - She was the Prima pianist in Chicago, 1920s, 1930s… And she got to hold Rachmaninoff’s pearl gray gloves as a privilege in her hands, for him, standing in the wings. Let’s hear it for these brilliant pianists !!!
I absolutely loved this entire video presentation. This is an outstanding video presentation. Thank you, and please keep them coming. I just subscribed to your channel. Great stuff here. Thank you.
hi from NYC, thank you for writing) Please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at davefrankjazz.com for 53 in-depth master classes, all free for you!
Great video, thanks for posting! I should mention that the idea of putting the bass in the left hand and ornamenting the right with runs is very old, and probably used in classical and romantic era music a whole lot (although I can't name any specific examples). In popular piano playing in the U. S. A. it dates back AT LEAST to Mike Bernard, star vaudeville pianist in the 1890s thru early 1910s, who influenced many people with his virtuosity, although he wasn't a "jazz" pianist in any sense, except for perhaps improvisation. Bernard had a very impressive way of putting the melody in the left hand, which is easy enough once you practice it, BUT then putting superfast flawless runs over the top of it, in the high treble, and in fact all over the treble keyboard of the piano, some of which are remarkably difficult to execute at speed and display his considerable technical training. I am not sure whether the use of this device in the context of American popular music originated with Bernard or whether he took it from one or several of the legions of unrecorded pianists in the 1890s-1910s and earlier. Given what little I've seen so far of the tens of thousands of piano and piano/vocal scores of popular music published in the USA from the Revolution to the 1890s, it's likely the idea, or an ancestor of it, was in use for decades before Bernard came on the scene. Regardless, this device can be heard in Bernard's dozen or so sides for Columbia records recorded in the 1912-1918 period and available on a compilation album from Brad Kay's Superbatone Records (a few of these sides have been reissued on Folkways, Herwin, Timeless, Pearl, and other record reissue labels, but this is the only place where they are all collected into one album). Some of Bernard's records, including his fantastic "Medley of [publisher Ted] Snyder's Hits" can be found on UA-cam on the channel "Ragtimist", uploaded as backgrounds to early silent films. This aspect of Bernard's style / device was emulated by many subsequent pianists who were born slightly later, and some born about 20 years later, including Malvin M. Franklin (who recorded for Emerson records in the mid teens and made many rolls for American Piano Co. / Rythmodik starting around 1913), and Sol "Violinsky" Ginsberg (who can be heard playing this piano style in his Vitaphone film short), and even George Gershwin, who specifically singles out Bernard and this device in the introduction to his "Song Book". Also, and very notably, one of Bernard's devoted followers, Pete Wendling, (who, in my opinion, was much more of a real jazz/swinging pianist, with, IMO, also more of a true ragtime feel to his playing), used this device frequently in his piano rolls and some of his records, where he also innovated new ways of restating it in various contexts, as he was wont to do with nearly any pianistic device he found. Mr. Tatum could have learned the device from any earlier romantic / classical piece that used it, and/or Bernard's records, and/or Franklin's and/or Wendling's rolls, or from someone else (it's unlikely he got it from Franklin's records or Wendling's records, since they're extremely rare and probably were only originally produced in small numbers).
Tatum had such a massive musical vocabulary and knowledge of the western system of music - including the elements of European classical and folk music as well as American blues, ragtime, stride, and popular music of his time - that he had so much raw material to choose from when putting together a piece for a 3-minute recording that it's no wonder some of his music just overwhelms the listener, as he tries to cram as many interesting and logical ideas into a very brief space and time. Perhaps that's why he played so fast ! This piece (Elegy) was considered by many for a long time as perhaps the greatest piano solo ever captured on vinyl in that era. It stunned everybody in both the jazz and classical worlds.
To me, his 1949 recording of "Aunt Hagar's Blues" is just as emblematic of Tatum's genius of putting together all kinds of musical elements to create something so stunningly original that no other player would have thought of it in a million years. Plus "Aunt Hagar's Blues" is much simpler than "Elegy", but is no less brilliant in what Tatum does with it. I would highly recommend listening to that piece for those interested in Tatum's other stellar performances.
So for the last week I have had , “ This is Art Tatum” on my Spotify.. a true musical genius, and I have mostly listened in awe of the huge, rich harmonies (way ahead of his time), the lightening speed runs and the fast paced stride in the bass.. wow! Thanks for slowing it all down a bit and analyzing for us mere mortals 🎹 lol
Try listening to Johnny costa ;) thank me later
@@luvzrsvpsheets9713 Johnny Costa was a wonderful player, and had that marvelous technique of the 19th century European virtuosos, as did Tatum. And Costa could imitate Tatum note-for-note. I and many others really admired his abilities.
Oscar Petersen tells an interesting story to Andre Previn about meeting Johnny Costa (though Oscar declined to name Costa directly as a courtesy, true gentleman that Oscar was). The way Oscar tells it, someone very impressed with Costa asked Petersen to meet him and give him a listen one day when he was in that town (Pittsburgh, since that's where Costa, like so many other jazz musicians, was from). Johnny played a couple of Tatum's more popular arrangements like "Tea for Two" and "Sweet Lorraine", note for note as Tatum had recorded them. Of course, anyone who can imitate Tatum note-for-note is impressive...and piano students in conservatories around the world work at mastering Tatum arrangements just as they do Liszt and Rachmaninoff. But Oscar, himself quite capable of imitating Tatum, asked Costa to play something that Tatum hadn't recorded himself...to get an idea of how Costa approaches a piece in his own way, instead of Tatum's way. So Oscar asked him to play Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm", a tune which Tatum had not himself recorded. Shockingly, Costa froze...said he didn't know the song. But "surely you know the tune", Petersen replied. Costa indeed knew the tune, as did the whole world, but told Petersen he had never tried to play it before, and declined to attempt to play it. To Petersen, it was like Johnny couldn't play a piece unless he had heard how someone else (i.e., Tatum) played it first.
The moral of Petersen's story was that a player like Costa had impeccable technique, but lacked the improvisational creativity to put all that technique to effective use in the jazz idiom. He excelled at playing a piece as "written", as classical pianists are trained to do to a large extent, and could play anything put in front of him. But coming up with his own ideas for treating and playing a piece of music just was not Costa's strong suit...which is probably why Costa never became the jazz pianist of Petersen's or Erroll Garner's or Bill Evans' world-class stature, though he certainly had the chops and did record a couple of albums where his playing is lovely and flawless. It was also Petersen's way of describing what put Tatum so high above other great piano players in the jazz and classical worlds...the depth of his musical imagination and insights combined with his stunning fluency that allowed him to disassemble and then reassemble a musical piece in ways other players could never dream of. And the speed and depth at which he could think, improvise, and execute on the fly put Tatum in a class of his own.
Oscar's story about meeting Costa was certainly not to insult him. Nobody can deny that Johnny Costa was a wonderful pianist. It's just that Oscar was describing the main thing that separates a great classical performer from a great jazz performer. In the classical world, acquiring virtuoso technique is pretty much the finish line, whereas in jazz - especially since Tatum - instrumental virtuosity is the START line, with the finish line being as far as your musical imagination and creativity can take you.
@@ltravail that's not true, that wasn't Costa, it was another pianist who's name wasn't pronounce in the interview
I really appreciate the way you break down what he's doing, at a slower speed that is easier to comprehend, highlighting the melody, and taking the complex performance apart into its component parts and explaining each one, before putting them together to see how they all fit and work. That's a really great way to look at it, rather than attempting to explain it all at once, as many others may do. I need to go to bed but will check out the rest of the video when I have time, since I've only gotten 4 minutes into it.
Dave, this is beyond amazing. Thank you so much for letting us in on this workshop
In Toledo Ohio they have a library with an entire section dedicated to Art Tatum's music (Kent Library, Collingwlod and Central Ave) great resource! Thanks for the insights....
I never 'got' Art's music, it always seemed like he was playing at 78 or 156 rpm! then I'd hear some of the best stride notes in creation and just when I started to enjoy them, off he'd go into the wild blue yonder! You've done an amazing job of explaining with good cheer why it is that he 'loses me' so often. Thanks Dave!
hi, thanks for writing, please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at www.davefrankjazz.com)
Thank you Dave!
if I could offer you a suggestion for your Master Class, it would be the most famous jazz-guitarist in history: Django Reinhardt, along with the best jazz-violinist Stephen Grapelli. You have a great talent for describing the joy of music!
Thank you for writing and for your excellent suggestions)
Thanks for this superb educational video. Excellent to see a breakdown of Tatum's genius.
thanks for writing, please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at www.davefrankjazz.com for 43 in-depth master classes, all free)
The section in the beginning where he played the melody in his left hand is probably borrowed from the piano piece "Elegie no 5 " by classical composer Jules Massenet
It is for sure!
Thank you so much Dave! You you lift part of the veil of this great mystery.
Great job as always. Thanks for posting. I will start studying these conceptions right now.
ok you better!
Yeah!! Thanks for a great lesson Dave.
yer velcome)
this is sooo good. sometimes I even think Art was better than Chopin
maybe Art *was* Chopin)
maybe!
Lol. Well
I got to hear Oscar Peterson play live, solo, 1978, Stratford, Ontario… Lol… Until they kicked me out for being a waitress without a permit… I was an American actress…… Anyway… Errol Gardener has always been and always will be my ultimate favorite… But ask her, or Tatum and Erroll Garner… Gods. Gods, Kings, gods, don’t get me started. Thank you so much, Dave, this was terrific!
Art Tatum. U are SOMETHING ELSE !- PS- Art and Oscar both had huge hands. You have to admit, it’s amazing but Erroll Garner got to do, his little 5 foot two self come up with those little, strong muscular hands. So. There you go. PS, can we talk about Rachmaninoff here, speaking of Hugh Jan’s? My music teacher in Indiana… Before we move to Belgium and then I was an actress in England… And a singer… Blah blah blah blah… Anyway… my beloved music teacher in South Bend Indiana… Junior high years, early 1970s… Thais Gates - She was the Prima pianist in Chicago, 1920s, 1930s… And she got to hold Rachmaninoff’s pearl gray gloves as a privilege in her hands, for him, standing in the wings. Let’s hear it for these brilliant pianists !!!
amazing lesson, like always! :)
BRAVISSIMO MAESTRO!!!! Well Done Professor!!!!! Thank you.
Thanks for writing, please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at www.davefrankjazz.com for 44 in depth master classes, all free)
finally, some decent educational piano content that's not designed for absolute novices
Please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at www.davefrankjazz.com, there are 39 in-depth master classes, all free)
I absolutely loved this entire video presentation. This is an outstanding video presentation. Thank you, and please keep them coming. I just subscribed to your channel. Great stuff here. Thank you.
hi from NYC, thank you for writing) Please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at davefrankjazz.com for 53 in-depth master classes, all free for you!
@@DaveFrank Thank you, Dave, that sounds awesome. I definitely will be watching the master classes. I'm really glad to know about them.
@@4000angels stay safe from NYC)
Great video, thanks for posting!
I should mention that the idea of putting the bass in the left hand and ornamenting the right with runs is very old, and probably used in classical and romantic era music a whole lot (although I can't name any specific examples).
In popular piano playing in the U. S. A. it dates back AT LEAST to Mike Bernard, star vaudeville pianist in the 1890s thru early 1910s, who influenced many people with his virtuosity, although he wasn't a "jazz" pianist in any sense, except for perhaps improvisation.
Bernard had a very impressive way of putting the melody in the left hand, which is easy enough once you practice it, BUT then putting superfast flawless runs over the top of it, in the high treble, and in fact all over the treble keyboard of the piano, some of which are remarkably difficult to execute at speed and display his considerable technical training.
I am not sure whether the use of this device in the context of American popular music originated with Bernard or whether he took it from one or several of the legions of unrecorded pianists in the 1890s-1910s and earlier. Given what little I've seen so far of the tens of thousands of piano and piano/vocal scores of popular music published in the USA from the Revolution to the 1890s, it's likely the idea, or an ancestor of it, was in use for decades before Bernard came on the scene.
Regardless, this device can be heard in Bernard's dozen or so sides for Columbia records recorded in the 1912-1918 period and available on a compilation album from Brad Kay's Superbatone Records (a few of these sides have been reissued on Folkways, Herwin, Timeless, Pearl, and other record reissue labels, but this is the only place where they are all collected into one album). Some of Bernard's records, including his fantastic "Medley of [publisher Ted] Snyder's Hits" can be found on UA-cam on the channel "Ragtimist", uploaded as backgrounds to early silent films.
This aspect of Bernard's style / device was emulated by many subsequent pianists who were born slightly later, and some born about 20 years later, including Malvin M. Franklin (who recorded for Emerson records in the mid teens and made many rolls for American Piano Co. / Rythmodik starting around 1913), and Sol "Violinsky" Ginsberg (who can be heard playing this piano style in his Vitaphone film short), and even George Gershwin, who specifically singles out Bernard and this device in the introduction to his "Song Book".
Also, and very notably, one of Bernard's devoted followers, Pete Wendling, (who, in my opinion, was much more of a real jazz/swinging pianist, with, IMO, also more of a true ragtime feel to his playing), used this device frequently in his piano rolls and some of his records, where he also innovated new ways of restating it in various contexts, as he was wont to do with nearly any pianistic device he found.
Mr. Tatum could have learned the device from any earlier romantic / classical piece that used it, and/or Bernard's records, and/or Franklin's and/or Wendling's rolls, or from someone else (it's unlikely he got it from Franklin's records or Wendling's records, since they're extremely rare and probably were only originally produced in small numbers).
great lesson! thx for sharing!!!
Great lesson.
thanks for writing, please enjoy a visit to the master class archive at www.davefrankjazz for 57 in-depth master classes, all free)
great work man!
YAY!
grazie Dave
bella lesson
Thank you for this very enjoyable and instructional video! Just curious, what type and size piano are you playing?
Steinway D I believe
Dave Frank Thank you!
you are welcome)
Excelente. Maestro😊😑
Great! Thank you.How do I obtain a Transcription of what you have played in this video? This would be very helpful!Thank you again.
Hi, I will get a transcription up on my website www.davefrankjazz.com master class archive this week, thanks for asking)
What sheet has that stride on it I could play it but want to have a sheet of it for reference and review it more in depth
TY
YW)
🎵ART~ATUM 🎶 (28 phalanges/88 keys) = Pi Transcendental + Ano/Ani. “Pupil of The Eye”
❤❤❤
diminished run 20:37
КЛАССНО!
16:34
1st 😊😊😊😊
5:17 How is that an Em6?
Idk Chris
It’s an Em6+2. E (I), B (V), f# (ii), G (iii), B (V), c# (vi), f# (ii)
Vibratory Universe oooohh ok thanks for helping me out👍
Lmfao at thinking the f# is functionally a 2, it doesn't function as a suspension so it's just a 9 (colour tone)
are there people talking over you!?
18:00