Search - Art Tatum :: Art of Tatum

A useful compilation

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 04/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc provides a useful one-disc sampler of Tatum's solo recordings from 1932 and 1940, with a live trio track from 1944 rather oddly tacked on at the end. It focusses on his renditions of jazz standards by Ellington, Gershwin, Arlen, Handy, &c, rather than the Tin Pan Alley material which often made up his repertoire; there's also a couple of his arrangements of light-classical repertoire (Massenet's "Elegie" & Dvorak's "Humoresque"). There's lovely versions of "Deep Purple" & "Stormy Weather" which demonstrate that when Tatum slowed down he could be a sensitive ballad-player, with a harmonic sophistication that would be unmatched until players like Bill Evans in the 1960s. The beauty of Tatum's touch comes through even on these old recordings (remastered decently if not spectacularly by ASV)--despite his fleetness, there's rarely a music-box mechanicalness, like that which can afflict Oscar Peterson's work in this vein, for instance. There's the requisite amount of inhumanly fast stride piano here--impressive, but a little goes a long way--but what makes the disc a satisfying listen is the generous helping of relaxed, bluesy renditions of standards like "Chloe".A good compilation. The liner notes are as usual with Tatum discs extremely fulsome & of little use, but the selection is a good one. Despite the dustiness of the sound, it's a highly listenable collection. (Those who want to hear Tatum with better sound quality might head to the 2-CD set of his work for Capitol.)"