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Art Tatum: Jewels In The Treasure Box
by Pierre Giroux
In the annals of jazz history, certain recordings stand out as treasures, not only capturing the essence of a particular era but also the sheer brilliance of the musicians involved. Jewels In the Treasure Box, the 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club recordings, featuring the virtuosic trio of Art Tatum on piano, Everett Barksdale on guitar and Slam Stewart on bass, is undeniably one such gem. This three-CD set of newly unearthed, unissued live recordings is being released on Resonance ...
read moreEffervescence: Art Tatum Meets Champagne
by Kristen Lee Sergeant
This edition of Jazz & Juice comes with a warning: both the bottle featured and the musician spotlighted are explosive, and should be handled with care. Uncork and listen responsibly. Effervescence When something sparkles, literally or figuratively, it bursts with life. In liquid, there is a perpetual motion of bubbles escaping in a dazzling show of speed within a seemingly static glass. When we listen to effervescent music, we experience something that lifts us in delight and velocity ...
read moreArt Tatum: Nursery Rhymes A La Tatum
by Ken Dryden
Art Tatum was a piano virtuoso whose improvising skills impressed even the likes of classical greats such as Vladimir Horowitz, though he had a fondness for folk songs in addition to standards and jazz favorites. This recording came about when a friend, Mitt Kinder, and his wife Mutti, announced the arrival of their first child, a boy named Zeus. Since the Kinders were huge fans of Tatum's jazz records, he decided to surprise them with a special recording made just ...
read moreInto the ‘Now’s The Time’ Warp & Much More
by Marc Cohn
Oh, what a show for you! We start with twenty-first century New-Orleans-centric sounds from Charlie Dennard on the B-3, Billy Martin's Wicked Knee, Binker Golding, and a sexy song from Herlin Riley. We celebrate the life of Sonny Rollins with tracks from his Jazz Contrasts sideman gig with Kenny Dorham. And then there are two really top-shelf classics: Brubeck & Rushing (Dave's centennial year) and Art Tatum at the 88s with altoist Benny Carter. Then the professor goes for a ...
read moreNorman Granz and Verve Records (1944 - 1962)
by Russell Perry
In July 2, 1944, Norman Granz, a jazz fan and small-time LA promoter staged a concert in the Philharmonic Auditorium with $300 of borrowed money. His “Jazz at the Philharmonic" concerts were hugely successful and became tours that ran until 1957. These tours and the record labels they spawned—Clef, Norgran and especially Verve—became home to many of the great players of the 1950s, often mainstream players who had a lot of music left to play, but were not necessarily at ...
read moreArt Tatum: Trio Days
by Marc Davis
I was wrong. I like Art Tatum. But in a slightly different way. My introduction to Art Tatum, many years ago, was a series of solo piano albums. They left me cold. No question, the man was gifted beyond belief. He could play faster, more accurately and with a greater sense of fun and originality than almost any pianist between Fats Waller and Thelonious Monk. And yet his solo work never felt right to me. Something ...
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