The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 6
| The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 6 | ||||
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| Art Tatum's studio album | ||||
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Publication |
1957/1990 |
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| Label (s) | Verve , Pablo Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
(CD) |
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| occupation | ||||
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Studio (s) |
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The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 6 is a jazz album by Art Tatum , recorded in Los Angeles on January 27, 1956. It was released under the current title in 1990 on Pablo Records .
The album
In the three years before his death, the legendary swing pianist had the opportunity to record material for Norman Granz in eight different combo formations after the marathon sessions of his solo recordings (published as The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vols. 1-7 ) , which was later released in the 1970s on its label Pablo Records . Tatum played with swing veterans such as Benny Carter and Louie Bellson (Vol. 1, 1954), with Roy Eldridge , Alvin Stoller (Vol. 2, 1955), with Buddy Rich and Lionel Hampton (Vols. 3 & 4, 1955) as well as in an expanded line-up in September 1955 again with Hampton, Rich and Harry "Sweets" Edison , Barney Kessel and bassist Red Callender . This then took part in the following session in a trio line-up, which took place in January 1956; This time the drummer was Jo Jones . The three musicians played a repertoire of jazz standards from the Great American Songbook such as the Cole Porter numbers “ Love for Sale ” and “ Just One of Those Things ”, Arthur Herzog's “Some Other Spring” or “Isn't It Romantic” by Rodgers and Hart , supplemented by Tatum's own composition, the "Trio Blues".
In the last years of his life, Art Tatum played mainly in the trio line-up and thus formally joined his legendary trios of the 1940s with Tiny Grimes and Slam Stewart or with Everett Barksdale . In contrast to his trio in 1956, the players in the earlier formations had more artistic freedom; with the band of Tatum, Stewart and Grimes the piano was not the main focus; The harmonic and melodic interplay between Tatum and Grimes was important. The critic Benny Green wrote in the liner notes that the Tatum Callender Jones Band was artistically between the Stewart Grimes Trio and Art Tatum's solo projects; the pianist plays his solo improvisations with a rhythm section behind him; Tatum thus dominated the musical scene.
In February there was another trio session with Red Callender, this time with drummer Bill Douglass ; in the fall he met Ben Webster with this trio again . These were Tatum's last recordings; the pianist died on November 5, 1956.
Rating of the album
Benny Green reports in the Liner Notes on the controversies surrounding Tatum's style; his piano playing is not "clean jazz", the current album was particularly hostile to his own composition "Trio Blues"; a critic at the time wrote of "a cunning parody of the blues". Richard Cook and Brian Morton rated the trio recordings of Tatum in the Penguin Guide to Jazz with the highest grade of four stars and count them among the highlights in the series of group recordings by the pianist in changing line-ups produced by Norman Granz.
The titles
- Art Tatum Trio - The Tatum Group Masterpieces Vol. 6 (Pablo)
- Just One of Those Things ( Cole Porter ) 7:10
- More Than You Know ( Vincent Youmans - Eliscu - Rose) 3:34
- Some Other Spring ( Arthur Herzog Jr. ) 4:43
- If (Hargreaves-Evans-Damerell) 3:29
- Blue Lou (Sampson - Mills) 3:01
- Love for Sale (Porter) 5:28
- Isn't It Romantic (Rodgers-Hart) 3:51
- I'll Never Be the Same ( Matty Malneck - Frank Signorelli - Gus Kahn ) 4:50
- I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plans ( Arthur Schwartz - Howard Dietz ) 3:36
- Trio Blues (Art Tatum) 4:59
Editorial notes
The session first appeared on Verve , after the original LP was sold out, then Granz acquired the rights to the master tapes in 1971 and released the recordings on the Pablo Records label, which was newly founded in the 1970s, under the title Art Tatum-Red Callender- Jo Jones (Pablo 2310-735). In 1990 it was re-released on CD within a series of eight recording sessions in the Group Masterpieces series . The individual albums of the series recorded by Norman Granz from 1954 to August 1956 were released as a 6-CD set under the title Art Tatum - The Complete Pablo Group Masterpieces (6PACD-4401-2).
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
- Benny Green: Liner Notes.
Web links
- Liner Notes online at demonoid.com
- Reference to the Art Tatum Trio in Rolling Stone
- Review by John Crosset
Remarks
- ↑ In the original: "a sly parody of the blues". Quoted from Green, Liner Notes.