Jazz of the past Art Tatum, part II
[00:05 - 00:16]
Ghettos of the past.
[00:16 - 00:21]
Welcome to a half an hour of jazz classics from the private collection of the money come
[00:21 - 00:27]
from. These old 78 rpm recordings are now a collector's item.
[00:27 - 00:33]
And here to comment on the music and play some of the records for you is Lenny.
[00:33 - 00:37]
Now we're going to explore some more records. This time the second show
[00:37 - 00:42]
of Art Tatum. And in this particular case we're going to play a series
[00:42 - 00:47]
asides that he made for the common record people when he had a date of a
[00:47 - 00:51]
trio with Swayam Stuart on bass in tiny Grimes on
[00:51 - 00:56]
guitar. And of course Tatum on piano. And it produced some very
[00:56 - 01:01]
interesting. Well collaboration is the best word I think because it's
[01:01 - 01:06]
certainly evident that these three men think alike and it's magnificent to hear them
[01:06 - 01:11]
sort of shuffle back and forth with their instruments. Now it also shows in this case that
[01:11 - 01:15]
Tatum was a remarkable musician as far as feeling his way along with other
[01:15 - 01:20]
musicians. After he played for a certain length of time and you can sure
[01:20 - 01:25]
feel that report of course timing Grimes is a most natural musician and of course slam Stuart
[01:25 - 01:29]
is can even be a clown on his instrument. But in this case you can see the
[01:29 - 01:34]
seriousness of the three men working together comes through quite
[01:34 - 01:38]
often in that along with the human along with the
[01:38 - 01:44]
technical skill that they all possess. And of course slam Stuart as you find it in this
[01:44 - 01:49]
particular series of plays a bowed bass where he hums along
[01:49 - 01:54]
with his his figure ations on the bass and produces a very unusual
[01:54 - 01:59]
sound especially for a bass man who usually plucks the instrument. So we're going
[01:59 - 02:04]
to start out and we'll hear this first one which is a slow one so we sort of get into the
[02:04 - 02:05]
show body and soul.
[02:05 - 02:49]
0. 0.
[02:49 - 02:56]
0. 0. 0. 0. 0.
[02:56 - 03:01]
0. 1. 0. 0.
[03:01 - 03:01]
0.
[03:01 - 03:17]
Oh.
[03:17 - 03:21]
Oh. Oh.
[03:21 - 03:37]
Oh.
[03:37 - 03:43]
Oh. Oh.
[03:43 - 03:55]
Oh. Oh. Oh.
[03:55 - 04:05]
Oh. Oh. Oh.
[04:05 - 04:11]
Oh.
[04:11 - 04:22]
Oh. Oh. Oh.
[04:22 - 04:30]
Oh.
[04:30 - 04:31]
Oh. Oh oh.
[04:31 - 06:42]
Oh.
[06:42 - 06:49]
Now again we're going to hear this same trio and we're going to hear it up temple one and boy do they
[06:49 - 06:55]
get around on knees up temple ones of course I think the most famous uptempo one they
[06:55 - 07:00]
made was a T for to where they keep changing the
[07:00 - 07:06]
key constantly just keep changing from one shift to next to the next.
[07:06 - 07:10]
But on this next one when I would hear them doing that and it's dark eyes.
[07:10 - 07:46]
From. 0. 0.
[07:46 - 07:54]
0. 0. 0. 0. 0.
[07:54 - 07:59]
0. 0.
[07:59 - 08:06]
0. 0. 0.
[08:06 - 08:08]
0. 0. 0.
[08:08 - 09:16]
For. For.
[09:16 - 09:21]
For. For. For.
[09:21 - 09:27]
For.
[09:27 - 09:34]
For for for.
[09:34 - 09:35]
For.
[09:35 - 11:57]
Now again we're going to hear the same trio and this time is down the arch label the
[11:57 - 12:02]
ash label excuse me. And noirish had this label and he
[12:02 - 12:06]
recorded the same group as the comet records used
[12:06 - 12:11]
and these records are of course
[12:11 - 12:17]
very famous with a whole bunch that this particular trio made. And of course
[12:17 - 12:22]
then the trio diss out. But in any case we're going to hear if I
[12:22 - 12:22]
had you.
[12:22 - 13:30]
True.
[13:30 - 13:43]
For. Her.
[13:43 - 13:59]
For. All.
[13:59 - 14:05]
For.
[14:05 - 14:13]
Her.
[14:13 - 14:21]
From And.
[14:21 - 14:21]
From.
[14:21 - 14:57]
For.
[14:57 - 15:11]
Her. And.
[15:11 - 15:12]
Her.
[15:12 - 15:44]
Now the next one we're going to I know that you know and again it's one of these up temple
[15:44 - 15:49]
ones that just swings from the very moment the needle hits a record and again and
[15:49 - 15:54]
again these are 78 records of course they're 12 inch records. And I hope there's not too
[15:54 - 15:58]
much surface noise on them but as far as I know these have not been
[15:58 - 16:04]
reissued. Now a lot of Tatum's things were done at the latter part of his life on
[16:04 - 16:08]
LP and they're just magnificently recorded so you might have a little bit of a
[16:08 - 16:14]
competition with with the quality in those. But these particular records
[16:14 - 16:19]
recorded during that 1045 period when they had this trio
[16:19 - 16:24]
are on 78 12 inches and 12 inches. And of course on this next
[16:24 - 16:28]
one it's at the end. Go go go so here we take off with the snakes.
[16:28 - 16:31]
Oh.
[16:31 - 18:11]
Whoa.
[18:11 - 18:35]
Whoa.
[18:35 - 18:35]
Whoa whoa.
[18:35 - 20:54]
I think the most charming thing about these records by Art Tatum and of course Tony Grimes on
[20:54 - 20:59]
guitar is the fact that the give and take of the two.
[20:59 - 21:04]
It's just as though their minds are working as one and torso. Of course it it points out the
[21:04 - 21:07]
fact that tiny Grimes is really a remarkable musician
[21:07 - 21:13]
under-rated perhaps because of course Tatum has always had this terrific reputation
[21:13 - 21:18]
from the time of Gershwin himself heard Tatum and certainly one of the one of the
[21:18 - 21:23]
classical composers of Tatum in the early thirties and said if he ever had the training that
[21:23 - 21:28]
you know a classical poser would would need that he would have passed
[21:28 - 21:33]
everyone up in the classical field but in any case you can you can feel on these records that
[21:33 - 21:37]
the as I say the well-established Tatum because just about every pianist
[21:37 - 21:43]
has a favorite and it's Art Tatum. But the kind of reporter that he and tiny Grimes
[21:43 - 21:48]
get on these record I think it really points out the tiny Grimes's really remarkable musician. And he's
[21:48 - 21:53]
a musician's musician as Tatum's Tatum's work always seem to come up
[21:53 - 21:58]
sounding. So we're going out on this last one and again it's a ring a ding kind of thing
[21:58 - 22:03]
and that is. 1045
[22:03 - 22:08]
ringing kind of thing which holds up beautifully and it's the old Benny Goodman
[22:08 - 22:55]
Lionel Hampton piece called Flying home.
[22:55 - 22:58]
The end. The end.
[22:58 - 24:19]
Been.
[24:19 - 24:35]
There.
[24:35 - 24:37]
For. Her.
[24:37 - 26:38]
Well that's the second part of the two part Art Tatum
[26:38 - 26:43]
story that we've done and I sure hope that you've enjoyed these 12 inches I say most cases
[26:43 - 26:48]
12 inch 78 where Tatum was most at home when he could
[26:48 - 26:53]
expound to the full length of his ability. And of course on my last one it
[26:53 - 26:57]
sounds like he was just going to go on and write in the next week's show in fact. But
[26:57 - 27:02]
in any case I hope people like these two shows and I just bought Piano Man and I
[27:02 - 27:07]
surely I just bought Piano Man when they're of the caliber of the great late Art Tatum.
[27:07 - 28:45]
Good.
[28:45 - 28:45]
Morning.
[28:45 - 29:26]
Next week at the same time money will again so like several recordings from
[29:26 - 29:31]
his private collection of old 78 rpm jazz classics. He'll
[29:31 - 29:56]
play them for you on jazz. Of the past.
[29:56 - 30:06]
This is the University of Alaska Broadcasting Service.
[30:06 - 30:11]
This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.
🔍
This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.