Tatum

I have been performing short piano sets at Coronation Cafe in Amherst, MA. At this cafe, there is an upright piano (lately, the E a 10th above middle C is unfortunately not in service). On this piano there is an invitation to play it. So every time I get lunch there, I play either before or after lunch (or both).

Today I played:

1. Blue In Green
2. Improvisation over bars 3 and 4 of Blue In Green*
3. Someday My Prince Will Come

As I was getting a fork to eat the salad I had ordered, an approaching-elderly gentleman, Gary, stopped me and asked “is Art Tatum one of your influences?” Deeply flattered, I said, “well, maybe, yes, but not exactly..” Bill Evans was of course who I said was my biggest influence, at least on the piano. I mentioned Fats Waller, also, as indeed lately I have been influenced by Honeysuckle Rose, drawing heavy parallels between the left hand in, say, a Chopin waltz and the heavy-duty work of the left hand in stride piano; and indeed the improvisation over bars 3 and 4 was in the stride style; and indeed, Art Tatum, among other things, all but perfected that style. So perhaps that is where Gary heard the influence.

In any case, I am proud to bring to the mind of any listener the least glimmer of the pianist of whom Rachmaninoff himself had said that he was the greatest living pianist in any style.

Onward and upward.

* All it is is 4 chords: Dm7 D♭7♭5 Cm7 F7 — in B♭ that would be simply iiim7 subV7♯11/iii iim7 V7, where “sub” means tritone subtitution. It’s easier for me to think of it as ♯11 than ♭5.