Playing Art Tatum for Oscar Peterson
A Personal Reminiscence
Drs. Anatoly Larkin and John Q. Walker of Zenph Studios visited
Oscar Peterson and his wife Kelly at their home on March 26, 2007.
The visit was arranged by Mike Voelkel, a personal friend of Oscar's
and manager of the Yamaha Canada piano team, to bring Oscar the
uniquely joyful experience of sitting in his living room and
hearing Tatum play again.
The Yamaha team had installed a Disklavier Pro Mark IV grand piano
in the Peterson's home for the occasion.
It was situated beneath dozens of his honors, plaques, and photos.
To test the Pro's setup, the Yamaha team played on it a
high-resolution MIDI file
of Oscar himself we had created at Zenph (click
here
to download your own copy).
This was not a
re-performance,
but was actually derived from one of Oscar's own
Marantz Pianocorder
performance files
from the early 1980's, via Yamaha's Mike Voelkel.
(This was fairly rough data, but through the analysis and
up-conversion capabilities of Zenph's software,
they now sound quite good.)
Oscar's manager Ron was downstairs during the piano setup
and heard the Disklavier Pro playing.
He came running up the stairs, saying
"Oscar, that sounds just like you playing."
(After a couple of strokes,
Oscar didn't exactly play as he did twenty years earlier.)
And Oscar said: "That is me playing."
Peterson's mentor was the great
Art Tatum, who died at a young age in 1956.
Oscar Peterson, born in 1925,
first heard Art's playing when his dad brought him a recording
of Tatum playing the
Tiger Rag.
Oscar was stunned by the virtuosity he heard,
and asked his dad who "those guys" playing were.
His dad replied that it was just one person playing: Art Tatum.
Oscar says he gave up practicing for a week, dejected by
"the competition."
There are numerous stories by other pianists of the time,
among them Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Horowitz,
that the pianist they admired most was Art Tatum.
During our visit, Oscar was an active and entertaining host,
along with his gracious wife Kelly.
They both regaled us with stories from his long career.
We brought to him our greatest gift: the opportunity to hear his idol,
Art Tatum, play for him in his living room.
We brought eight of our Tatum re-performances® with us,
most of which were data for
Zenph's next album with Sony BMG.
We started with Tatum's living room party recording of
Too Marvelous for Words made in 1955.
Oscar had lots of comments:
"you'll never hear playing like that again,"
"they broke the mold after Tatum,"
"not even Horowitz had that level of virtuosity," and so on.
We next played Tatum doing a couple of Gershwin pieces:
Someone to Watch over Me and The Man I Love.
At some point, Oscar was wiping tears from his eyes,
and Kelly went out and got him a clean white handkerchief.
Then came Tatum's
I Know That You Know,
and there were smiles,
chuckles, grins, and laughter all around.
Tatum's playing in this piece brings such joy, and it continued
to work its magic.
Oscar then told the story about his hearing Tatum's recording of
Tiger Rag
the first time, and we asked
"would you like to hear Tatum play it now?"
So, we played the re-performance, to the amazement of all in the room.
Then we played it again.
"Lots of pianists are going to commit suicide when they hear your
new album," he observed several times (we hope not, we replied).
Oscar told an extended story about one of Art Tatum's recording
sessions with Norman Granz.
Apparently, Art had a wire coming out of his ear all throughout the
recording session.
Well, Art was a big LA Laker's basketball fan, and while he was making
one of the seminal up-tempo piano recordings in jazz history,
he was simultaneously listening to a Laker's
basketball game with one ear.
Oscar's daughter Celine stopped in for a couple of numbers.
She sat behind her dad,
and he pointed out features of Art Tatum's playing.
We followed with Art's re-performances of Yesterdays,
Kerry Dance, and Willow Weep for Me.
Oscar pointed out a picture of him with Art Tatum at the
Hollywood Bowl - the picture happened to be right behind the piano
(it's shown at the right).
"That was my last meeting with Art," he observed,
"and he gave me the biggest compliment.
He said, 'this is my time now. You are next.'"
Oscar had extensive classical piano training, studying for many years
with Paul de Marky - whose teacher had studied with Franz Liszt.
He told stories of always pressing the point "that music is music":
he rejects those classical piano teachers who look down on jazz.
He also discussed his work with string bass players.
He played many years with Ray Brown, starting around 1949.
Ray apparently became quite nervous when Art Tatum would walk into a
room where they were playing, and his voice would become high-pitched.
On a few occasions with Art in the room,
Oscar admitted to shaking like a leaf.
(Zenph's next instrument after piano is string bass, and
our first bass demo
features Ray Brown in re-performance with the
Oscar Peterson Trio.)
Kelly brought in her camcorder
and shot lots of footage of the Tatum piano re-performances,
Oscar's reactions, and our discussion.
She served us all freshly-cooked lemon sesame cake,
and we departed after a couple of priceless hours.
