art tatum body and soul other recordings of this song

“Body and Soul” runs for nearly six minutes, shifting tempos and mood several times, but the track never tires. If the tempo is slower, the fills are still airtight, shifting from classical-leaning structures to impressive and expressive breakdowns. “Love For Sale” is far more spacious than “Moonglow”, though no less playful. It makes for a versatile delivery of these songs. The reason Tatum’s solo recordings stand out in the solo piano tradition is that sometimes just his two hands operate the way a band does, one hand laying back in the rhythm and melody to let the other solo before they reconvene. The song is an eruption of clever piano, sometimes a duel between left hand and right, sometimes something far more complicated. “Moonglow” seems like it will ease us in with its lilting chord phrasings, until Tatum starts to fill in the gaps with breakneck-speed rundowns. These songs are both catchy meditations and wind sprints that can be tough to keep up with. These 16 tracks combine Tatum’s irrepressible sense of melody, his raucous style, and his knack for drifting far from that melody line only to heighten its effectiveness. It was Granz who supplied the PBR for Tatum during those recordings, and hearing these takes now, you can’t help but be thankful. The set has been reissued by Concord Music Group as one of a handful put out to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pablo Records, a fruitful jazz label started by Norman Granz, one-time owner of other labels like Clef, Norgran, and Verve. If this story is a case of minor, curious mythology, it also shapes the sprawling, excellent recordings that fill up The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Volume 1. The story goes like this: In late 1953, Art Tatum headed into the Radio Recorders studios in Hollywood, sat down at a bench, cracked a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon (far from his last of the night), listened to some UCLA basketball on the portable radio he brought with him, and then turned it off and said, “Let’s go”.Īfter that quick comment, Tatum went on to knock out 69 master recordings over two days.

Art tatum body and soul other recordings of this song