[Dixielandjazz] Jazz web site

[Steve barbone]

on 8/15/05 12:02 PM, Charlie Hooks at charliehooks2 at earthlink.net wrote:
 
> On Monday, August 15, 2005, at 08:49 AM, Steve barbone wrote:
> 
>> Things like Oscar Peterson 's reaction on first hearing Art Tatum
>> play which
>> will delight Tatum fans Bill Haesler et. al.
>> 
>> http://www.jazzstandards.com/
> 
> Fascinating site, which in it's Tatum/Peterson entry  [We had a beer
> or two and I said, `Hey, man, I'd like to hear you play!' ... I
> couldn't believe what I was hearing .. By the time he got through I
> couldn't take it anymore...] totally contradicts Peterson's own
> reminiscence of first having heard Tatum on a recording and having
> been unwilling to believe it was only one man playing.  I heard
> Peterson tell this to Andre Previn onstage during a show where Previn
> conducted.  Peterson said that when he was finally convinced it was
> only one guy on the recording, he stopped playing for a long time,
> just gave it up.   Luckily, he got over all that.   But there's real
> contradiction here with the "We had a beer or two and I said,"
> scenario.  Makes me wonder just how far to trust this site.

I hear you Charlie. In Gene Lees' bio of OP, he states on page 30 that when
OP was a teenager and feeling smug one day, his dad said there's something I
want you to hear. He played a record of Tatum's Tiger Rag. He then quotes OP
as saying: "And truthfully, I gave up the piano for 2 solid months; and I
had crying fits at night." About 4 years later Ray Brown introduced OP to
Tatum in Washington where OP's trio was playing..

Lees  on page 102 talks about that saying that OP, with Tatum there in an
after hours joint, played 2 conservative chorus' of Tea For Two (a tune
owned by Tatum). Then Tatum said: "I'm an egoist. As long as I'm alive , I
don't figure I'm going to let you have it. But you have it and you're next
after me."

"Then Art played," Oscar remembered. "It fractured me."

As an aside, OP had a great fear of playing in from of Tatum. They became
great friends and Tatum kept encouraging him to the point that OP got over
that fear and didn't worry about that sort of thing anymore.

OP is a giant of a pianist and a neat man. Much more than a clone of Tatum
as some folks would have us believe. I had dinner with him at bassist Chuck
Traeger's Greenwich Village pad 50 some years ago, when OP was playing in
NYC. Chuck's wife June, was from Toronto Canada and they were friends of OP.
A memorable experience.

Like you say, Anecdotal evidence is usually a bit off, probably because of
our failing memories at this age. :-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve (The older I get, the better I was) Barbone