Tatum

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This is Art Tatum's artful (no pun intended) and swinging arrangement of Tea For Two. This sequence was originally done by my good friend and fellow ragtime fan, Irwin Schwartz of San Jose, California. I did a little editing on it and we are sure you'll like the result.

Written by Vincent Youmans (music) and Irving Caesar (lyrics) in 1924, it was first recorded by Tatum on August 10, 1932, as a two-piano arrangement (Francis Carter was the other pianist). The author of Tatum's biography, James Lester, tells this story: "After his gig . . . Art [Tatum] was met by a welcoming committee from hell: Fats [Waller], Willie The Lion [Smith], James P. [Johnson] and Lippy Boyette." Lester then quotes Maurice Waller from his biography of his father: "Art played the main theme of Vincent Youmans' big hit, "Tea For Two," and introduced his inventive harmonies, slightly altering the melodic line. Good, but not very impressive. Then it happened. Tatum's left hand worked a strong, regular beat while his right hand played dazzling arpeggios in chords loaded with flatted fifths and ninths. Both his hands then raced toward each other in skips and runs that seemed impossible to master. Then they crossed each other [!]. Tatum played the main theme again and soared to an exciting climax. "Lester quotes another witness (Robert Doerschuk) to the event: "When Tatum played "Tea For Two" that night, I guess that was the first time I ever heard it really PLAYED."

Also: "When [Tatum] played "Tea For Two", it sounded like "Tea For Two Thousand" (Timme Rosenkrantz, a Danish baron who lived in New York in the 1930s).Tatum recorded a solo version (his own arrangement) of "Tea For Two" for the first time on March 21, 1933.

Tatum and Vladimir Horowitz were good pals. When Horowitz was living in Chicago, he would attend Tatum's performances every time Tatum played Chicago. Tatum returned the favor by attending Horowitz's performances. Tatum once played "Tea For Two" for Horowitz (up close and personal). Horowitz's comment: "How do you DO that?"

Here's another story from Lester:

"The English pianist Alan Clare was once intrigued with a workman who was carrying out some remodeling inside his house. Clare was playing some recordings, and he began to notice that the workman was whistling along with whatever music he put on - Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, it didn't seem to matter. Even if he hadn't heard it before, he had the natural musical ability to follow a melody closely and almost automatically. Clare decided to give him a real test and dug up his recording of Art Tatum doing "Tea For Two", with the ground-breaking chord changes Tatum introduced into the tune. The workman never lost a beat nor did he lay out for a bar or two to figure out what was going on. He tracked Tatum flawlessly through all his changes, and when the record ended, he spoke for the first time. He glanced at Clare and with classic English understatement said, 'Tricky (bleep), ain't he?'"

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ABOUT THE PERFORMER:

My name is John Roache. I am an amateur ragtime enthusiast living in Torrance California. I have been playing piano and keyboards for almost 50 years. I began creating ragtime computer music in the mid-'80s on the Commodore-64 using the SIDPLAYER music composition program. In 1994, I discovered the power of MIDI and have been sequencing ragtime, stride and swing music since then. I would be pleased to hear any of your comments about this midi.

Address e-mail to JohnRoache@aol.com.

Also visit my WWW home page to download more of my MIDI sequences:

http://members.aol.com/ragtimers