Art Tatum, Ben Webster
The Album
(Essential Jazz Classics)
Street date: June 2
This CD, one of four June 2 releases from the Essential Jazz Classics label, presents what the liner notes call "a true landmark in recorded jazz history … the original Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet album in its entirety." Tatum's piano and Webster's tenor sax are backed by Red Callender's bass and Bill Douglass' drums. And, yes, Callender and Douglass complete this evocative portrait, but make no mistake, it is Tatum and Webster who are the luminaries. But at the time of this session, Sept. 11, 1956, Tatum's elegant rhythmic and harmonic stylings were being overtaken by modernists such as Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Producer Norman Granz saw this and gave Tatum, an inspirational figure for many pianists, the chance to put many sessions to tape. The pairing of Tatum and Webster is the zenith of those recordings. Webster's breathy romancing of the saxophone is such a perfect pairing with Tatum's classicism as to be evocative and wrap around the heart. The last five tracks on this CD are Art Tatum solos.
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