AMG Review of Complete Jazz Chronicle: Solo Sessions +

Ken Dryden
All Music Guide

This is one of the more obscure yet fascinating Art Tatum CDs, because it features the piano great recorded in the home of a fellow musician around 1948, using what was then a state-of-the-art 30-ips (inches per second) reel-to-reel tape recorder (compared to the reduced fidelity of the typical slower speed of 7.5- or 15-ips machines still generally in use by many radio stations during the 1990s). Tatum is clearly relaxed, under no pressure from a producer, and free to choose whatever might come into his head to play. He's heard joyfully humming along to a swinging version of "You're Driving Me Crazy;" his arrangement of Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood" has a dreamy introduction tagged onto it, before he cuts loose with an avalanche of his trademark runs. This CD's sound is extraordinary, with minimal hiss, and the original 11 tracks have been augmented by two additional takes of "Over the Rainbow" and alternates of "It's the Talk of the Town," "I'll Never Be the Same," and "Night and Day," all of which were omitted due to the limited capacity of a single LP. Even more valuable are the six complete songs plus a closing theme that were recorded by Tatum in 1955 for broadcast by Radio Sweden, with commentary by Tatum himself, something rarely heard on any of his recordings. This CD marks their first release, and unlike earlier Tatum radio broadcasts that have appeared commercially, the sound is pristine. This is an essential CD for jazz fans.