![]() Even the great Kenny Kirkland tried to play some Brahms Ballads but he was not quite there (he plays one in a Sting documentary film.). Most of the young lions have a tremendous technique that applies to classical music, the old masters did not have. Everybody knows when it hits and there's consensus once jaws are picked up off the floor. Musicians like Hiromi, Eldar and Cory Henry are gifted and talented and we can appreciate them in that regard. originality.Īmong pianists produced within the past 40-50 years, I have yet to hear one that will influence the next generation of musicians. IMO, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett are the last living pioneers of Jazz piano who have their own signature voice i.e. The late Thelonius Monk, Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul, McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea have influenced generations of pianists. Since Tatum, there have been quite a few gifted and talented pianists who've become institutions unto themselves.īud Powell made a name for himself distilling Tatum into something more hip.Įrroll Garner and Oscar Peterson built careers around playing Tatum-esque. ![]() There will never be another Tatum.Ī carbon copy or reasonable facsimile would be received and appreciated up to a point but always compared to or measured by the original. That act of originality can't be replicated. Tatum was such an original self-creation back in a day when many musical boundaries were waiting to be broken. Anyone coming on the scene in the past, say, 40 years, has a much more challenging time finding new boundaries to break. It's not like talking about who will be the next great Yankee center fielder. There's also a sense in which talking about "the next Art Tatum" necessarily elides over the point that there was no one remotely similar that preceded him, at least not in recordings. it's that same old debate! And lo and behold we have Hiromi as exhibit "B."įrom a subjective standpoint I know what I enjoy listening to in the jazz realm, and it generally leans more towards Monk than towards this, so from a subjective standpoint I can't say I've ever wondered with curiousity who the next Tatum will be. When I hear performances like these, I'm impressed and as a player more than a little intimidated, but at the same time can't help but think about how, just maybe, it takes more courage and artistry to play fewer notes.
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