Oscar Peterson interviews Count Basie in 1980. Original video - www.youtube.co.... Piano - Oscar Peterson & Count Basie Bass - Niels Pedersen Drums - Martin Drew
Those two legends still stay humble when speaking about Tatum. There are levels of greatness only other great artists can understand. Could listen to this for hours.
It's astonishing to feel the intensity of musical history and spirit coming out of this conversation. To think how much of our musical landscape today has been shaped and defined by these maginificent players!
I want to add something 5 months later to my earlier comment: I absolutely LOVE how when Oscar says "you can't just hate someone voluntarily" [5:02] Basie immediately quips back "I can!"
3:55 is gold, Basie accusing Peterson of exactly what Tatum would do to other musicians. The Basie-Peterson collaboration "Satch and Josh" is a great album, and Peterson manages to NOT engage turbo mode on some of the songs 🏎️🎹
Every time I'm depressed about life, music, career, relationships I always watch this video and all those problems are overrun by complete joy. Thanks for such an amazing post.
When I watch these guys talk about Tatum with such respect, I love it. And these guys are arguably two of the best, and yet, there was Tatum who indeed was one of a kind. First time I heard him my jaw just dropped. On the other hand, 'bout the time I had picked my jaw up I heard Peterson and it dropped again. Don't know if I ever found it after that lol! So I've been jawless ever since. It humbles you if you think you can play piano. Les Paul said he was playing piano in groups until he heard Tatum. He said the first night he heard him he quit piano right than and concentrated on guitar from then on. Of course, the rest is history as they say in that regard as well. Us wannabees just have to sit and enjoy it.
Right at the beginning, 0:00 he mentions a name I don't recognize "Matthew Vartizen?" Any ideas? Searching for variants had nothing but cold leads for me. The link in the description here to the whole clip is a dead end.
Thank goodness for technology, to forever witness two icons intimately speaking casually, candidly and hilariously about another maestro. Oscar: “you just can’t voluntarily hate someone.” Basie:”I can... !” LOL. Wonderful thankyou for posting.
What a pleasure to hear two greats pick each other's brains about a man who might just be the greatest pianist ever born. I feel that way about Art, too . . . and Oscar, Basie, Cole, Evans . . . all kinds of guys . . . (sigh). I'll never be allowed to play in the same halls, but, at my best, I can get close enough to smell the ivory burning.
This is so wonderful - reminiscing about a time gone by. Wow - where are we now? They are talking about friendly competition and pushing each other, driving each other to new achievements - to new heights in their own playing. Today the bar is so low - so sad. Can you imagine that night Basie is talking about? Artie Shaw playing with Tommy Dorsey and then add Art Tatum? What could that have been like?
What a great man Oscar Peterson was! Everyone knows how great he was as a musician, but just what a kind and compassionate man. I remember hearing years ago the story that Peterson was growing pretty cocky as a young and up-coming player on the instrument, feeling that he'd mastered it. His father, though, burst his balloon by buying a copy of Tatum's "Tiger Rag" and playing it for an astounded young Peterson, who could not believe that it was one man and not two playing on the record. Peterson has told that story many times over the years, and used to illustrate how his father helped him grow not only as a musician, but as a man and a person. Great story, and a reminder that sometimes in life, to get to where you want to go, you need to eat some humble pie first. Charlie Parker had that same effect on saxophone players as Tatum did on pianists, and Wes Montgomery on guitarists. Men who did the seemingly impossible on their instruments and elevated the art immeasurably while doing so.
I don't understand music well enough to shine these men's shoes but not only is it obvious that they are giants musically and intellectually but also that they are wonderfully humane.
This is rare, excellent, much needed. If only we had such as Bach and Handel conversing, or Vincent and Picasso, or Dickens and Shakespeare, or Dylan Thomas and Blake. But, it cannot happen, and has not happened, Luckily, we have some correspondence of Freud and Einstein, especially on war and its possible prevention. We long for pure truth and will happily take explanation and anecdote, like this humorous and joyous talk.
The great Vladimir Horowitz once said that if Art Tatum has decided on playing Classical instead on swing & Jazz that he would have quit playing altogether!
Doctor Garbonzo - You are full of crap! Horowitz never said that and NOBODY would have made him quit. Instead, everybody was in awe of HIM, including Tatum and THAT is well documented contrary to your story.
@@vova47 There is a story about Art and Horowitz. It is convincingly conveyed on here by Andre Previn if you check out the 70s BBC programmes on here featuring Oscar and Andre. BTW, I doubt that using Anglo Saxon rather coarse words ever made anyone sound more convincingly correct. Try more words of Romance origins. They sound far nicer. And there is no need to SHOUT some words out. It just reflects your frustration at being inarticulate.
Jazz is all the rave again, and people are going back to it in droves. This, in part, is clearly due to the fact that today’s music is little more than regurgitated superficial noise, whereas Jazz has the power to touch your soul, and evoke a transcendental dimension of experience. That’s the power of real MUSIC; not unlike the Blues, the Classical Rock, and the Classical compositions, too; true art forms that could elevate your experience of being alive.
I would argue that the music of technology is still in its infancy and had the potential yo grow into a great style of music, but hasn't gotten there yet. There is also a difference between pop techno and more exploratory music of this era. Also, the internet makes it extremely easy to document the learning process of regurgitated garbage. Nobody has videos of Parker in his first jam session. I think all music has the potential to touch souls if skillfully done. It's just a matter of sifting through.the artists who arent putting their souls into it.
"He couldn't stand spaces." That's the one thing I didn't like about Tatum. No question that Tatum was great, but I'll take Barry Harris over Tatum. Oscar said in another interview that when he was young and heard a recording of Tatum's, he thought 2 pianists were playing and that when he found out that it was just one man, he went into his room and cried because he realized that he could never be that great. Well, I do think that Oscar is that great. How interesting that they became great friends. What a great conversation shown here. I wish I could do those runs like Art and Oscar.
It's not just the machine gun of Art Tatum's playing, it's the machine gun of ideas. You can't put it on and relax. I think partly he was so conditioned by the 3 1/2 minute length of 78s that he poured everything he had, sometimes quoting and reharmonizing songs every bar. His later recordings on Pablo are slightly more relaxed.
Ray Charles basically said that Art Tatum was God of piano. Now, when one blind piano master speaks about another blind piano master in humbled awe...well, then that other piano master might very well be the god of piano.
Those 8 bars of Someone to Watch Over Me were nothing to sneeze at. Some of their prowess was in the fill-in runs, but that's not a belittlement. Getting them up to that speed, mastering them in every key and having the facility to employ them at will in appropriate places is literally impossible for most players. And of course that's just a fraction of their bags of tricks.
I wish I could say I learn loads of stuff from from Art Tatum. Unfortunately, I listen to him like a one-armed nonagenarian watching a flying trapeze act.
A brain surgeon said (this is not the lead up to a joke) ...that after opening up hundreds of dead peoples' heads, he would note that there were massive connections between the right and left lobes - in one type of person: musicians. He said it didn't happen with doctors or architects, or painters, or dancers or politicians, ......the connections were evident only within musicians' brains.
Yeah that's the rarified air alright. Art Tatum is like Buddy Rich. You can't play like him, so don't delude yourself. Les Paul said he was going to play piano until he heard Tatum. Also, he didn't look like his fingers were moving. So obviously he's a martian or something.
Art wasn't afraid to make mistakes and play dirty, He could answer his "mistakes" and make them work so well. Errol Garner and Bud Powell too.But they swung so hard with their rhythm it sounds good. How can it be a mistake if it's never been done by others. Oscar was great too but it's too clean to compare in my opinion. It doesn't make me dance. Dancing and playing are one in the same. If ya know, ya know.
@@tobiolopainto, I'm convinced that you missed the point of my post. The point is they are musical giants and they are discussing Art Tatum who is another musical giant. Reading is fundamental.
@@davionbattle7664 Believe me, I know who Art Tatum is. My father was the emcee of a club that Tatum worked at. He was part of my household history. In contradistinction to your statement about 3 giants, I'm referencing Fats Waller who, when Tatum came into the club Waller was at, said that "God is in the house." I'm saying 2 giants, one God!.
@@tobiolopainto that’s not what you referenced. You attempted your comment with sarcasm and you were corrected, which made you look like a fool. So try again. Maybe thinking before you type would be helpful in your future posts.
How great is this? Two of the biggest jazz pianists talking about being intimidated by the great Art Tatum. To all three of you, thank you for your music and RIP,
I have this huge smile on my face listening to Peterson and Basie. There's this sense of relaxed enjoyment and immense time. Outstanding human beings. Wish I'd had the chance to hear Oscar play.
Precious. F!cking precious. Smithsonian Institution: please preserve this for all of eternity, for the betterment of mankind, and for the promotion of peace. All musicians and music lovers: Enjoy yourself. Enjoy others. Enjoy.
Count Basie is definitely one of my favourite musos. He's such an amazing pianist and very empathetic and embracing of all the collaborations in which he is involved musically. He is very minimalistic in his playing. Some of his detractors criticized him for this. Little did they{the critics} realize that by not being overbearing, he actually created an atmosphere for the the other players to contribute optimally to the music project at hand. The whole is ultimately greater than the sum of the parts. The individual musicians are thus not decimated but edified. What a band leader he was. I dare to say that he was a quintessence to music in general and jazz music in particular! A great musician he was. I can't stop to sing his praises. Theo Kgapola.
Agreed. I've often thought that Art Tatum is great (in part) because of all the notes he plays. Count Basie is great because of all the notes he doesn't play. I'm not saying one's better than the other. They're great in their different ways.
“Art Tatum used to literally intimidate pianists.” That’s true. Many pianists attempted to copy him; others questioned their own skills after encountering him, and some even switched instruments in response to hearing him play. Art Tatum was *that* good of a pianist.
I saw Peterson play solo piano twice in England and also the Basie Orchestra twice too. Basie was a great band leader and of course he played swing and his band was amazing, and he was a showman. Peterson’s facility was as close to Art’s as makes no difference. Oscar may even have been a more rounded musician, but technically Tatum could do things nobody has yet manager to replicate. Doubters should try listening to various examples of him playing Elegy. It’s impossible not to feel awake at the mastery and brilliance. I so wish Tatum had not died so young. You listen to his records and realise what an astonishing technique he possessed and why he did intimidate even the great Oscar Peterson. If only Tatum had been born 30 years later when his kidney failure might have been treated and he could have lived longer. Tatum was an incredible player and from all accounts an amazingly decent bloke as well. He will never be forgotten.
Marian McPartland described a wealthy jazz fan's home where she'd go from Tatum's gigs to after-parties. She said Art, who was blind, would get a cabbie to stop and pick up a couple of cases of beer on the way to the party. He'd sit at the piano playing and drinking beer until the sun came up.
You’re kinda an idiot for that statement! Russell wasn’t even in my top 10 all time because of the era. He’d get destroyed in the modern era of basketball, therefore, he can never be considered the greatest! That title goes to Micheal Jordan. So what you meant to say was , it’s like Lebron and Kobe talking about Jordan! That’s accurate! What you said was ludicrous!!😭
