Kingpin5
Lunatic Member
Yes, exactly! And these were some of the greatest musicians who ever played. When I listen to some of the group stuff, you just want to follow the fascinating harmonies and lines Tatum is playing. It's like when the horn player stops, the tension goes away, and now we can get into what we should have been hearing all along. And this is said with absolutely no disrespect to the great players playing with Tatum. Everyone does their best to make it work, but Tatum just doesn't need anybody. What the horn player sometimes plays, doesn't always jell harmonically with what Tatum is doing. This reminds me of how sometimes pianists, have to watch what they are playing when they are playing behind a singer. I remember reading Tommy Flanagan talking about how he had to do that, when he played with Ella Fitzgerald. The pianist he said, can't be as adventurous harmonically. But wait now - I think I remember Flanagan saying that they couldn't be as harmonically adventurous as they could be playing with an instrumentalist. So I think in Tatum's case, HIS harmonic approach was just so fascinatingly different, that he had the same dilemma that Flanagan is talking about, but with instrumentalists.
The trio album with Jo Jones and Red Callender works, because they are accompanying Tatum. Tatum's is the main voice. If you listen to "Just One Of Those Things" and "Love For Sale", it's intense. They add something to what he is doing, driving him to amazing rhythmic heights in the trio format. Not that Tatum needed them either. But Tatum takes their support and goes off like a rocket on those tunes, and works with their rhythmic backing so beautifully throughout the album.
The sessions with Hampton and Rich work well in my opinion, because when Hampton plays, it's almost like two keyboards jamming. He does a lot of stretching out with Tatum and it just seems to work. And Rich provides solid rhythmic support.
I'll give those side preference next time I pull this behemoth out.