September 2008 • Issue 308PAGE TWENTY TWO

DVDs

ART TATUMThe Art of Jazz Piano

SCREEN EDGE DVDThe documentary, “The Art of Jazz Piano” opens with

Art Tatum’s recording of “St. Louis Blues” in the back-ground as Les Paul recollected meeting Tatum in Chi-cago at the early 1930s. Paul was working at a radio sta-tion as well as played piano with Jackie Gleason when afriend brought him a record by Tatum.

After hearing Tatum for the first time, Paul recalls thathe could not play piano anymore and turned to the gui-tar. It was not simply Paul, but also pianists everywherewho were in awe of Tatum. Fats Waller’s son recalled themutual admiration that his dad and Tatum had for eachother and reflected by Waller’s famous quote when Tatumentered a club Waller was playing at, “God is in theHouse.”

The DVD offers the few video clips existing of Tatum(one with the Dorsey Brothers) along with photographsof Tatum, vinyl album covers and video interview clips ofthose who knew him, including Paul, his brother HankTatum, Hank Jones, Milt Hinton, Maurice Waller and EddieBarefield. There are also clips with those who admiredhim, such as Dick Hyman, who, like Jones, is seen play-ing some music to illustrate various musical points andelements of Tatum’s style, along with portions of suchcelebrated recordings by him as “Tiger Rag,” “Ain’tMisbehavin’,” “Sweet Lorraine,” “I Got Rhythm,” and“Rosetta.”

This documentary traces his life as well as the evolu-tion of his music from early influences like Fats Wallerand Earl Hines as he emerged in Toledo. His break camewhen he accompanied vocalist Adelaide Hall, and the jazzworld was awakened to his singular talent with his unpre-dictable rhythmic sense, dazzling musical embellishmentsand amazing harmonic originality.

As Maurice Waller noted, Tatum could play a songfor 30 to 45 minutes with fresh open improvisations with-out repeating himself. Paul Machlin observed that hisgreatness was, in part, in creating “improvisations thatwere limitless in their inventiveness.” And not only were

his contemporaries astonished and humbled by him, butthe admiration extended to many ‘serious’ pianists as thisvideo makes clear.

At over 50 minutes, this a marvelous tribute to oneof the most brilliant musicians jazz has known. The pro-duction credits are very sparse. I would speculate thiswas likely a show on an educational or public televisionstation from the late seventies or early eighties based onthe use of grainy photos and old vinyl album covers fromthat period in time that are used to help illustrate thisfilm, and there does not seem to have been any greateffort made of digitally restoring the original film. Stillthis is a fascinating look back of one of the 20th Century’struly compelling musical artists. Ron Weinstock

Aluminum Guitar Hits Market,

Captures NAMM’s Best of ShowSALEM ORE – An Oregon-based guitar company has

hit the market with the world’s first production aluminumarchtop guitar. Introduced in July in Nashville, NormandyGuitars instantly gained international acclaim and capturedbest of show honors at NAMM, the largest music trade showin the world.

Much like the transition from wood to metal in the tennisindustry, the buzz in the music industry is that this could bethe advent of a new era in the guitar market. “Our responseat this show was phenomenal,” said Jim Normandy, CEO ofNormandy Guitars. “The guitar’s distinctive craftsmanshipand design gained recognition from artists, manufacturersand media. The world does not need another Stratocastercopy,’” said Normandy.

Macsimum News presented the “Best of Show” honorsfor Summer NAMM 2008, where they recognized the ATG-SB Aluminum-Body Guitar by Normandy Guitars as one ofthe hottest products at the show, “...seek out what you wantand hold on to your strap when you hear the monster tone ofNormandy Guitars,” they say. “Turn heads with your sound,but cause whiplash with a Normandy.”

The Normandy guitar is made out of specially selectedaluminum, resulting in sustain qualities that are better andhave been touted as far superior to the traditional wooden-bodied guitars. “The purity and length of time a single, pluckednote can ring out clean and true are far superior... this isimportant to guitar players, especially those who play leadguitar,” says Normandy. “A headlining act at one of the NAMMafter-show concerts loved our guitar. They played theNormandy throughout their entire performance!”

The guitar features a body with classic archtop curves, avintage Bigsby-vibrato tailpiece and distinctive rivets on thefront and back. The Normandy guitar is available in ninecolors and three different finishes: chrome, several powder-coated colors and Candy Apple Metal Flake finishes. Thechrome finish is triple electroplated. In that process, the bodyis initially buffed, electrically charged in a hot bath with Zin-cate, then dipped in copper, covered with nickel and com-pleted with a flashy chrome finish.

For more information on Normandy Guitars, visitwww.normandyguitars.com.