Art Tatum: Piano Starts Here

When I read about this recording in Marc Myers’ “Jazz Wax” blog I knew I wanted to add it to my collection. The disc arrived this week and I am not disappointed.

If you’ve not heard the story of this recording here it is in a nutshell. In the spring of 1949 Tatum performed at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. A less-than-stellar recording of the gig has seen multiple releases as “Piano Starts Here.” The new disc, released June 3, is promoted as a “RePerformance” and was recorded September 23, 2007 also at the Shrine.

Zenph Studios takes vintage recordings and through digital wizardry turns those recordings back into a live performance. In the case of the Tatum session a Yamaha Disklavier Pro digital reproducing piano is the performer.

After listening to the new disc I am pleased at the musicality of the performance. I have to keep telling myself that I am listening to a machine. Having listened to my share of Tatum recordings over the years, I feel that this is more than just an accurate representation of Tatum. This is the essence of the great pianist. No wonder the 2007 audience breaks into applause.


In addition to the usual surround sound recording, the disc also contains binaural stereo recordings. For this, two microphones mounted in a dummy head are placed at the keyboard of the piano. The resulting recording, when listened to on headphones, gives you the sense of sitting at the piano and hearing what Tatum must have heard.

Here’s a link to the Zenph website. Follow it for details on the recording and a planned performance later this month at the Apollo Theater in New York.

Unlike some other digital manipulations of old recordings, I don’t find this to be a misuse of the technology. One has only to listen to a track from the original recording and then the same track from the new disc to fully appreciate the amazing difference. To me this is technology employed in the service of artistry.