| God Is in the House | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Live album by | |
| Released | 1973 |
| Recorded | November 11, 1940, March 7, July 26–27, September 16 1941 |
| Venue | Clubs in Harlem, New York City |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Label | Onyx |
| Producer | Jerry Newman, Don Schlitten |
God Is in the House is an album by pianist Art Tatum. It is a collection of informally recorded club performances from 1940 and 1941, and was first released by Onyx Records in 1973. It won two Grammy Awards.
Jerry Newman was a student and jazz fan in New York City. [1] He used a disc recorder and acetate discs to informally record pianist Art Tatum playing in clubs in Harlem in 1940 and 1941. [2] [3]
Three of the performances are Tatum playing solo on November 11, 1940. [1] On March 7, 1941, he was recorded with Reuben Harris hitting whiskbrooms against a suitcase. [1] [3] On July 26 of the same year, further duets, this time with Chocolate Williams on bass and vocals, were recorded; Tatum also sang on two of the pieces – "Knockin' Myself Out" and "Toledo Blues". [1] "There'll Be Some Changes Made", with Williams and vocalist Ollie Potter, was made the following day. [1] The trio of Tatum, trumpeter Frankie Newton, and bassist Ebenezer Paul was recorded playing "Lady Be Good" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" on September 16. [1]
The title of the album comes from a story involving Tatum and fellow pianist Fats Waller. [2] When Waller was playing in a club one night and saw Tatum walk in, he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, I play the piano, but God is in the house tonight." [2] The album was released on LP by Onyx Records in 1973, [2] and was produced by Newman and Don Schlitten. [4] HighNote Records issued a CD version in 1998. [2]
Tatum, who died in 1956, [5] was awarded the 1973 Grammy for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist for his performances on the album. [6] Dan Morgenstern won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. [6]
Critic Doug Ramsey wrote in 2015: "I'm recommending it now out of concern that some of you may have deprived yourselves of these indispensable snapshots of Tatum's genius." [2] The AllMusic reviewer commented that the recordings had higher audio quality than other Newman releases, and described the album as "Highly recommended." [3]
Side one
Side two
Source: [4]
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Considered a virtuoso and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community, "the King of inside swing".
Arthur Tatum Jr. was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever. From early in his career, fellow musicians acclaimed Tatum's technical ability as extraordinary. Tatum also extended jazz piano's vocabulary and boundaries far beyond his initial stride influences, and established new ground through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American jazz pianist and composer. A pioneer in the development of bebop and its associated contributions to jazz theory, Powell's application of complex phrasing to the piano influenced both his contemporaries and later pianists including Walter Davis, Jr., Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Barry Harris.
The 16th Annual Grammy Awards were held March 2, 1974, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1973.
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also led his own band. He lived in Europe for the last 26 years of his life.
Cedar Anthony Walton Jr. was an American hard bop jazz pianist. He came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey's band, The Jazz Messengers, before establishing a long career as a bandleader and composer. Several of his compositions have become jazz standards, including "Mosaic", "Bolivia", "Holy Land", "Mode for Joe" and "Ugetsu/Fantasy in D".
Theodore Shaw Wilson was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic. His style was highly influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum. His work was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to perform prominently alongside white musicians. In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s.
Thomas Lee Flanagan was an American jazz pianist and composer. He grew up in Detroit, initially influenced by such pianists as Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, and Nat King Cole, and then by bebop musicians. Within months of moving to New York in 1956, he had recorded with Miles Davis and on Sonny Rollins' album Saxophone Colossus. Recordings under various leaders, including Giant Steps of John Coltrane, continued well into 1962, when he became vocalist Ella Fitzgerald's full-time accompanist. He worked with Fitzgerald for three years until 1965, and then in 1968 returned to be her pianist and musical director, this time for a decade.
Back on the Block is a 1989 studio album by Quincy Jones. The album features musicians and singers from across three generations, including Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Barry White, Chaka Khan, Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Al B. Sure!, James Ingram, El DeBarge, Ray Charles and a 12-year-old Tevin Campbell.
Kevin Kraig Toney was an American jazz pianist and composer who was a member of The Blackbyrds.
The Genius Sings the Blues is an album by Ray Charles, released in October 1961 on Atlantic Records. The album was his last release for Atlantic, compiling twelve blues songs from various sessions during his tenure for the label. The album showcases Charles's stylistic development with a combination of piano blues, jazz, and southern R&B. The photo for the album cover was taken by renowned photographer Lee Friedlander. The Genius Sings the Blues was reissued in 2003 by Rhino Entertainment with liner notes by Billy Taylor.
Dan Morgenstern is a jazz writer, editor, archivist, and producer. He is the son of the German-language Jewish author Soma Morgenstern.
Frankie Newton was an American jazz trumpeter from Emory, Virginia, United States. He played in several New York City bands in the 1920s and 1930s, including those led by Sam Wooding, Chick Webb, Charlie Barnet, Andy Kirk and Charlie "Fess" Johnson.
"There'll Be Some Changes Made" ("Changes") is a popular song by Benton Overstreet (composer) and Billy Higgins (lyricist). Published in 1921, the song has flourished in several genres, particularly jazz. The song has endured for as many years as a jazz standard. According to the online The Jazz Discography, "Changes" had been recorded 404 times as of May 2018. The song and its record debut were revolutionary, in that the songwriters (Overstreet and Higgins, the original copyright publisher, Harry Herbert Pace, the vocalist to first record it, the owners of Black Swan, the opera singer for whom the label was named, and the musicians on the recording led by Fletcher Henderson, were all African American. The production is identified by historians as a notable part of the Harlem Renaissance.
This is a timeline documenting events of Jazz in the year 1959.
New Orleans Suite is a studio album by the American pianist, composer, and bandleader Duke Ellington, recorded and released on the Atlantic label in 1970. The album contains the final recordings of longtime Ellington saxophonist Johnny Hodges, who died between the album's two recording sessions. The album won a Grammy Award in 1971 for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band.
Chocolate Williams was an American jazz bassist and vocalist based in New York City. He was a prolific performer of jazz, and, notably, performed and recorded with Art Tatum in 1941 and Herbie Nichols in 1952.
Ollie Potter was an American female blues singer, notably of Cleveland and New York City, and a dancer, particularly of the shimmy style.
Onyx Records, Inc., was a small, independent American record label based in Manhattan, New York, co-founded on July 15, 1971, by Joe Fields (1929–2017) and Don Schlitten and managed by Gentry McCreary. Its address was at 160 West 71st Street on the Upper West Side.
Pianist Art Tatum recorded commercially from 1932 until near his death. He recorded nearly 400 titles, if airchecks and informal, private recordings are included. He recorded for Brunswick (1933), Decca (1934–41), Capitol and for the labels associated with Norman Granz (1953–56).
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)