Art Tatum – Piano Starts Here – Live at the Shrine – Zenph Studios Re-Performance – Multichannel SACD + Binaural, Sony BMG Classics

by | Jun 2, 2008 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews | 0 comments

Art Tatum – Piano Starts Here – Live at the Shrine – Zenph Studios Re-Performance – Multichannel SACD + Binaural, Sony  BMG Classics, 77:18 ***** [Release date: June 3, 08]:

This is the second re-performance SACD to be released by Zenph Studios; the first was the completely re-created 1955 Glenn Gould Columbia recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.  We featured that event in a previous article.

The Zenph Studios Project Team sourced the original 78s cut by Art Tatum in 1933 for the first four tracks of this CD.  These were the first four commercial sides by the pianist, who died in 1956.  Tracks 5 thru 13 came from a live concert presented by Gene Norman in LA in 1949.  That was just when magnetic tape was being introduced in the U.S. by Ampex; I don’t know if the originals were discs or tape.  The point is that the Zenph processing identifies every parameter of every note originally recorded and ignores all the noise, distortion, speed variations and other artifacts in the primitive recordings. Zenph’s computer algorithms replicate exactly what Tatum’s fingers and feet did. It then outputs the data to control a nine-foot Yamaha Disklavier Pro Mark III Concert Grand, which then plays back the Tatum re-performance without any of the annoying problems.  This playback can then be recorded on DSD in surround sound, and even using a Neumann KU-100 binaural head which replicates the spatial information on two channels for headphone playback.

In the precise work the Zenph team did on the Tatum originals, it was discovered that the record company got the speed wrong somewhere during production of the original 78s, and Tatum actually had played 12 of the 13 tracks even faster than the speed at which they were issued. His rapid-fire ornamentation up and down the keyboard sounds just as phenomenal today in the pristine, cleaned-up sound as it did to audiences in the 1930s.  Co-founder of Zenph, John Q. Walker, says that once they have gathered enough data about the playing style of a performer such as Gould or Tatum, they could apply it to music they had never performed. And future re-performances may not be limited to pianists – the technology has already been applied to string bass as the second instrument to re-perform.

A live recording situation was set up again for the re-performance.  On tracks 5 thru 13 and their binaural equivalents of 18 thru 26 you will hear the audience applause in the Shrine Auditorium in LA after each astounding selection from the Yamaha Disklavier and its ghostly pianist. It happens that the original Tatum selections of all these tracks were recorded live back in l949 in that same Shrine Auditorium!  Even if you don’t own hi-end headphones or even a way to play back the SACD layer of this disc, don’t fail to try out the binaural tracks: 14 thru 26.  You will experience the music as though you are Tatum himself, sitting on the piano bench. The bass strings will sound from in front of you on the left and the treble from in front of you on the right.  It’s a really uncanny visceral sense that you are right there, and you don’t require the highest-res SACD format to hear the effect.

TrackList:
1. Tea For Two
2. St. Louis Blues
3. Tiger Rag
4. Sophisticated Lady
5. Humoresque
6. Tatum Pole Boogie
7. Someone To Watch Over Me
8. How High The Moon
9. Yesterdays
10. Willow Weep For Me
11. The Kerry Dance
12. Gershwin Medley
13. I Know That You Know
14. Tea For Two (Binaural Stereo)
15. St. Louis Blues (Binaural Stereo)
16. Tiger Rag (Binaural Stereo)
17. Sophisticated Lady (Binaural Stereo)
18. Humoresque (Binaural Stereo)
19. Tatum Pole Boogie (Binaural Stereo)
20. Someone To Watch Over Me (Binaural Stereo)
21. How High The Moon (Binaural Stereo)
22. Yesterdays (Binaural Stereo)
23. Willow Weep For Me (Binaural Stereo)
24. The Kerry Dance (Binaural Stereo)
25. Gershwin Medley (Binaural Stereo)
26. I Know That You Know (Binaural Stereo)’’

– John Sunier
 

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