Listening 13- Over the Rainbow/ Art Tatum

As a Kansas boy, born and raised, I hold this song close to my heart.  And only because some movie told me to...funny ain't it.  Word on the street is they gave this to Art with minimal prep time to jazz it up, so this is pretty raw Tatum.  Let's listen...

This is Art Tatum recorded in 1939.  We'll analyze this one.  It starts out with some reflective ding dongs.  Then it goes into the song we know and love with Art's flair and runs riddled throughout the piece.  The piece doesn't have too discernible of a meter.  He speeds up here, slows down there.  Really what ever he's feeling. Its 16 bar blues. The format is AABA then he solos. His solos are like his playing of the AABA, going slow then fast. Its hard to tell what is his solo and what is the next AABA because he alludes to the piece in his solo and he solos throughout the AABA.  Then he ends it with AABA but on the last A, he races through it and finishes it real fast.  Like he was on a time limit and he was running long or something.  Like I said this is an early version. If you want to hear a later version from the 50s, watch the one below.

This believe it or not, is even more all over the place.  If you hadn't told me this was over the rainbow, I would not have guess it.  But that's jazz for you.  This has been Dan, and I am outta here....