Thrilled and delighted to have lived through another year and made it to a new one? YEAH, BABY! As hap-hap-happy as Osgood Fielding? We wish!
It's officially Happy New Year from Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog AND the great George Harrison.
We are tickled as tickled could be to begin 2019 by approaching one of the newfangled devices around our house and then saying "Alexa, play Art Tatum!"
To my amazement and delight, Alexa did play some Art Tatum - thanks!
Here's a clip of Art, rocking the keys in one of his very, very few filmed performances.
As this blogger's favorite movie of 2018 (tied with the flawed and critically panned but musically wonderful Bohemian Rhapsody - we dig Queen tons at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog) was Won't You Be My Neighbor, Morgan Neville's splendid documentary on Fred Rogers, let's hear Johnny Costa, the super-talented pianist and music director for the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood program.
Here, Mr. Costa does his very best to give Mr. Tatum a run for his money with a ripping rendition of Tea For Two, the second interpretation of the Vincent Youmans - Irving Caesar standard in this YouTube video. Also in the mix and first up in the trio of ivory-tickling performances: the mighty Oscar Peterson.
Do these pianistic powerhouses sound amazing? Yes! Here, another pianistic powerhouse, the great Ray Charles, elaborates. . .
Oscar Peterson, chatting with fellow pianist/bandleader Count Basie about Art Tatum, used the phrase "musical intimidation."
It's difficult to equal Art, Ray, Oscar and Basie on New Years' Day (or any day), but we'll at least give it a try with this Academy Award winning MGM cartoon made by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. It's one of the very best from their Tom & Jerry series and a prime example of the popular "ribbing the classics" genre, along with the Walter Lantz Studio's Musical Miniatures series and the Friz Freleng crew's Warner Bros. cartoon Rhapsody Rabbit, featuring soloist and Oscar winning rabbit Bugs Bunny.
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