Art Tatum: An Unknown Version of "Yesterdays" (+Bonus)

(Paying Subscribers, at the bottom you’ll find your latest “thank you” gift—a 240-page collection of songs. And remember that your payments unlock All the bonus items—more than 50 to date!)

My essays on Art Tatum’s most daring improvisations are among my most widely read posts. But even on his more “routine” performances, he often threw in some surprises. For example, he had a regular arrangement of Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays,” which means that he did not usually improvise on it as freely as he did on some other songs. But on this previously unknown version he adds a few unique touches.

This comes to us from Konrad Nowakowski, a jazz researcher in Vienna, and it was restored for him by Hubert Stowitschek. Someone recorded it from their radio at home, using an inexpensive cardboard disc coated with varnish—these did not have the best audio quality, but they are listenable, as you’ll hear. Here is the label, handwritten by whoever made the recording:

The host is popular singer Jack Smith, who had his own radio show from 1945 through 1952, and the date is Sunday, February 29, 1948. Tatum plays Kern’s song in the original key of D minor. It’s a short, 16-bar form (repeated twice with different lyrics in the original, which is in the Kern book, attached for Paying Subscribers.) Here is a leadsheet:

Let’s listen, and then we’ll go back and focus on two short passages:

As always, Tatum requires—and rewards—close listening. Did you notice this intense and “way out” passage at 0:17?:

And how about this at 2:16? It comes at the same point in the song’s form, measures 9 to 12, which is where he really liked to experiment:

Tatum—always just on the edge of breaking free from the song. Amazing!

All the best,
Lewis

P.S. Paying Subscribers, at the bottom you’ll find your latest “thank you” gift—a big book of Kern’s songs.