You guys, I thought I was setting out to make a video about the incredible harmonic ideas of Art Tatum. I had NO IDEA it was going to get THIS crazy...
I do have a song request for you to analyze. But before I get there, that was just an amazing story about tea for two, or Tahiti trot that was just something that I have never thought of before. You learn something new everyday. Now, my request for a song for you to analyze. Could you analyze, see me through it by Brandon heath. Those chords in that song was just amazingly done after I heard it. I like the way that went.
Hey charles i've found a classical composer that you may like. he fuses classical with jazz, his name is Nikolai Kapustin (he's now my favourite composer). could you check him out and maybe do a video about some of his stuff?? some pieces i recommend are - Piano concerto no.4 (his other concertos are also great check out number 2 its amazing) - Variations op.41 - 24 Preludes in Jazz Styles Op.53 - Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 - Contemplation Op. 47 (you'll love this one) also he does something that i havent seen anyone do before which is include a drum kit into an orchestra it sounds amazing idk check it out if you have time :)
I would not be surprised if we keep finding Shostakovich pieces and arrangements like this. They seem to pop up every once in a while. But yeah, forty-five minutes for an orchestration like that is insane. Our boy Shosty was a creative machine.
I read how one of his friends or students saw him practicing orchestration. Long story short, he came at his house, and the composer was busy: he was self-consumed writting notes over a blank music sheet, and when he finished he explained that he was orchestrating some silly light-music song. When asked where's the original score of the song itself, he answer that he doesn't need it, because he knows it by heart. So he was regulary re-orchestrating the same song for the sake of practice, as a routine.
@@NorthonBruceAnd he did all that orchestration without ever hearing the full arrangement played back (until the piece would be performed in its finished state). There was no DAW, no MuseScore, and definitely no virtual instruments!
@@NorthonBruceOMG. I never knew this was a thing. I’ve practiced orchestration since my teen years, and didn’t think anything about it. Recently, I’m working on a couple versions of Wichita Lineman & a medley of Beatles songs. This week, there’s a tune in my head - a little bite I heard 40 years ago on Mexican radio - and I’ve decided to write it out. Wish me luck!
As someone that worked in the advertising industry making music for adverts, I can tell you that it is with all the intention. We trained ourselves to just get really close to plagiarism, knowing the actual rules that make a difference to make something sound like something without being it. They, in the advertising industry, call them "soundalikes". I specialized in them.
Elsewhere one liked -- 'Jive Jump' by Christopher Ashmore -- which bears a curious resemblance to -- 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie' by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1946) David Bowie even did it when his translation for the French hit, "Comme d'habitude" (as "Even a Fool Learns to Love") was overlooked for Paul Anka's new lyrics for the melody as "My Way". Bowie parodied Sinatra's huge hit and reimagined the chord changes as "Life on Mars?", with an album note saying it was 'inspired by Frankie'.
There was theme music for an early-1980s NFL highlights TV programme that sounded like John Williams' "Raiders of the Lost Ark" march, only with just enough notes changed so it arguably *wasn't* the Raiders march. If that was yours, you did a great job.
Shostakovich making an arrangement of Tea For Two is like bringing a tank to a BB gun fight. But clearly he was having a blast with it, and I'm glad it resurfaced.
@@sneakypeekyfoxie It's called "Tank biathlon" and it's a global army games event where other countries' militia (the uncucked ones, of course) bring in their tanks to compete too, like China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, etc.
My understanding is that the Shostakovich arrangement was never lost given that it was included in The Golden Age ballet score. The ballet fell out of favor as "formalistic" and was largely forgotten for decades, but the Tahiti Trot score was never physically lost.
Lots of Jazz just used the chord progressions from old standards, and then the musician wrote a new “head” tune over those chords. That way, say, Charlie Parker or Miles Davis could play with any rhythm section and just say “play Tea for Two” and the backing musicians would know those chords, and the horn player would play the new melody over that and then improvise. Much easier than having to teach the rhythm section a whole new progression.
It's called a "contrafact". Excluding the 12-bar blues, the set of chord changes with the most contrafacts seems to be "I Got Rhythm", with over 200 contrafacts listed on Wikipedia alone.
I have a theory that Shostakovich owned a copy of the sheet music to "The Rite Of Spring" and was cribbing from it, which sped up the process, especially when you're already working with such a rudimentary melody. If not, he was definitely referencing it from memory. All those swoops and crashes, even the very ORDER in which melodies are traded off by instrument and the resulting constant contrasts in timbre, is strictly pulled from Stravinsky. This is no coincidence or accident, and it is very funny.
I'm sure Shostakovich had a copy of The Rite and memorized it, same way he had the score of every Mahler symphony he could get through whatever means. But artists always crib from each other, and in a pressure situation like this he just worked off of what he knew. Doesn't make it any less impressive.
Shostakovich was a composer and conductor. Of course he would know Stravinsky! It's like modern Millennials and Gen Z knowing John Williams wrote Harry Potter music. Stravinsky music fanfares and scintillates. So does John Williams. It's hard not to steal from great composers.
@@ginnyjollykidd It's not that obvious and it's not about him being a conductor - it's about the Soviet Union. Stravinsky was officially designated an Enemy of the State by the Soviet Union because of the Marxist principles of false consciousness and cultural vanguardism (that is, the Party decides how you should think and anything else you experience culturally or personally is a capitalist lie and you need to be indoctrinated out of it). This was the age of Stalin - it would have been not strictly legal or especially easy for Shostakovich to actually have his own library of Stravinsky's work during the peak of his career even if he clearly admired him, and it's not out of the question he could have been tortured, enslaved in labor camp, or killed for it. Though of course it was possible and he probably did. Remember if you don't actually have access to a physical copy of sheet music in the era we're talking about there is no way to look it up, and Shostakovich lived in the world's largest and most powerful protectionist trading bloc, which tightly controlled all that it could going in or out.
@@livingmuses7460yes but the rules get weird for pieces made before the rules changed to be what they are now, I believe the 20s are fully in the clear though
You can buy pianos with slightly smaller keys, but mainstream shops don't sell them because they think they won't make a profit on them. Sadly you have to go out of your way to get one, and they're more expensive. I think they would be a legendary thing for everyone who can't reach a tenth to have these pianos in mainstream stores There was a youtube video on this a while back.
Most people don't appreciate how "out there" Art Tatum really was, how unique his talents were. The players of his day, and anyone since, would just shrink back if Tatum was going to play, as he was going to begin where they left off and then go to the moon. No one could keep up with him.
The Tea for Two arrangement only entered the public domain 4 years ago (January 1st, 2020). But that recording doesn't enter the public domain for another 6 months (January 1st, 2025). Just a reminder that copyright lengths really should go back to the pre-1970s standard of 56 years.
Are these worldwide rules or are they only relevant in America ? Why did 'they' change the copyright law from 56 years to... a hundred ?? Obviously, the music industry wanted to keep on making as much money as possible from newer songs without losing revenue to former favourite tunes... but, now there are TWO separate copyright dates ? The composition and then the date of each and every recording of the same said song... which extends 100 years ! ?? So, Shostakovich would not have been able to perform his symphonic-version until 2020 without paying royalties... and a DJ currently, still cannot use an 8, 16, 32 bar sound-bite from the 1925 original '78 rpm, legally ? Or, in Europe - are the copyright laws different and therefore royalty-free, for example ?
Fifty-six years was the standard for the U.S., but other countries had longer terms. The U.S. was just making their laws more like the other countries' laws.
@@stillbuyvhs Nope, that was the first excuse in the 1970s, but when they increased it by another 20 years in the 90's, they went back out of sync with other countries just to boost it. In reality it was just a push by the large IP holders, spearheaded by Disney, to preserve their intellectual property.
My father was pianist/bandleader, taught all 5 of us how to play real music with his band-to go along with the school band lessons. He was on contract at a resort hotel nearby for 40 years, and the Musicians' Union told him they knew of no one else who had a sit down gig so long. I started my band in 1972 and just retired in 2022, beating my Dad by 10 years. On some of his records were 3 of the songs you mentioned: Tea for Two, All the Things you are, and Autumn Leaves. I was 14 when he recorded the last song, and he took me to the recording session. I volunteered to play claves, and 63 years later, still get to hear my younger self on his rendition. You are fabulous, love your playing, keep going.
This song is used in one of the most famous french movie "La grande vadrouille" and each time we - french people - heard this song we remember the turkish bath scene...
Also yes, Autumn Leaves is never talked about, but as someone who listens to Russian music, it always sounded similar to the song "Red Army Is The Strongest." However, that song is the original version of "Workers of Vienna", an Austrian socialist song that uses the same tune.The composer of Autumn Leaves lived in Vienna around the time that song may be popular and was used by socialist organizers, so it is possible he heard the melody and he either subconsciously remembered it or intended to use its melody for Autumn Leaves. Edit: It has been made known to me that Red Army is the Strongest came before Workers of Vienna, I have edited my message accordingly.
Interesting. Had to look up the background for that song. Always knew it was french though, by Hungarian Kosma. Didn´t know it originated from his own ballet music. But, yes I´ve heard that theme in Tchaikovsky now that I think about it. :)
My granny insisted that many pop songs were really of Russian origin. At the time it was funny, like Ens. Pavel Chekov insisting that everything was invented by little old ladies in Leningrad, but looking back I'd say my granny was right about those pop songs. However, she also insisted that 20th century composers, like Shostakovich, wrote only non-melodic noise. It took several years and Danny Elfman's enthusiasm for Shostakovich 's jazz-inspired pieces to get me to realise that in this case Granny was mistaken.
You appear to mix up something. "The Red Army is the Strongest" (also known as White Army, Black Baron) neither sounds similar to Autumn Leaves nor is it just a Russian version of "Workers of Vienna". The latter song was written in 1927, while the first song was already written in 1920 during the Russian Civil War. Both songs share the same melody, while having completely different lyrics.
@@alexanderkohler6439 The Red Army of the Strongest has a part in the melody where it indeed sounds like Autumn Leaves. I did not mix that up. th-cam.com/video/YVedK1VUfLM/w-d-xo.html 0:46-1:00 Sounds very similar to th-cam.com/video/J0FZ2ObAckw/w-d-xo.html 0:19-0:28 Those timestamps specifically. What I did mix up was that indeed, you are correct, and I thank you for pointing out, that Autumn Leaves is infact a German version of Red Army is the Strongest.
@@internetperson8638 I agree that the cord progressions are the same in these specific parts. But I still don't think that either of the Russian or Austrian marches could possibly have served as an inspiration for a soft mellow jazz song such as Autumn Leaves. Actually, I only found the German wikipedia to make a short note on alleged similarities, while the English version doesn't mention the marches at all but rather draws lines to Tchaikovsky's Hamlet ouverture (which I don't know yet, to be honest).
Tea For Two is a really fun piece of music as a piano solo, a band tune, and a crooner's song. I've played it so much and arranged it so many times, and I'm gonna say you, random person reading this, should learn it. Great changes at the end of the form to practice over, and a simple but charming melody.
@@notcrazy6288 its fake, I'm russian, and there is not a single poster that actually says that. All the articles about them either have no pictures or have posters that say completely different things
I already knew about Shostakovich's Tea for Two arrangement because I have a kind of relentless obsession about him so I had to see this. I was kinda wary when seeing the title but this is actually a really good explanation of the tea for two lore! Unfortunately the tea for two controversy was probably the least extreme example of the numerous times when the soviet union told Shostakovich "yeah that thing you composed? Get rid of that." Extra fun fact: Tea for Two is really famous in France because of an old comedy movie called "La Grande Vadrouille" where english soldiers whistle it to find each other without getting caught by the nazis. Idk if there's a translated version of this movie and idk if the humour in this kind of movie can be translated in a meaningful way, but I recommend this movie to anyone, it's really part of french culture
"La Grande Vadrouille" movie is well known in the former Soviet Union. This film was dubbed in 1971 and is still often shown on Russian TV. Louis de Funès is still one of the most respected foreign actors in Russia
@@juliee593 I'm from Serbia, and growing up in 1980's Louis de Funes and all his films were like the best thing if you wanted to have a good laugh. La Grande Vandrouille was especially my favorite, as it had another grand artist - Bourvil.
There also another story linked with tea for two, art Tatum, and a great classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Horowitz was friend of Tatum and after listening tea for two he also wrote his own arrangement of it, and when he showed it to Tatum, he was really impressed by it and ask him if he could play it too. And after that, art wiped out a whole new arrangement of tea for two, when Horowitz asked if he could get the sheet music, only to get told "oh I just improvised it". Unfortunately I don't think Horowitz arrangement survived but there is a shory clip of Horowitz himself playing it, though it's more like him trying to remember the arrangement he wrote a long time ago...
It's almost like Picnic, and Moonglow Also, on PICNIC, the Dance at 1:04:05 was like a karaoke..with piano Of Moonglow These songs were great, and many married couples had their favorites Even 50s-60s oldies Had requests for favorite songs on wedding anniversaries
I have an album I got in the early 2000s of Shostakovich's Jazz Suites and included with the album is this piece. As soon as I saw the blurb for this video, I knew it had to be about this song. You did a great dive into the history of this piece. And, Art Tatum, what can you say about his talent? Amazing!!
What scares me is that I remember the original version of Tea for Two.. I’m in my 60s. This song was a huge hit many decades after the 1920s. Featured on many variety shows in the 60s and even 70s.
I had heard Shosti's T4T as a random track on his Jazz Album (most famous for Waltz #2) and have never had any idea what the hell it was doing there. Thank you for the history and the demos.
Tatum's talents were natural. Most classically trained pianists would probably have required years of practice to match his level, but I bet there were a couple who were just as good.
Shostakovich once got into a boxing match with Camille Saint-Saens at an Art Tatum concert in Brooklyn, which started a riot, which lead to the Catholic Church issuing a papal bull declaring Tatum's music "the work of the devil."
Shostakovich was not only an amazing composer but he knew how to say what he wanted to say through music while saying what authorities wanted to hear in words.
Why do people who were not there, did not know him, do not know much history, feel obliged to repeat silly stuff like this? Shostakovich was a committed communist and a Russian. He was patriotic like every Russian is. He deeply believed that his music had to elevate the people of the USSR and the world. That's why he composed his 5th and 7th symphonies. He also deeply believed that the human condition is tragic. That's why he composed his string quartets. His antidote to tragedy was clownish irony, which pops up so often in his work. Do you really think you can constrain a genius like him in the little stupid cage American propaganda has created, after having ostracized him for half a century?
@@senecanzallanute4066 I can't tell if you're deliberately ignoring how he suffered under Stalin's regime or are just ignorant of it, but this is not pure propaganda - just look at why he hid his 4th symphony for twenty years, or at the 9th or 10th symphonies. the 9th symphony was not just "irony as an antidote to tragedy". Stalin asked for a triumphant 7th-esque victory symphony and he got a joke (that made fun of him if you read between the lines).
@@timothymaksimenko3407 Your read Volkov's forged biography and think you know the inner Shostakovich. You don't. No one does. I don't deny that he suffered from the political pressures he received, of course he must have. My point is that he acted as though he was a willing part of those same pressures. No one with Shostakovich's gigantic mind likes to be told what to do, but he was a communist and a Russian. For this reason he fundamentally accepted Stalin's message though at times disagreeing with aspects of it. The idea that he would hide messages in his music is puerile. Do you really think that no one would have been able to tell (and tell Stalin about it)? Do you seriously think that Russians are so thick?Look, I don't claim to understand Shostakovich, though I have listened to his music for the past 50 years. But I do claim that, if we want to understand him or any other artistic genius, we must shed all received ideas (in this case, those spewed by the American or Soviet propaganda machines) and accept the fact that these minds are capable of holding two opposite ideas at the same time. The desire of creating pure music and that of raising 'class consciousness' -- as per Marxism's teachings -- can coexist and I maintain that they did in Shostakovich's mind. Of course, I maybe wrong, but at least I am trying to pull away from the stories we are told to believe.
@@senecanzallanute4066 Do you really think you can come here and tell such stories. Shostakovich was a survivor. He know how to exist in the brutality of the Soviet regime particularly in the early years. Indeed, it was the communists who found they had to accept his genius and co-opt his reputation, a classic triumph of the outsider over the intellectually bankrupt. He cared less than tuppence for communism only his craft and showed the empty nihilism of totalitarism and the ignorance of the elites through his music. There was no cage, stupid, large or little of any American proganganda, that is your fantasy created in all liklihood by the same creative impulse that removed images of murdered opponents from early soviet photographs.
Someone mentioned Shostakovich’s Jazz Suites. The Shostakovich Ballet Suites were my “gateway drug” into classical music. They consisted of music from his ballets that the Soviet government “censored”, so to speak - “The Limpid Brook” and “Lady Macbeth from the Mtensk District” were some of the sources of these delightful works.
I just did a portion of my dissertation recital on Shostakovich and if you think the 1920s were crazy, you should see what happened to him in the 50s. There’s a whole video’s worth of content on what happened with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Shostakovich may be the greatest all around artificer of sound of the 20th century, and easily one of the most inventive. You should do a video or two over one of his great symphonies.
I remember hearing Tahiti trot on the local radio station (which did classical), and that song came on. I had thought to myself at the time that this would make a good jazz song, and I might bring it in for jazz band (I’m currently in college). Really cool to hear the origin behind it.
When you were talking about Art Tatum moving all over the place but ending back at the correct note it reminded me of something I saw about Gregorian chant many years ago (probably over two decades). When the Gregorian monks were singing their musical notation (which was similar to, but still quite different from today's) had either squiggly or zigzaggy lines between some notes to indicate that the monks could go wherever they wanted to at those places as long as they all ended back at that same note. Crazy how no matter how much things change, they still stay the same. Also, I recently became aware of Shostakovich, specifically his Waltz No. 2. I wonder how many of his works were lost because his government didn't like them due to sounding too Western, or how many were just never made for the same reason.
Decades ago, a lifetime ago perhaps, when I was trying to become a historian I went to a conference where they had a presentation on jazz in the USSR that dealt with Tea for Two. Weird to see TH-cam make me remember that.
Thank you so much for videos like this Charles. No matter what your videos always leave me with a smile on my face. Your energy and enthusiasm for music is so infectious.
And these were typically made of something called "Bakelite", rather than actual vinyl plastic. When I was a kid my parents still had some of the old bakelite 78 records gathering dust in the closet.
0:03 No, not "Bakelite." The material 78rpm records were pressed into was called "Shellac." It was much more fragile than Bakelite, which I don't think was ever used for records. Note: At the end of the 78rpm era, a few of the last disks were being pressed into the new Vinyl material. But at the time, the transition to the smaller vinyl 45rpm (jukebox size) disks was well underway @crtune
What an amazing rollercoaster your video is. I love Shostakovich and Art Tatum and had no idea about the Tea for Two thing. Thank you - and for your enthusiasm and energy
Thelonious Monk's two studio recordings are my favorites, but the strangest adaptation of Tea for Two occurs about halfway through the last movement of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, the section that sets the words "Laudate Eum in cymbalis bene jubilantionibus".
I feel more intelligent for having watched this video from end to end. Thank you! I did not know about Art Tatum and his talents. I also did not know about the Shostakovich connection. It’s beautiful all around!
Crazy ... My mom and grandma used to sing the snippet from the chorus occasionally when I was growing up. I never knew where it came from. Crazy how pieces of melodies can be passed down through a family for a century, even to the point of forgetting the original source.
There is a wonderful Soviet clay animation film that uses this melody in the theme of the Grey Wolf - «Серый Волк энд Красная Шапочка» (“Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood”). It’s around 4 minutes and 30 seconds
Billy Taylor told that story as Horowitz asked Tatum how long did it take home to make that up? Art said “how long was it?” Vladimir had no concept about improvisation. 🤣🥳
Great video ! I've known of "Tea for Two" since forever because of the French film "La Grande Vadrouille" and have been listening to Shostakovitch's version recently. Always wanted to know more about its history and this video answered my questions and more !
Last year we played the Tahiti Trot in an arrangement for wind band during a Roaring Twenties concert. It was a lovely addition to Kurt Weill's Dreigrosschen Suite. 😊 Very fond memories of Shostakovich piece.
There is nothing quite so simultaneously wholesome and funny than watching a Jazz musician make crazy facial expressions while listening to a really well performed jazz piece on their instrument. 5:22 is a good example.
It is rare to find a jazz piano person who is not awe struck by Tatum. I first really started thinking and listening to Art Tatum due to the frequent urgings of a pianist friend who had been out to the Tchaikovsky competition as a kid, and was a beast of a pianist.
1000 songwriters would have written the same thing on Brill Street and Denmark Street when Tea For Two was popular. It's like romance novels about three lonely sisters in a palace ten years ago!
I didn't understand most of this. As a math teacher of several decades' experience in public schools, I now know what Humanities majors feel like when we talk about beautiful math proofs.
Actually Johann Sebastien Bach, who kept himself up to date with the Italian music scene, painstakingly copied or re-used new music by people like Vivaldi...as a method of self-improvement, a way to widen his musical knowledge. Plagiarism is a modern thing. As someone remarked, you copy from one source, it's plagiarism, you copy tons of material from different sources, it's research.
This video popped up on my feed while I was listening to the "Europe Central" audiobook, which coincidentally is in part the story of Shostakovich writing music not allowed in the USSR .
This suddenly brings the Julie Andrews/ Rudolf Nureyev song and dance routine of Tea for Two into an entirely new context. It's awesome btw, I've loved it for 50 years.
That wonderful tune called "Over the Rainbow' which Judy Garland sings in the "Wizard of Oz" occurs in a composition written decades ago in the "Intermezzo" from the opera "Guglielmo Ratcliff" by Pietro Mascagni, The "Intermezzo" paints in music a peaceful seascape before a dramatic interlude in the opera. Mascagni best known for the opera "Rustic Chivalry" a lot of which occurs in the soundtrack and plot of "Godfather 3."
Shostakovich had a really funny piece he made on the censorship as well called "Anti-formalist Rayok" where he makes fun of the soviet art censors (not released at the time for obvious reasons), its really funny if you get the chance to cover or listen to it.
Charles, my friend, I don’t know how did an entire 15 minute video on this song and somehow didn’t mention how it pop’s up in Loony Tunes screenings in movie theatres throughout the War (World War 2, that is).
I swear there was a very close variation of Tea For Two playing in episodes of the 1980s Heathcliff cartoon. It's been looping in my head rent free for the past 35 years
It's really amazing how important musicals were in creating popular music as we know it today, and in popularizing jazz. And how important No, No, Nanette was in bridging the gap between the operetta tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach, Strauss, and Lehar with the jazzy musicals of the Gershwins, Kerns, and Porter
How curious! Thank you for this great video! Apparently, you don't seem to run out of ideas soon, but I have a suggestion for a new video: Ryo Fukui. He is one of my favourite Jazz pianists of all time. The channel "STEVEM" has a great documentary about him, I would love to hear your take! Fun fact: Tea For Two is also a popular choice for dancing Cha-Cha to at competitions.
Shostakovich: "You want me to destroy the record of T42/TahitiTrott!? Do you have any idea how much time it took to compose it!? 45 mins! A whole damn 45 mins!!" 😎
Your description of how Art Tatum’s harmonic movement around only to end up back to the same key reminds me of Jacob collier. It’s exactly what he does.
TBH this filtered through the brain of Shostakovich... is INSANELY cool and beautiful - honestly, far better than the original. I can't help thinking what he'd do with some of the hits today...
It's not all that surprising to know that a Shostakovich arrangement of this piece was lost for so long, considering the fact that he and his music were literally blacklisted by Soviet leaders in a campaign against formalism in the arts.
Great that you've covered this tune - it's a total gem and a favourite party piece for me. Plus, any excuse to namecheck a titan like Shostakovich is a perk. I see I've been playing a non-standard 2nd section (of the chorus), transposing from the A-flat up to a very unrelated D minor (/G7/Dm...). It's an off the beaten track modulation, and of course has to be fixed to a return to A-flat, but it works seamlessly. I'm now wondering - where did I get that chord sequence? I don't think I made it up.
Great video and excellent piece of detective work! I play around with "Tea for Two" on my keyboard on a regular basis, yet I didn't detect the similarity with "Love Letter". Yet on careful comparison it was clearly a clever knockoff with slightly modified tune. Thanks! The one thing I might add is that I lament that the "verse" ( introductory section) of "Tea for Two" ("I'm discontented with homes that I rented") in general seems to be somewhat forgotten, because the original function of the verse was theatrical. The Beatles preserved the "verse" concept with such songs as "Honey Pie".
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
You guys, I thought I was setting out to make a video about the incredible harmonic ideas of Art Tatum. I had NO IDEA it was going to get THIS crazy...
:O
Please do the ducktales moon theme remastered.
I do have a song request for you to analyze. But before I get there, that was just an amazing story about tea for two, or Tahiti trot that was just something that I have never thought of before. You learn something new everyday.
Now, my request for a song for you to analyze. Could you analyze, see me through it by Brandon heath. Those chords in that song was just amazingly done after I heard it. I like the way that went.
Hey charles i've found a classical composer that you may like. he fuses classical with jazz, his name is Nikolai Kapustin (he's now my favourite composer).
could you check him out and maybe do a video about some of his stuff??
some pieces i recommend are
- Piano concerto no.4 (his other concertos are also great check out number 2 its amazing)
- Variations op.41
- 24 Preludes in Jazz Styles Op.53
- Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40
- Contemplation Op. 47 (you'll love this one)
also he does something that i havent seen anyone do before which is include a drum kit into an orchestra it sounds amazing
idk check it out if you have time :)
Crazy is good!
I would not be surprised if we keep finding Shostakovich pieces and arrangements like this. They seem to pop up every once in a while. But yeah, forty-five minutes for an orchestration like that is insane. Our boy Shosty was a creative machine.
I read how one of his friends or students saw him practicing orchestration. Long story short, he came at his house, and the composer was busy: he was self-consumed writting notes over a blank music sheet, and when he finished he explained that he was orchestrating some silly light-music song. When asked where's the original score of the song itself, he answer that he doesn't need it, because he knows it by heart. So he was regulary re-orchestrating the same song for the sake of practice, as a routine.
@@NorthonBruceAnd he did all that orchestration without ever hearing the full arrangement played back (until the piece would be performed in its finished state). There was no DAW, no MuseScore, and definitely no virtual instruments!
@@NorthonBruceOMG. I never knew this was a thing. I’ve practiced orchestration since my teen years, and didn’t think anything about it. Recently, I’m working on a couple versions of Wichita Lineman & a medley of Beatles songs. This week, there’s a tune in my head - a little bite I heard 40 years ago on Mexican radio - and I’ve decided to write it out. Wish me luck!
our boy shosty could probably orchestrate mentally all staves and bore himself writing the passages on paper
Well, when Stalin is breathing down your neck you get used to composing quickly.
Me simple. Me see Shostakovich, me click.
Real
Me like.
Me comment
He made Waltz no. 2. Obviously I'm gonna click.
Dat is t`reason I am heer
As someone that worked in the advertising industry making music for adverts, I can tell you that it is with all the intention. We trained ourselves to just get really close to plagiarism, knowing the actual rules that make a difference to make something sound like something without being it. They, in the advertising industry, call them "soundalikes". I specialized in them.
Cold hard facts.
Elsewhere one liked -- 'Jive Jump' by Christopher Ashmore -- which bears a curious resemblance to -- 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie' by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1946)
David Bowie even did it when his translation for the French hit, "Comme d'habitude" (as "Even a Fool Learns to Love") was overlooked for Paul Anka's new lyrics for the melody as "My Way". Bowie parodied Sinatra's huge hit and reimagined the chord changes as "Life on Mars?", with an album note saying it was 'inspired by Frankie'.
Specializing in copying is crazy
I guess that's just capitalism for y'all
Not a career I’d be proud of.
There was theme music for an early-1980s NFL highlights TV programme that sounded like John Williams' "Raiders of the Lost Ark" march, only with just enough notes changed so it arguably *wasn't* the Raiders march. If that was yours, you did a great job.
Shostakovich making an arrangement of Tea For Two is like bringing a tank to a BB gun fight. But clearly he was having a blast with it, and I'm glad it resurfaced.
Tank you for that.
funny thing is, russians like to bring tanks to airsoft battles that last 3 days, so... consistency?
@@sneakypeekyfoxie
It's called "Tank biathlon" and it's a global army games event where other countries' militia (the uncucked ones, of course) bring in their tanks to compete too, like China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, etc.
@@Kawayolnyo nah i'm talking about milsim-level airsoft games, not tank biathlon
My understanding is that the Shostakovich arrangement was never lost given that it was included in The Golden Age ballet score. The ballet fell out of favor as "formalistic" and was largely forgotten for decades, but the Tahiti Trot score was never physically lost.
Lots of Jazz just used the chord progressions from old standards, and then the musician wrote a new “head” tune over those chords. That way, say, Charlie Parker or Miles Davis could play with any rhythm section and just say “play Tea for Two” and the backing musicians would know those chords, and the horn player would play the new melody over that and then improvise. Much easier than having to teach the rhythm section a whole new progression.
It's called a "contrafact". Excluding the 12-bar blues, the set of chord changes with the most contrafacts seems to be "I Got Rhythm", with over 200 contrafacts listed on Wikipedia alone.
@@mal2kscyep, commonly referred to as the "rhythm changes"
I have a theory that Shostakovich owned a copy of the sheet music to "The Rite Of Spring" and was cribbing from it, which sped up the process, especially when you're already working with such a rudimentary melody. If not, he was definitely referencing it from memory. All those swoops and crashes, even the very ORDER in which melodies are traded off by instrument and the resulting constant contrasts in timbre, is strictly pulled from Stravinsky. This is no coincidence or accident, and it is very funny.
I'm sure Shostakovich had a copy of The Rite and memorized it, same way he had the score of every Mahler symphony he could get through whatever means. But artists always crib from each other, and in a pressure situation like this he just worked off of what he knew. Doesn't make it any less impressive.
If I remember right, young Shostakovich was also a big admirer of Stravinsky, before music started to be scrutinized like that
Shostakovich was a composer and conductor. Of course he would know Stravinsky! It's like modern Millennials and Gen Z knowing John Williams wrote Harry Potter music.
Stravinsky music fanfares and scintillates. So does John Williams. It's hard not to steal from great composers.
@@groofayplus only so many variations you can do
@@ginnyjollykidd It's not that obvious and it's not about him being a conductor - it's about the Soviet Union. Stravinsky was officially designated an Enemy of the State by the Soviet Union because of the Marxist principles of false consciousness and cultural vanguardism (that is, the Party decides how you should think and anything else you experience culturally or personally is a capitalist lie and you need to be indoctrinated out of it). This was the age of Stalin - it would have been not strictly legal or especially easy for Shostakovich to actually have his own library of Stravinsky's work during the peak of his career even if he clearly admired him, and it's not out of the question he could have been tortured, enslaved in labor camp, or killed for it. Though of course it was possible and he probably did.
Remember if you don't actually have access to a physical copy of sheet music in the era we're talking about there is no way to look it up, and Shostakovich lived in the world's largest and most powerful protectionist trading bloc, which tightly controlled all that it could going in or out.
Charles is throwing out videos like free candy
f*** timing post - Charles Cornell circa 2024
"You get a video! And you get a video! And you get a video!"
Yeah.. wasn't he supposed to be practicing more? 🤷♂️😏
next thing ya know we’ll be a communist country!
Art Tatum over here playing "Tea for Two Giant Steps"
Tea For Two was written in 1924 and is in the public domain. You can imitate it as closely as you want and there will be no copyright infringement.
In the USA, after 75 years
it's in the public domain.
@@markrymanowski719isn't it u til the person dies someone can buy the rights?
@@livingmuses7460
No idea.
@@livingmuses7460yes but the rules get weird for pieces made before the rules changed to be what they are now, I believe the 20s are fully in the clear though
@@markrymanowski719 wait, is public domain copyright?
4:09 this man is just casually playing tenths like it's nothing. I wish my hands were this huge.
Yeah me jealous too
tenths can be reached with average size hands and stretch practice! you should try
This is why Im a violinist......a) 10ths are rare and even if required b) way less distance
I can do that
You can buy pianos with slightly smaller keys, but mainstream shops don't sell them because they think they won't make a profit on them. Sadly you have to go out of your way to get one, and they're more expensive. I think they would be a legendary thing for everyone who can't reach a tenth to have these pianos in mainstream stores
There was a youtube video on this a while back.
Most people don't appreciate how "out there" Art Tatum really was, how unique his talents were. The players of his day, and anyone since, would just shrink back if Tatum was going to play, as he was going to begin where they left off and then go to the moon. No one could keep up with him.
The Tea for Two arrangement only entered the public domain 4 years ago (January 1st, 2020). But that recording doesn't enter the public domain for another 6 months (January 1st, 2025). Just a reminder that copyright lengths really should go back to the pre-1970s standard of 56 years.
Thanks, Disney.
Are these worldwide rules or are they only relevant in America ? Why did 'they' change the copyright law from 56 years to... a hundred ?? Obviously, the music industry wanted to keep on making as much money as possible from newer songs without losing revenue to former favourite tunes... but, now there are TWO separate copyright dates ? The composition and then the date of each and every recording of the same said song... which extends 100 years ! ??
So, Shostakovich would not have been able to perform his symphonic-version until 2020 without paying royalties... and a DJ currently, still cannot use an 8, 16, 32 bar sound-bite from the 1925 original '78 rpm, legally ? Or, in Europe - are the copyright laws different and therefore royalty-free, for example ?
Fifty-six years was the standard for the U.S., but other countries had longer terms. The U.S. was just making their laws more like the other countries' laws.
@@stillbuyvhs Nope, that was the first excuse in the 1970s, but when they increased it by another 20 years in the 90's, they went back out of sync with other countries just to boost it. In reality it was just a push by the large IP holders, spearheaded by Disney, to preserve their intellectual property.
My father was pianist/bandleader, taught all 5 of us how to play real music with his band-to go along with the school band lessons. He was on contract at a resort hotel nearby for 40 years, and the Musicians' Union told him they knew of no one else who had a sit down gig so long. I started my band in 1972 and just retired in 2022, beating my Dad by 10 years. On some of his records were 3 of the songs you mentioned: Tea for Two, All the Things you are, and Autumn Leaves. I was 14 when he recorded the last song, and he took me to the recording session. I volunteered to play claves, and 63 years later, still get to hear my younger self on his rendition. You are fabulous, love your playing, keep going.
Shostakovich actually incorporated ‘Tea for Two’ in his ballet “The Age of Gold”.
This song is used in one of the most famous french movie "La grande vadrouille" and each time we - french people - heard this song we remember the turkish bath scene...
Also yes, Autumn Leaves is never talked about, but as someone who listens to Russian music, it always sounded similar to the song "Red Army Is The Strongest." However, that song is the original version of "Workers of Vienna", an Austrian socialist song that uses the same tune.The composer of Autumn Leaves lived in Vienna around the time that song may be popular and was used by socialist organizers, so it is possible he heard the melody and he either subconsciously remembered it or intended to use its melody for Autumn Leaves.
Edit: It has been made known to me that Red Army is the Strongest came before Workers of Vienna, I have edited my message accordingly.
Interesting. Had to look up the background for that song. Always knew it was french though, by Hungarian Kosma. Didn´t know it originated from his own ballet music. But, yes I´ve heard that theme in Tchaikovsky now that I think about it. :)
My granny insisted that many pop songs were really of Russian origin. At the time it was funny, like Ens. Pavel Chekov insisting that everything was invented by little old ladies in Leningrad, but looking back I'd say my granny was right about those pop songs.
However, she also insisted that 20th century composers, like Shostakovich, wrote only non-melodic noise. It took several years and Danny Elfman's enthusiasm for Shostakovich 's jazz-inspired pieces to get me to realise that in this case Granny was mistaken.
You appear to mix up something. "The Red Army is the Strongest" (also known as White Army, Black Baron) neither sounds similar to Autumn Leaves nor is it just a Russian version of "Workers of Vienna". The latter song was written in 1927, while the first song was already written in 1920 during the Russian Civil War. Both songs share the same melody, while having completely different lyrics.
@@alexanderkohler6439 The Red Army of the Strongest has a part in the melody where it indeed sounds like Autumn Leaves. I did not mix that up.
th-cam.com/video/YVedK1VUfLM/w-d-xo.html
0:46-1:00
Sounds very similar to
th-cam.com/video/J0FZ2ObAckw/w-d-xo.html
0:19-0:28
Those timestamps specifically.
What I did mix up was that indeed, you are correct, and I thank you for pointing out, that Autumn Leaves is infact a German version of Red Army is the Strongest.
@@internetperson8638 I agree that the cord progressions are the same in these specific parts. But I still don't think that either of the Russian or Austrian marches could possibly have served as an inspiration for a soft mellow jazz song such as Autumn Leaves. Actually, I only found the German wikipedia to make a short note on alleged similarities, while the English version doesn't mention the marches at all but rather draws lines to Tchaikovsky's Hamlet ouverture (which I don't know yet, to be honest).
Tea For Two is a really fun piece of music as a piano solo, a band tune, and a crooner's song. I've played it so much and arranged it so many times, and I'm gonna say you, random person reading this, should learn it. Great changes at the end of the form to practice over, and a simple but charming melody.
"Soviet Russia in 1920-s was wild!"
Yeah, wait till you hear about the 30-s
"Remember, it's wrong to eat your children"
- Actual Soviet subway poster because people were literally eating their children
Then wait till 40s and the war...
It was a complete chaos there in 1914-1945 and only started to improve after Stalin's death
@@notcrazy6288 its fake, I'm russian, and there is not a single poster that actually says that. All the articles about them either have no pictures or have posters that say completely different things
Especially the late 30s for Shosty himself 💀💀💀
@@notcrazy6288I love spreading misinformation
Shostakovich, his Jazz Suite album is one of my all-time favorites. It's amazing!
3:43 You can hear this exact motif in The Mandalorian's intro theme!
I already knew about Shostakovich's Tea for Two arrangement because I have a kind of relentless obsession about him so I had to see this.
I was kinda wary when seeing the title but this is actually a really good explanation of the tea for two lore! Unfortunately the tea for two controversy was probably the least extreme example of the numerous times when the soviet union told Shostakovich "yeah that thing you composed? Get rid of that."
Extra fun fact: Tea for Two is really famous in France because of an old comedy movie called "La Grande Vadrouille" where english soldiers whistle it to find each other without getting caught by the nazis. Idk if there's a translated version of this movie and idk if the humour in this kind of movie can be translated in a meaningful way, but I recommend this movie to anyone, it's really part of french culture
"La Grande Vadrouille" movie is well known in the former Soviet Union. This film was dubbed in 1971 and is still often shown on Russian TV. Louis de Funès is still one of the most respected foreign actors in Russia
@@alexgefreiter6810 that's awesome I didn't know!!
@@juliee593 I'm from Serbia, and growing up in 1980's Louis de Funes and all his films were like the best thing if you wanted to have a good laugh. La Grande Vandrouille was especially my favorite, as it had another grand artist - Bourvil.
Oh, Shosty! ❤ It's so amazing to actually see a recording of one of the great ones. ❤
Please do more Jazz standard videos.
You are such a gifted presenter of musical information. Always so enjoyable to watch.
There also another story linked with tea for two, art Tatum, and a great classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz.
Horowitz was friend of Tatum and after listening tea for two he also wrote his own arrangement of it, and when he showed it to Tatum, he was really impressed by it and ask him if he could play it too. And after that, art wiped out a whole new arrangement of tea for two, when Horowitz asked if he could get the sheet music, only to get told "oh I just improvised it".
Unfortunately I don't think Horowitz arrangement survived but there is a shory clip of Horowitz himself playing it, though it's more like him trying to remember the arrangement he wrote a long time ago...
Conan O’Brien does his own version of the song called “Wanee Wanaa” which in it of itself is a Three Stooges reference.
IT NEEDS MORE GRAVY
not gonna lie but tahiti trot (shosty's arrangement for tea for two) sounds like mall muzak, and i love it
Missed opportunity to talk about Thelonious Monk's brilliant reharmonization of Tea for Two that he used on "Skippy".
Emmet Cohen also regularly plays brilliant versions of TFT with his trios
It's almost like
Picnic, and Moonglow
Also, on PICNIC, the Dance at 1:04:05 was like a karaoke..with piano
Of Moonglow
These songs were great, and many married couples had their favorites
Even 50s-60s oldies
Had requests for favorite songs on wedding anniversaries
@@kathleenking47 Bands still often play the Moonglow / PIcnic arrangements. I have played in groups which featured it in basically every gig we did.
I have an album I got in the early 2000s of Shostakovich's Jazz Suites and included with the album is this piece. As soon as I saw the blurb for this video, I knew it had to be about this song. You did a great dive into the history of this piece. And, Art Tatum, what can you say about his talent? Amazing!!
More "trendy" music deep dives please!
That would be amazing
What scares me is that I remember the original version of Tea for Two.. I’m in my 60s. This song was a huge hit many decades after the 1920s. Featured on many variety shows in the 60s and even 70s.
I’ve loved the Shostakovich piece for ages but had no idea about the earlier lyrical version
I had heard Shosti's T4T as a random track on his Jazz Album (most famous for Waltz #2) and have never had any idea what the hell it was doing there. Thank you for the history and the demos.
Pheew.. finally on a non ios device so I could edit my comment ;)
Tatum's talents were natural. Most classically trained pianists would probably have required years of practice to match his level, but I bet there were a couple who were just as good.
Shostakovich once got into a boxing match with Camille Saint-Saens at an Art Tatum concert in Brooklyn, which started a riot, which lead to the Catholic Church issuing a papal bull declaring Tatum's music "the work of the devil."
@@rodrigoodonsalcedocisneros9266 for improvisation, no, unless you count composers, but for technical skill most definitely.
Rachmaninoff was also a fan. He famously said that if Art Tatum ever decided to play classical music "we'd all be in trouble"
@@mbenoni7397straight facts
Shostakovich was not only an amazing composer but he knew how to say what he wanted to say through music while saying what authorities wanted to hear in words.
Yes, he had very emotional music, which reflected how he felt about life in the USSR
Why do people who were not there, did not know him, do not know much history, feel obliged to repeat silly stuff like this? Shostakovich was a committed communist and a Russian. He was patriotic like every Russian is. He deeply believed that his music had to elevate the people of the USSR and the world. That's why he composed his 5th and 7th symphonies. He also deeply believed that the human condition is tragic. That's why he composed his string quartets. His antidote to tragedy was clownish irony, which pops up so often in his work. Do you really think you can constrain a genius like him in the little stupid cage American propaganda has created, after having ostracized him for half a century?
@@senecanzallanute4066 I can't tell if you're deliberately ignoring how he suffered under Stalin's regime or are just ignorant of it, but this is not pure propaganda - just look at why he hid his 4th symphony for twenty years, or at the 9th or 10th symphonies. the 9th symphony was not just "irony as an antidote to tragedy". Stalin asked for a triumphant 7th-esque victory symphony and he got a joke (that made fun of him if you read between the lines).
@@timothymaksimenko3407 Your read Volkov's forged biography and think you know the inner Shostakovich. You don't. No one does. I don't deny that he suffered from the political pressures he received, of course he must have. My point is that he acted as though he was a willing part of those same pressures. No one with Shostakovich's gigantic mind likes to be told what to do, but he was a communist and a Russian. For this reason he fundamentally accepted Stalin's message though at times disagreeing with aspects of it. The idea that he would hide messages in his music is puerile. Do you really think that no one would have been able to tell (and tell Stalin about it)? Do you seriously think that Russians are so thick?Look, I don't claim to understand Shostakovich, though I have listened to his music for the past 50 years. But I do claim that, if we want to understand him or any other artistic genius, we must shed all received ideas (in this case, those spewed by the American or Soviet propaganda machines) and accept the fact that these minds are capable of holding two opposite ideas at the same time. The desire of creating pure music and that of raising 'class consciousness' -- as per Marxism's teachings -- can coexist and I maintain that they did in Shostakovich's mind. Of course, I maybe wrong, but at least I am trying to pull away from the stories we are told to believe.
@@senecanzallanute4066 Do you really think you can come here and tell such stories. Shostakovich was a survivor. He know how to exist in the brutality of the Soviet regime particularly in the early years. Indeed, it was the communists who found they had to accept his genius and co-opt his reputation, a classic triumph of the outsider over the intellectually bankrupt. He cared less than tuppence for communism only his craft and showed the empty nihilism of totalitarism and the ignorance of the elites through his music. There was no cage, stupid, large or little of any American proganganda, that is your fantasy created in all liklihood by the same creative impulse that removed images of murdered opponents from early soviet photographs.
Someone mentioned Shostakovich’s Jazz Suites. The Shostakovich Ballet Suites were my “gateway drug” into classical music. They consisted of music from his ballets that the Soviet government “censored”, so to speak - “The Limpid Brook” and “Lady Macbeth from the Mtensk District” were some of the sources of these delightful works.
I just did a portion of my dissertation recital on Shostakovich and if you think the 1920s were crazy, you should see what happened to him in the 50s. There’s a whole video’s worth of content on what happened with Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Shostakovich may be the greatest all around artificer of sound of the 20th century, and easily one of the most inventive. You should do a video or two over one of his great symphonies.
YES. Shostakovich is friend. We like him:)
shosty 4 life
I remember hearing Tahiti trot on the local radio station (which did classical), and that song came on. I had thought to myself at the time that this would make a good jazz song, and I might bring it in for jazz band (I’m currently in college). Really cool to hear the origin behind it.
Imagine making a jazz arrangement of a classical arrangement of a jazz song - that would be the ultimate meta-jazz!
Not everyone appreciates the origins and history of a song, but I'm very glad that you do!
When you were talking about Art Tatum moving all over the place but ending back at the correct note it reminded me of something I saw about Gregorian chant many years ago (probably over two decades). When the Gregorian monks were singing their musical notation (which was similar to, but still quite different from today's) had either squiggly or zigzaggy lines between some notes to indicate that the monks could go wherever they wanted to at those places as long as they all ended back at that same note.
Crazy how no matter how much things change, they still stay the same.
Also, I recently became aware of Shostakovich, specifically his Waltz No. 2. I wonder how many of his works were lost because his government didn't like them due to sounding too Western, or how many were just never made for the same reason.
Decades ago, a lifetime ago perhaps, when I was trying to become a historian I went to a conference where they had a presentation on jazz in the USSR that dealt with Tea for Two. Weird to see TH-cam make me remember that.
Charles, I love how much I learn from all of your videos. I always get excited when I see you post another one. Thanks for all you do!!
Thank you so much for videos like this Charles. No matter what your videos always leave me with a smile on my face. Your energy and enthusiasm for music is so infectious.
I noticed the beginning of David Bowie's 'Star man' sounded like 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'.
Honestly really interesting, this kind of music sharing across composers, cultures and countries is what's really inspiring about music!
Ok I am fascinated by all this footage of dsch playing piano. Love it.
Records went around a lot faster than THAT, back in the 20s. It's a 78-rpm shellac disk. You can't read those when they go round!
And these were typically made of something called "Bakelite", rather than actual vinyl plastic. When I was a kid my parents still had some of the old bakelite 78 records gathering dust in the closet.
0:03 No, not "Bakelite." The material 78rpm records were pressed into was called "Shellac." It was much more fragile than Bakelite, which I don't think was ever used for records.
Note: At the end of the 78rpm era, a few of the last disks were being pressed into the new Vinyl material. But at the time, the transition to the smaller vinyl 45rpm (jukebox size) disks was well underway @crtune
What an amazing rollercoaster your video is. I love Shostakovich and Art Tatum and had no idea about the Tea for Two thing. Thank you - and for your enthusiasm and energy
One of my favourite Shostakovich compositions is his Viola Sonata. The second movement speaks so eloquently about his feelings about his government.
Thelonious Monk's two studio recordings are my favorites, but the strangest adaptation of Tea for Two occurs about halfway through the last movement of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, the section that sets the words "Laudate Eum in cymbalis bene jubilantionibus".
I feel more intelligent for having watched this video from end to end. Thank you! I did not know about Art Tatum and his talents. I also did not know about the Shostakovich connection. It’s beautiful all around!
Crazy ... My mom and grandma used to sing the snippet from the chorus occasionally when I was growing up. I never knew where it came from. Crazy how pieces of melodies can be passed down through a family for a century, even to the point of forgetting the original source.
Mine did too
He knew his craft. No hesitation between idea and notation.
There is a wonderful Soviet clay animation film that uses this melody in the theme of the Grey Wolf - «Серый Волк энд Красная Шапочка» (“Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood”).
It’s around 4 minutes and 30 seconds
Billy Taylor told that story as Horowitz asked Tatum how long did it take home to make that up? Art said “how long was it?” Vladimir had no concept about improvisation. 🤣🥳
Great video ! I've known of "Tea for Two" since forever because of the French film "La Grande Vadrouille" and have been listening to Shostakovitch's version recently. Always wanted to know more about its history and this video answered my questions and more !
Last year we played the Tahiti Trot in an arrangement for wind band during a Roaring Twenties concert. It was a lovely addition to Kurt Weill's Dreigrosschen Suite. 😊 Very fond memories of Shostakovich piece.
Yes, daily videos between both channels. Do what you love, because we love what you do!
There is nothing quite so simultaneously wholesome and funny than watching a Jazz musician make crazy facial expressions while listening to a really well performed jazz piece on their instrument.
5:22 is a good example.
It is rare to find a jazz piano person who is not awe struck by Tatum. I first really started thinking and listening to Art Tatum due to the frequent urgings of a pianist friend who had been out to the Tchaikovsky competition as a kid, and was a beast of a pianist.
1000 songwriters would have written the same thing on Brill Street and Denmark Street when Tea For Two was popular. It's like romance novels about three lonely sisters in a palace ten years ago!
This was great! Would love to see more "what's the story behind X?" - style videos.
I didn't understand most of this. As a math teacher of several decades' experience in public schools, I now know what Humanities majors feel like when we talk about beautiful math proofs.
I love the music but also how deep the rabbit hole went. Thanks for bringing this to us!
This is THE best video I've watched on your channel. You put out some great stuff, but this was just so fascinating.
it's very strange to think that shostakovich was around the time jazz was becoming popular lol
3:04 It's not copyright infringement, but that doesn't mean it can't be plagiarism.
Actually Johann Sebastien Bach, who kept himself up to date with the Italian music scene, painstakingly copied or re-used new music by people like Vivaldi...as a method of self-improvement, a way to widen his musical knowledge. Plagiarism is a modern thing. As someone remarked, you copy from one source, it's plagiarism, you copy tons of material from different sources, it's research.
Love the Shostakovich version. It's always been my favorite one and a piece that I like the most from him.
This video popped up on my feed while I was listening to the "Europe Central" audiobook, which coincidentally is in part the story of Shostakovich writing music not allowed in the USSR .
7:18 "he looked at this thing" yeah i dont think he did
This suddenly brings the Julie Andrews/ Rudolf Nureyev song and dance routine of Tea for Two into an entirely new context.
It's awesome btw, I've loved it for 50 years.
That wonderful tune called "Over the Rainbow' which Judy Garland sings in the "Wizard of Oz" occurs in a composition written decades ago in the "Intermezzo" from the opera "Guglielmo Ratcliff" by Pietro Mascagni, The "Intermezzo" paints in music a peaceful seascape before a dramatic interlude in the opera. Mascagni best known for the opera "Rustic Chivalry" a lot of which occurs in the soundtrack and plot of "Godfather 3."
Decades before
I just heard Poulenc's Violin Sonata from 1942 - 1943 and I am fairly sure he quotes the song in the third movement
Shostakovich had a really funny piece he made on the censorship as well called "Anti-formalist Rayok" where he makes fun of the soviet art censors (not released at the time for obvious reasons), its really funny if you get the chance to cover or listen to it.
Charles, my friend, I don’t know how did an entire 15 minute video on this song and somehow didn’t mention how it pop’s up in Loony Tunes screenings in movie theatres throughout the War (World War 2, that is).
Jazz and DSCH in one video? Yes, please.
Incredible story, presented so well. Props
This video is top, love these stories🎉
Charles I love your channel the post regularity goes hard fr!
I swear there was a very close variation of Tea For Two playing in episodes of the 1980s Heathcliff cartoon. It's been looping in my head rent free for the past 35 years
It's really amazing how important musicals were in creating popular music as we know it today, and in popularizing jazz. And how important No, No, Nanette was in bridging the gap between the operetta tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach, Strauss, and Lehar with the jazzy musicals of the Gershwins, Kerns, and Porter
How curious! Thank you for this great video!
Apparently, you don't seem to run out of ideas soon, but I have a suggestion for a new video: Ryo Fukui. He is one of my favourite Jazz pianists of all time. The channel "STEVEM" has a great documentary about him, I would love to hear your take!
Fun fact: Tea For Two is also a popular choice for dancing Cha-Cha to at competitions.
Shostakovich: "You want me to destroy the record of T42/TahitiTrott!? Do you have any idea how much time it took to compose it!? 45 mins! A whole damn 45 mins!!" 😎
Shostikovich was a genius
Your description of how Art Tatum’s harmonic movement around only to end up back to the same key reminds me of Jacob collier. It’s exactly what he does.
Dimitri Shostakovich has always been one of my top five classical composers ever! He was way ahead of his time and a complete GENIUS!
AGREE! love him sm
I though this was gonna be million dollar baby 😂
I just heard Shangri-Las "Remember" on Sirius 60s last week and I thought it would be that 🤣
Art Tatum mentioned 🙌🏻🙌🏻
TBH this filtered through the brain of Shostakovich... is INSANELY cool and beautiful - honestly, far better than the original. I can't help thinking what he'd do with some of the hits today...
This was facinating. Thank you so much.
It's not all that surprising to know that a Shostakovich arrangement of this piece was lost for so long, considering the fact that he and his music were literally blacklisted by Soviet leaders in a campaign against formalism in the arts.
the art tatum part made me say "is this even legal"
Great that you've covered this tune - it's a total gem and a favourite party piece for me. Plus, any excuse to namecheck a titan like Shostakovich is a perk.
I see I've been playing a non-standard 2nd section (of the chorus), transposing from the A-flat up to a very unrelated D minor (/G7/Dm...). It's an off the beaten track modulation, and of course has to be fixed to a return to A-flat, but it works seamlessly. I'm now wondering - where did I get that chord sequence? I don't think I made it up.
"Piel Canela" sounds a bit like a more sincopated version of "Tea for Two"
What a great music history video! Thanks Charles🎵
I'm going to be playing the Shostakovich version of Tea for Two at summer camp this year! Its so interesting to hear the history behind cool music!
Great video and excellent piece of detective work! I play around with "Tea for Two" on my keyboard on a regular basis, yet I didn't detect the similarity with "Love Letter". Yet on careful comparison it was clearly a clever knockoff with slightly modified tune. Thanks!
The one thing I might add is that I lament that the "verse" ( introductory section) of "Tea for Two" ("I'm discontented with homes that I rented") in general seems to be somewhat forgotten, because the original function of the verse was theatrical. The Beatles preserved the "verse" concept with such songs as "Honey Pie".
Incredible. To connect modern social media with history and music theory. Thanks for your work ❤️