From the twin birthplaces
of jazz, New Orleans and Harlem, from the teenage Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who wowed
Chopin and Berlioz in 1830’s Paris with his Afro-American and Caribbean-based musical
portraits, to America’s first American great black composer, Scott Joplin to Jelly
Roll Morton, who claimed to invent jazz in 1904, to James P. Johnson, the father
of Harlem Stride piano, to Johnson’s pupil Fats Waller to George Gershwin, and to
Art Tatum, arguably the greatest pianist in jazz history—Steven Mayer has been credited
with "a feat of glorious chutzpah" (John Ardoin,
The Dallas Morning News).
"Steven
Mayer’s performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was straightforward, exciting,
excellent, and the audience couldn’t have been happier."
—Mark Swed
The Los Angeles
Times
"Jazz or classical, Mayer can Tatum or weave’em.
—Lawson Taitte
The Dallas Morning News
"You have to be impressed by Mr. Mayer’s devotion to Art Tatum’s music
and his technically brilliant playing. His renditions are amazing facsimiles."
—Anthony
Tommasini
The New York Times
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