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New Orleans to Harlem
Of Steven Mayer's recreations of America's greatest piano repertoire, John Rockwell
of The New York Times has written: "Composition or improvisation, classical or jazz,
white or black—all categories crumble in the face of accomplishment. Mr. Mayer proved
he could do it again, that the past could be honorably reborn."
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
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"Jazz or classical, Mayer can Tatum or weave'em."
Lawson Taitte, The Dallas Morning News
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"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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