Donald Lambert - 12th Street Rag | Stride piano solo

"12th Street Rag" (E. L. Bowman) played by Donald Lambert.
Donald Lambert (1904 - 1962) was a genius of Harlem stride piano with a redoubtable left hand. He also was a great musician and liked to play classical tune in his own style.
He mainly played the piano in his favourite bar "Wallace’s High Tavern" in Orange, New jersey. Nevertheless, thanks to the few regular recordings he made, he can be part of the great names of jazz piano.
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[@nikol4y.l]

Love his sneaky quotation of Rachmaninov at the end

[@KawhackitaRag]

FANTASTIC! Thanks for posting!

[@jazzlars7122]

Great!

[@StrideLatinProgRick]

The fabulous "Jersey Rocket"!

[@KawhackitaRag]

Is a transcription of this available for sale? Where may I purchase it?

[@robertbrown8008]

Donald Lambert once challenged Art Tatum.

[@Reichthoff]

He was essentially the Thalberg to Tatum's Liszt.

[@steveballzack1409]

I don't think that he ever challenged Tatum. He stayed in Jersey and never played in New York. If he wanted to challenge Tatum he could have any night of the week, everyone knew where Tatum was.
The story goes, Lambert challenged Tatum at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960. The only problem with that story is that Tatum had been dead for 4 years at that point. He may have challenged Willie the Lion or maybe Eubie Blake, who were both alive and present.
Besides, Tatum is objectively better in every way at playing the piano and nobody who knows what they're talking about actually believes that Donald Lambert could ever outplay Tatum.

[@jacobzimmermann59]

@@steveballzack1409 Allegedly he actually did challenge him once. Tatum didn't accept the challenge though, and instead let one of his friends play against Lambert. According to the record of the story I've read, it was a close match but Lambert eventually lost.
PS: I agree that I don't see Lambert outplaying Tatum. The only two who are generally considered to have really beaten Tatum on at least one occasion are Earl Hines and Bud Powell. The latter in particular would have been interesting to watch - Tatum acknowledged Powell's technical virtuosity but he didn't like him as a musician and called him a "one handed pianist".

[@micoveliki8729]

@@jacobzimmermann59 techincly speaking Tatum mentor James P Johnson in his prime was far better than him. Eve after the strike if you can hear Caprice Rag its wild

[@jacobzimmermann59]

@@micoveliki8729 ​I've never heard about Johnson being Tatum's mentor, have you got some sources about that? I absolutely agree that he was better than Lambert, both technically and musically, but then again, that doesn't mean much. Saying that a stride player is perhaps not quite as good as Johnson is like saying that a car is not as luxurious as a Rolls Royce ;)