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Yeah, there is bit of promotion for PianoCraft at the very end, but this is a wonderful documentary that should be checked out. Originally recorded in 2019, it has just been released. Enjoy!

I think the video is extremely well done with the possible exception of the occasional bizarre expressions/behavior from Mayer while Horowitz is talking.

I've heard Stephen Mayer play many times at the IKIF at Mannes. He usually plays last on the night where they have around five different teachers all perform for around 20 minutes each. He usually plays a few Tatum transcriptions at the end of his set, and he always bring down the house.

I'm not sure what he means when he says he's just as "secure" when he performs transcriptions by Tatum or others on this video as when he performs Chopin or Beethoven. I am a major fan of jazz transcriptions and have spent the last 15+ years playing mostly this kind of music although at one time I only played classical. But as much as I like this music, I don't think these pieces can compare with the greatest piano works of the great classical composers,

I thought this documentary missed an opportunity to present a perspective from African American classical and jazz pianists and musicologists. Steven Mayer and Joseph Horowitz pontificating about Black pianists was white-mansplaining. Instead of covering Dvorak, they could have covered Samuel Coleridge-Taylor who composed classical music based on American Negro spirituals, as well as a number of other African American composers and pianists. I think they tailored the documentary to Mayer’s repertoire more than anything else. This documentary should be called “Tribute to Steven Mayer”.

1. The documentary is tailored to Mayer's repertoire but his repertoire is very broad in this area. He played pieces by most of the important jazz pianists up to Tatum.
2. They chose Dvorak because they wanted an example of a very great while classical composer who adapted ideas from black jazz pianists. The use of his most famous Humoresque was a perfect example to illustrate that.
3. My guess is they didn't have jazz pianists talk because many of them, as Mayer said, look down on playing transcriptions of jazz pianists' improvisations.
4. I do agree that the video was, at least some extent, a promotion for Steven Mayer but many pianists have to do some promoting for the sake of their career.

I think by " secure " he just means that he is confidant the music will be accepted and enjoyed by the audience even though it is programmed less often than more standard repertoire.

Thanks for sharing the video. I enjoyed it very much. I think they did a great job telling a particular story — mostly through the music, but the commentary/discussion was also important. The tiger rag at the end was particularly enjoyable!

Glad you liked it!

I just posted this link on my facebook page. I have known Steven Mayer since my early days in New York. I tuned for him when we were both in our twenties. I kept in touch with him and was aware of his work and recordings of the Art Tatum repertoire. I thought this was a fantastic documentation of an area that he has been working on for his entire professional life.

I met Steven shortly after I got out of the North Bennet Street School in 1976. I often credit him with really teaching me to tune. I would tune his piano and the next day he would call me to come touch it up. At one point he said it seemed odd that I could tune it and a day later it would be slightly out of tune, but then it would stay there for months. A light bulb moment for me and the value of pin setting sunk in. Later I would take pride to myself that he didn't call. Steven practiced more than any pianist that I know because he kept up a massive rep in in Classical and American piano literature in addition to what he was doing with the Art Tatum repertoire. He tackled Ives' Concord sonata with a commitment that was rare. In 1999/2000 he played at special NYE concert and dinner that I had to mark the millennium.

Thanks for posting.