Tea for One Premiere by James Palmer

A new concert series in Houston, Point of Departure, debuted on October 14th with a charming and lively “coffee house” program. The series, dubbed “Houston’s Classical Music Variety Show,” is led by pianist James Palmer. Its inaugural program included the newly commissioned solo piano work, Tea for One, a piece that draws inspiration from early 20th century popular piano styles from ragtime to stride and boogie-woogie. The title is a reference to Art Tatum’s seminal 1933 recording of Vincent Youmans’ classic standard, Tea for Two.

James Palmer

Tea for One is inspired by early twentieth century popular piano styles like ragtime and stride, and also the dynamism and brilliance of Art Tatum, whose ground-breaking, virtuosic recording of Tea for Two is the source of the work’s tongue-in-cheek title. Th e opening “slow drag” also hints at the floating, coloristic harmony of figures like Alexander Scriabin and Karol Szymanowski, composer-pianists from the same heady period. A middle section features the fleet-fingered right hand and “fingerbusting” left hand that characterizes the many “lions” of this rollicking pianism.