Karim Al-Zand: Music: Tea for One

Tea for One

for piano

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. The 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.

Tea for One was commissioned by pianist James Palmer, with support form the Houston Arts Alliance, for the inaugural concert of his new series, Point of Departure, a classical music variety show.