SC: If you were to choose a high point of your career, what would it
be?
AV: Every week was like a high, because I worked opposite people like
Art Tatum. Luckily, I had a trio, and he was alone - because he sounds like
six pianos when he plays. He was one of the all-time great players. He was an
inspiration for everybody who came later on.
I also worked opposite Oscar Peterson, who's one fo the top pianists in the world. I worked opposite Errol Garner [the musician who wrote Misty] at the HiHat and Storyville. Also Charlie Parker and Lester Young. I usually ended up playing a few times during the week with the because the piano player would disappear or get lost, or whatever. A lot of those guys were on drugs and things like that - so I'd end up playing with them.
Even Count Basie was there a lot, with a small group. He'd say "Do you want to play with the group?"
SC: When was this?
AV: This was in the fifties. We started at the HiHat. I used to do a single, and we used to broadcast it every night. So, on the broadcast, I'd do two songs, and I'd usually ask the bass and drummer if they'd play with me. And I ended up playing with Max Roach and some of the best drummers in the world. And bass players like Ray Brown - he's still going strong. He's one of the top bass players in the world. He's be there with Oscar Peterson or some other group, and he'd do two songs for me. So that was a high point.
Then, eventually, I got my trio, and I went to Storyville. We were recording for Prestige. I could have gone on the road, but I never had to travel, because I kept working. It's unique - I'm one of the few musicians who made a living without having to go on the road.
I did that for fifty years. What's remarkable is that I was able to keep a trio working, and later on we had a singer added. So I kept three or four people working for most of those fifty years.
SC: Has the music changed since then?
AV: Well, that was before rock and roll.
SC: Has rock and roll influenced mainstream jazz very much?
AV: Well, you get a fusion. There are a lot of combinations of Latin and jazz. Some of the so-called jazz stations we had a few years ago were playing things with a rock beat.
SC: Did it influence your work?
AV: Well, to survive with the trio in the seventies, we had to play disco and all that current stuff - so we had to resort to an electric piano, even though we had an acoustic piano, and the bass player would pick up an electric bass. We all loved jazz, so we'd mix some jazz in too. But if we didn't do the current stuff, we didn't have a gig.
You had to be versatile so you could make a living. Even a few years ago, when I was playing tea dances at the Ritz, I had a trio, and I added a violin to give it that flavor of "Viennese Waltzes". Then we'd leave there at eight and be at the Hilton at nine - and play jazz.
SC: You worked with Billy Holiday. Was that in the fifties?
AV: Yeah - that was when I first worked at The HiHat, the first big-name jazz club. I worked opposite Billie there, and then she came in at Storyville a couple of years later.
SC: When you're working with a singer who's that unique, that distinctive, how do you adjust to her style?
AV: There were enough recordings around so that you could listen and get an idea of what they were doing. I remember putting on her records before I went to work - just to get in the mood. Later on, if I played for Jerry vale or Al Martino, I'd listen to them, too.