Though he launched his career as a new age artist later in his life, composer, guitarist and pianist Neil Tatar has been an impactful, much acclaimed force in the genre since releasing his debut album Learning to Fly, which earned him Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) honors as Best New Artist of 2015.
The multi-talented upstate New York based multi-instrumentalist returned to Will Ackerman’s famed Imaginary Road Studios for his equally celebrated follow-up After the Rain (2018) – and since then, he has released Where Did the Time Go (a dual album with cellist David Darling and, since 2020, a handful of singles, culminating in 2024 with “When We Met,” “Nightwalker” and in the fall of that year, “Bella,” one of his most heartfelt, exquisite guitar centered compositions ever.
Before discussing the profound, film-worthy historical inspiration behind “Bella,” I feel inclined to post a quote from my rave review of After the Rain where Tatar discusses his process. “Each of my compositions comes from a place deep inside, and usually originate from an emotion, a life experience, or a remembrance,” Tatar said. “Initially I find myself playing a brief musical phrase, or ‘sketch’ that can develop quickly or linger for months, coming back when it is ready to inform me of its significance.
This process follows a creative path that presents itself by offering a composition’s meaning to me, and ultimately culminates in the end product, a finished piece. I do this completely as a creative/right brain process, and eliminate any and all logical thought process, no scoring or scripting, just freedom and flow of playing, until it is ready to take form and to record in the studio.”
On a personal note, I felt drawn to “Bella” because it was the middle name (and original first name) of my precious late Persian cat. The Bella that inspired 4:40 mini masterpiece was the real life World War II-era heroine of the Georgia Hunter book We Were the Lucky Ones, about a family’s experiences trying to survive after the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. In addition to being mesmerized by the stories told in the book, Tatar discovered some interesting comparisons to the stories his own family told him when he was a child growing up in the 50’s.
A beautifully melodic, deeply soulful, introspective acoustic guitar meditation enhanced by a dreamy, lyrical and cautiously hopeful soprano sax solos/counterpoints by Premik Russell Tubbs and eased along on the rhythmic wings of Tom Eaton’s bass and Jeff Haynes’ percussion, “Bella” finds Tatar reflecting on a woman named Bella Kurk, the wife of Jakob Kurk. In the chapter that moved his spirit most, Bella journeys from their hometown of Radom to Lvov, where Jakob had gone to fight with the Polish infantry. She traveled by horse-drawn wagon under cover of darkness and ultimately on her hands and knees through meadows to avoid detection by the Nazis.
“Bella” makes a splendid soundtrack to imagining the seriousness of her mission, her anxiety and determination and ultimately the sense of hope that kept her going. But there’s even more to the story, as Tatar tells it. As he was reading the book, he picked up on references to his own family, including his grandfather Fred Tatar. Putting the pieces together, he realized that Bella was actually his cousin (her father Henry Tatar was his grandfather’s brother!). The personal story has a sad twist, in that while Neil’s grandfather was living in the States by then, Henry was later murdered in a concentration camp. After the war, Tatar’s grandfather provided sponsorship to Bell and her family so they could relocate to the U.S. This is the emotional connection that moved and inspired the artist to create this exquisite guitar piece. As the song eases along its gentle pathway of his heart’s imagination, the listener can feel a wondrous connection to the historical and personal story Tatar is generously sharing.
Tatar’s concluding written notes on “Bella” are important and highly relevant to the challenging times we are living in 80 years later. He writes, “By the end of the Holocaust, 90 percent of Poland’s three million Jews were annihilated, of the more than 30,000 Jews who lived in Radam, fewer than 300 survived. We can never take our freedom for granted.”
Tatar has always been a gifted composer and visionary genre artist. With “Bella,” he proves himself to be a profound musical storyteller as well.
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