Art Tatum

Art Tatum was one of the most phenomenally gifted jazz pianists of the 20th century. The sophistication and complexity of his boogie-woogie, stride, and swing playing left his competitors in the dust. Apart from some early training at the Toledo School of Music, he was largely self-taught. By the early 1930s, Tatum was stunning audiences with solo piano tunes like “Tiger Rag” which sounded like multiple pianists playing together. Although he worked in various trio and other lineups in the 1940s and ’50s, the bulk of his work was done on solo piano. He was not a composer, but his highly inventive re-workings of standard tunes were in a class by themselves. Tatum’s harmonic concepts were easily a generation ahead of their time, and his recordings still inspire (and intimidate!) modern-day pianists.

Recommended listening:

• Art Tatum Live, Volume 3, 1945-49 (Storyville)
• Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Volume 1, 1953 (Pablo)
• The Best of the Pablo Group Masterpieces, 1975 (recorded 1954-56) (Pablo)