Art Tatum was born in 1909 in Toledo, Ohio.
Owing to childhood cataracts and a teenage assault, he was registered
blind.
He learned to play the piano, and then some ! When people first heard his recordings, they said "Nah, that's obviously TWO people playing in an over-dubbed recording..."
I won't share his seminal 1933 tracks of
"Tea for Two" or
"Tiger Rag". Look them up for yourself and be utterly gobsmacked...
Tatum has been described as the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived; the greatest pianist who ever lived, period; the greatest instrumentalist on any instrument who ever lived, period.
The legends about Tatum are many (and true). Fats Waller was playing a gig, and spied Tatum in the audience. He stood up and said "Ladies and Gentlemen. I play piano, but tonight... GOD is in the House"
Some witnesses said "he could make a bad piano sound good", and Tatum once demonstrated this on a piano with missing keys, lifting the dud keys with one hand so he could then strike them with his other, at incredible speed...
The classical conductor Toscanini was an hour late for a concert in New York, because he couldn't drag himself away from a club where Tatum was playing...
When Oscar Peterson heard Tatum, he cried bitterly and gave up piano for three months. Others gave up piano altogether. A few gave up music altogether...
Art Tatum's extraordinary command of the piano was remarkable. He could easily play 11ths or 12ths in his left hand. His chrystal-clear lightning-fast runs, his deeply sonorous base lines, his impeccable timing - even when he deliberately played "out of time", his joyous, majestic tone, laced with sly humour, were the most obvious aspects of his uncanny talent. But, harmonically, Tatum was also 20-30 years ahead of his time, prefiguring bebop, with the ability to modulate through multiple keys - seemingly miles away - but always arriving back perfectly in the home key.
He was mostly a clean-living, professional, well-spoken, private man. His only weakness was beer, which seemed to have no effect on him, whatever the quantity... Tatum enjoyed playing "after-hours", until the dawn, in clubs after his official gigs had finished, constantly well-lubricated...
In 1953, impresario Norman Granz coaxed Tatum into the studio. Numerous
crates of Pabst Blue Ribbon were on hand, while Tatum tootled his joyous way through
124 tracks from the Great American Songbook, the alcohol seemingly having no effect on the Master. There was just one re-take...
Subsequently, Granz paired Tatum with other giants of jazz in group sessions. These were of variable quality, since Tatum's natural exhuberance and showmanship tended to produce conflict and competition with his musical partners.
In September 1956, in the final session, Tatum was paired with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, in what is now listed as the one of the top 50 jazz albums of all time...
https://blogcritics.org/...-art-tatum-ben-webster/
They showed each other the greatest respect, with Webster's breathy lines floating effortlessly above Tatum's comparatively-subdued accompaniment.
Seven weeks later, Art Tatum was dead, of a kidney ailment, aged just 47.
Ben Webster was a pall-bearer, and later played privately for Tatum at his graveside...
"My One and Only Love"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rYF_tZ_cTM