I think art Tatum was the only pianist in human history, where the piano had to struggle with the player and not the player with the piano. Unbelievable
my tribute to art tatum in his 111th anniversary playing the superfast song i know that you know ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Something about how aggressive Song of the Vagabonds is, especially with those descending lines, shakes me to my core. I would've probably actually fell out my chair if I had seen it with my own eyes
Hát igen ő egy zseni volt Artitude korát megelőzte jópár évvel amikor hallgatom úgy érzem hogy nem tudok Song arász ni ő egy nagy semmi volt kár érte be city 5:05
I wouldn't have the same opinion. Tatum, even in his most exciting, was generally "cool" and "smooth". Argerich, Cziffra, or Oscar Peterson would be more the ones to set a piano ablaze. :)
That is because Art made it look effortless. Most of these pieces he hardly broke a sweat. Oscar struggled for the level he got to. As Fats said when Art walked in to play, "God is in the house."
yep, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Art Tatum is responsible for launching the career of many jazz drummers, jazz guitarists, jazz bassists, you name it... listening to him a humbling experience to say the least!
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
What's even more incredible is if you watch any of the somewhat rare footage of him playing, he looks like he's not even breakin a sweat - his fingers move so subtly - they tiptoe across the keyboard and you cant even tell he's hitting the keys
@@opale1572 im having a bad day so.i wont go in details you can find the newspaper article online which was an interview with one of Liszt students i think it was Reisenauer who went to see Anton Rubinstein preform. After the preformance of the Moonlight Sonata he was so amazed at the otherwordly technique and musicality of Rubinstein that he went straight to his teacher (Liszt) to tell him what he saw. Liszt in his youth was known for having the Moonlight Sonata as his "speciality". So the student tells him all about it and that at the end of the preformance Rubinstein was draining in sweat that he porued his heart and soul in to the piano. Liszt after carefully listening sits at an old upright out of tune piano that was basicly abused by the 1000 students he had and preforms the piece for the student. The student then responds that there were no words to describe the playing of old fragile Liszt on that broken piano compared to Rubinstein. In essence Rubinstein preformance simed pale and mediocre in comparission. Also he noted that Rubinstein used alot of his hands and was exhausted after the preformance while Liszt had all the power in his fingers and never ever seemed or was tired..
this is my small tribute to art tatum i know that you know, been working a bit more than 2 weeks on the song i will play the whole thing with some twist and post it in apple music take a look ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oB9k6mNanjQ.html
Few people know that he was from an alien world with a civilization far far in advance of our own and his brain had dolphin like qualities, also his hands had individual brains as well.
There's a story that Count Bassie came through Kansas City one time and decided to give the, then, unknown Art Tatum a shot at playing. Many years later, he said, "I was standing by just in case he needed the help, and I'm still standing by."
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
@@adamglinka1 my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Quel phrase fabuleuse du grand Basie, qui souligne l'extrême respect et l'humilité authentique et sincère qu'il exprimait devant le génie absolu du piano qu'était Art Tatum.
yep, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
@@barracuda7018 my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
@Honest Citizen my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
My God!!! You know why there is no film with this? It's because Art's fingers are moving so fast the film would have been all blurry from the elbows outward!
i agree, here is my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Tatum's piano must have had an automated fire extinguisher. It is good there are many Tatum recordings to be amazed of and to enjoy, otherwise no one would have believed it.
Speed is not the be-all, end all of stride. It is the content combined with the blistering tempos that create the real excitement. Art's solos are really based on his own technical bag of melodic lines and figures. The harmony and rhythm are the real stars here, as they get treated to the hyper-sonic Tatum ride to the stars...MBB
Listen for Art’s note lengths, durations. Most jazz pianists can control where the note is played, where it is started. But Art had command of when the note ended. How long the note sounded. The note’s duration. So his release was as much as part of his sound, and swings, as the note’s starting point. Most pianists simply throw themselves at the keys. Not Art, he could control the entire note from start to release.
The best part about listening to Tatum is after you get your head somewhat around the fact that there is one person doing all this, you need to realize that he couldn't see as well. Just insane what this man could do. OH! He was also quite a few drinks in most of the time you hear him.
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
@@khlymore He was from another world. He let America and the world know who he was. Listen and chart His progression to any of the classy train and you will be surprised to find every one come short of duplicating. His technique.
my tribute to Art Tatum in his 111th anniversary playing the full song i know that you know which is the last one on this video here it is ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Rachmaninov and also Horowitz ,so it’s said, were blown away by Art. They liked his freedom( from Classical restraint,perhaps) I think they needed time off from the constraints of their genre. Have a cocktail,lay back, and simply enjoy
I'm on the floor again and cannot see the screen. It's the Art of Tatum, defying believability,, comprehension, possibility, mortality itself. It remains tear producingly incredible and actually beyond what anyone before or after can do. The GREAT.
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Hard to believe anyone could play this fast! not only speed, but clarity, accuracy ----I slowed the speed down to.75 and its STILL faster then most pianists could play on their best day. This guy was really something.
Literally true, I reckon. As a pretty good rule of thumb, a really decent pianist can play at about 20 notes per second, flat out. In places I've clocked Tatum, at over 30 notes/sec.
It's on thing to play fast. It's another to play fast and make it sound like there are several more gears left. It's like he's not even trying... like the end of the Matrix.
This is an important point. The recordings struck me the same way. Like there’s no effort involved so here we are looking at another level of human biology that has implications beyond the piano people listen to Tatum and Marvel, but there’s much more to be investigated here.
@@agamaz5650 I think Tatum was a Bösendorfer man. Oscar Peterson certainly was, and Franz Liszt became one simply because they were the only piano he couldn't smash to matchwood.
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
@@agamaz5650 my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
If I were ever tempted to feel bad "because I can't do what Art Tatum did", I would just keep in mind that "neither can anybody else" ... One of my piano heroes!
This is really, in my opinion, simply one of the most exciting things about Tatum. Many can play leaps that fast, but to play those leaps IN THE CONTEXT of a complex, CLEAR, and coherent IMPROVISATION with SWING is another matter entirely, something I haven't yet seen any pianist do as well. THAT, and a lot of these leaps have TENTHS as the bass, something very difficult to do. Tatum must really have had exceptionally large hands for such a stretch to be easy.
Yes on several of the AUDIO recordings of Luckey Roberts (and also of Roy Bargy, who was influenced by Roberts) we can hear each of them stretching ELEVENTHS STRAIGHT ON (!!! with the middle notes!!!)
Nice transfers. I remember, in the 70's, hearing some of the 1934 material on horrible cassettes and obscure Lp's. They always sounded like they'd been recorded in a waking dream somewhere. These are marvelously clear.
What is so delightful about this is that not only was he stunning at stride piano but he was able to play lightning fast parallel tenths and chords so effectively. Indeed, God was in the house.
Indeed. A fast-forwarded Fats Waller of sorts. What's most stupendous is that it is still COHERENT even at such a speed. Few, in my opinion, can achieve that effect.
dont say that, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Dave Brubecks mother was a concert pianist. When he told her that his future lay in Jazz , she was none too pleased. One morning after picking him up to go for lunch , the incredible playing of Tatum was being played on the radio . Thats what I want to play said Dave . If you can play like that then you have my blessing , replied his mother.
I cannot even count the number times Art Tatum made me consider quitting piano. I can play Fats Waller's stride style, but Tatum's playing is criminally difficult.
put some of his music into Audacity and slow it down...I've found that recently to be a good way of understanding what he's doing...still can't play it though, but some of the mysteries have been made more transparent, eg when it sounds like he's covered the whole keyboard, there are gaps in the run
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
@@brucedavies8154 why the laugh, you have any doubts? (IVAN DRAGO VOICE ROCKY 4)'' I cannot be defeated'' (MCgregor voice) !!! TRUST ME ON THAT !!! lol small data for you, i think i am the first guy on youtube who actually played that song correctly and completely, no 2 i finish 15 seconds or more faster than the fastest version on youtube from the real Art Tatum, so yes i played faster to make it more ridiculous and absurd than already is, no 3 i learned the song and stride parts literally with the lights off, i was not looking at my left hand because you cant is too fast you have to feel, thats why blind players are the ultimate level, and another thing, in 1987 my father had tiger rag on a old cassette and the book of art tatum, i listen to it and i didnt like the song, sounds to me like CIRCUS music, i downloaded a discography of art tatum and listen 5gb of music of art tatum just to make sure that song I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW is the most ridiculous and is my favorite, caravan is on my mind but not art tatum version i was planing to play this version WATCH THIS SHERLOCK ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HitnXicVRxU.html now tell me which one you prefer? tatum or this one? muhuhahaha it is time to put a side your weak human side and join me in remaking this world!!!!! LOL
I play the piano myself and it is hard to imagine how a human can actually reach this level. My hands cramp while listening to this. It is really like sport what he is doing there!
eldar played tiger rag in 8 days this is my 2 weeks old i know that you know and im rusty ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oB9k6mNanjQ.html
He's playing all these notes in no time at all - and still manages to get them in in the right order. No wonder Fats gave up when Arthur walke into the room
he was no joke, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
thats right, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
And there's also one in his 1954 "After You've Gone". It impressed me 'cos he didn't usually "display virtuosity" in his last years, especially his "super-stride".
hahaha thast true, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
How the hell is this possible? Surely it must be two people playing.... You mean to tell me that ONE person is playing all this? I can't even wrap my head around this....
There is a Art Tatum story (true ur not) that younger he listened to a piano track for 4 hands thinking that only one person was playing and he would have developed his style and technique by wanting to actually play it simalar to what he heard.
Yes. Art did this himself. There is video, three clips exist. They show Art at his later best. This is the Real Deal, the greatest technician and the most inaginitive and creative virtuoso of the American music. MBB
@@LuLu-jv3tc That story comes from the true story of a 16-year-old Tatum going to his friend's house in Ohio and listening to rolls on the player piano. Although Tatum laughed and denied the story of playing a 4-hand roll arrangement with 2 hands, he really DID learn a lot from rolls, especially Lee Sims' rolls on U. S. Music and Thomas Fats Waller's rolls on QRS. Check out Sims' 1925 roll of "Sweet Georgia Brown"; though strictly a pop performance and not jazzy or swingy like the widely-reissued QRS Pete Wendling version, Sims introduces some very fast treble runs in the last chorus that would later be copied by Tatum, put in every key and used frequently in many of his later performances.
i did a tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
At Tatum is responsible for the invention of the electric guitar: Les Paul gave up the piano and turned to guitar after hearing Mr. Tatum play.... true story.
@@SELMER1947 Ok I stand corrected thanks - I truly thought Les Paul was the inventor. I did see him, on video, talk about switching to guitar after seeing Tatum's overwhelming performance. Did Les Paul invent multitrack recording? i thought so also
@@jimrogers7460 Sort of. Four-tracks were used by Germans in WWII to broadcast Hitler speeches, and the machines were captured by the allies. Les Paul heard of them and the commercial applications, and passed to word to Bing's brother Bob Crosby. Crosby was an early investor.
Thank God we have the evidence that there was a man on the Earth that had superhuman abilities, and anyone today can check for themselves. Tatum was beyond imagination. Excellent mix, thank you!
yep, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
My father loved Art Tatum. He would stack his automatic turntable with his LP records, and they would play for hours. As a kid, it was over my head, I must admit.
I am simply reliving my childhood right now. Daddy played like Fats Waller & Teddy Wilson….and had a huge 78 rpm record collection all brilliantly filed with cardboard dividers I remember! Of course the idea of becoming a jazz pianist always deflated me until I heard Dudley Moore and used him and Erroll Garner as my heroic inspiration! Swindon!!
Wie die Restauration immer besser wurde, sollte auch ihre Wiedergabe gepflegt sein: Die QualitätsKette ist so stark wie ihr schwächstes Glied! Meine *EMPFEHLUNG* der EQUALIZER *- Anpassung* *'Caruso'* Einstellung (classical modified) -10,9 dB (60Hz) -12,6 dB (230Hz) -14,8 dB (910Hz) -15,0 dB (4kHz) +15,0 dB (14kHz) Der Eintrag wurde ergänzt, weil es sehr unterschiedliche EQ gibt. Profis wissen das. Er bezieht sich hier allgemein auf eine *'Bass Booster App'* 🎧 - ohne das Zuschalten des BASS BOOST. Die meisten gehen wohl heute mit Bluetooth in ihrem Endgerät/Handy richtig um ('Advanced settings' überprüfen, den BBoost selbst vorsichtig verwenden, falls man ihn nutzt). 'Compatibility Mode' der App und 'Sound Field *FLAT'* Ihrer Anlage. So wird die Auswirkung rasch klar: *beeindruckende Brillanz!* A. Tatum hätte seine helle Freude daran. Vergleichen Sie bitte ab 3:27f. mit/ohne o.a. Equalizer-Variation ..... wie ein 'etwas verschwommenes' Foto insgesamt schärfer wird. *Warum* es sich so verhält, kann man an dem *Graph* der Funktion, die aus dieser genauen Einstellung resultiert und eine Crescendo-Verstärkung zeigt, verstehen: er wird auf dem Display sichtbar. (Die Anmerkungen sind KEINE Kritik an der Restauration: nur Vorschläge zum *Anhören* ALTER Aufnahmen!)
The way he's playing on "Song of the Vagabonds", it has all the impact, urgency and dire quality of the climactic point of a thriller movie... like a run-for-your-life chase scene. That and it's also just about the fastest thing I've ever heard.
Vergleichen Sie bitte ab 10:42f. mit/ohne o.a. Equalizer-Variation ..... wie ein 'etwas verschwommenes' Foto insgesamt schärfer wird. *Warum* es sich so verhält, kann man an dem *Graph* der Funktion, die aus dieser genauen Einstellung resultiert und eine Crescendo-Verstärkung zeigt, verstehen: er wird auf dem Display sichtbar.
The great and legendary Oscar Peterson, upon hearing his first Tatum LP, said, "Those guys are great!". His father said, "Not two, ONE person. That's what you've got to be". Oscar went away and wept and didn't play for two weeks! ... but the rest is history
thats right, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
Esperanza Spaulding and Wayne Shorter and Brad Mehldau are amazing, and Art Tatum was no more popular than these contemporary geniuses. That said, NO ONE is Art Tatum. Dizzy invented Be Bop by listening to him play. Only musician in history I know of that talented was Mozart.
Once in awhile I run into someone who preaches that a person can learn to do anything they want if they just spend 10,000 hours learning to do it. I just tell them that I don't believe they have ever really met a person of great talent.
lets try to find out, my tribute to art playing the super fast song i know that you know which is the last song on this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_562_Y3c6I.html
The 10,000 hour thing I feel is kind of misunderstood. 10,000 hours practicing the most effective material/rudiment building each and every hour, can lead someone to a great place. The problem with the saying is many people don't know or can't figure out the most efficient habits to focus that 10k hours of practice time unto. So you get those 10,000 hours leading somewhere between nowhere and somewhere. That being said, Art Tatum had to have had nearly the highest level of intuition, because he obviously knew what to put his efforts towards to continuously improve year after year.
It's as simple and difficult as this: if you mastered a thing in hour one and are so happy that you do the same stuff in hour two, you can kiss that 10k goal goodbye
@@mlconlanmeister I see it as you won the prize and got the genes. Otherwise, you gotta work your ass off just to approximate something akin to what that gifted asshole can do while barely doing any work at all. I have known several people with amazing gifts. Usually they don't get recognized as having the genius that they have, and not infrequently people think them rather slow until they see what the can really do. Sometimes too, they aren't really interested in their gifts and what can be done with them. But work 10 k hours to catch up them? Not really, but you can try if you want.
@@SRWatcher No serious artist sets his goal to practice for 10,000 hours to be a master, because no serious artist ever considers himself a master. In art there is no limit, no time when one is fully satisfied with himself and says, "I've perfected my craft, time to stop".
I hate how your clipping everything to the end but I love Art Tatum.His techique is so flawless that no one has ever interpreted Art Tatum like Art freaking Tatum.He's the greatest pianist of all time and it's amazing to hear this.
@@gullivior Well I personally thought that it should showed Arr's inhuman stride all the way throigh.It's only fair to the guy even he's not with us anymore.
I just tried to move hands, fingers, arms like this, at that velocity and Cannot. Doing nothing accurate, just movement and Cannot. Art made such joyous music with accuracy, sheer fun, superb harmony, complex but comprehensible rhythm, a total creativity. Oh!!
As a piano player, who stands in awe of this man's playing, it is almost unfathomable to hear what is happening. Not just in the sheer technique (which I am sure would have blown Beethoven's mind), but the harmonic imagination he has in his improvising. Quite possibly the greatest piano player who ever lived. Horowitz once said "If Art Tatum ever took up classical music seriously, I'd quit tomorrow". Oscar Peterson also said he "cried himself to sleep for months" when he heard Art Tatum's Tiger Rag for the first time. The left hand is strong with this one...
And after he finished crying, Oscar sat back down at the piano and laid down a legacy every bit as important as Art's. And in modern recording definition. The great tragedy of Art Tatum's life is that he often was forced to perform on pianos with broken keys, missing strings, missing hammers, recorded on the cheapest tape recorders under horrible acoustic conditions. Thank God for Norman Granz, and the complete Pablo Masters, giving Art's genius a worthy hearing!
John Petergal Not sure that Oscar Peterson's legacy was every bit as important as Art's as far as I am concerned!! Taking nothing away from this great pianist, who by the way I heard live in concert playing the piano a mere 5 feet away from where I was sitting! Art Tatum's sheer blazing speed and technical facility and stamina was inexhaustible, not to mention his improvisational skills and harmonics when it came to his left hand voicings was unmatched by anyone!! Yet, from reliable sources are reports that his best playing was done when performing in the wee hours of the night in the most discreet speakeasy clubs of the day!!!
+John Petergal As much as I enjoy the Pablo records, I think they pale in comparison with his earlier stuff. The Complete Capitol Recordings (1949), The Standard Transcriptions (mid 1930s) , Classic Early Solos (mid-1930s) and California Melodies (1940) are among his best work in my opinion. The band albums he did under the watch of Norman Granz are fun, but I find the Pablo solo records slightly underwhelming.
I remember that Oscar used to be arrogant as a child because he was so much better than his teachers. Then his father put on a record and told Oscar to listen to it. Oscar asked who the guys were that were playing, to which his father said that it was all one man: Art Tatum. After that, Oscar stopped playing for months and then turned around and practiced his speed. They also said Oscar refused to play with Art around.
The Horowitz story doesn't have solid first-hand evidence (i.e. Horowitz himself claiming to have met Tatum) to support it, unfortunately. It's more of a legend.
Yes it's fast and all but somehow he makes it sound smooth and reasonable in tempo even though he is playing at great speed.. Maybe it is his shear accuracy? it's like each note is given it's own time and voice evenly...
Look up what a "Tatum" represents in computational music theory. Basically, to paraphrase, it is the shortest possible clean note which can be perceived and distinguished by human ears. www.cs.tut.fi/sgn/arg/music/jams/
Hey friend, no need to single out that part. The WHOLE thing is the whole thing! Imagine how it must have been for those pianists in nightclubs at the time when Art played for a while between sets (I think I heard about this happening) and after he'd finished, YOU'D have to come back on with the band! That would have been so awful, eh? Back to the scales and the finger exercises...
Two fast recordings I know that aren't in this list (though I'm aware the author says it is "not exhaustive") are the double time section of "After You've Gone" (1954) and "I Wish I Were Twins" (1934), which is an entire two minutes of super stride.
Deryck Trahair - The thing is, Art Tatum is all improvisation. There's no going back in improvisation to retry or do over something. Once you hit a tone regardless of what it is, you gotta make it work somehow to keep the piece seemingly coherent. You can't use white-out on it like you could with ink on a page. Now Art Tatum improvises in the spur of the moment (spontaneously) at such blazing tempos most don't even perform actual written works with. Respectfully, just let that sink in for a moment, now do you see it?
@@derycktrahair8108 SLOW IT DOWN to like 50% or 75% speed using your home computer on RU-vid (the gearwheel icon in the lower right of the RU-vid screen lets you adjust the playback speed). Although this will introduce artifacts into the sound, notice how CLEAN and EVEN his touch is even at 50% speed on most tracks. He hardly ever misses a note, and it is still musical. Now try this with a whole raft of classical virtuosi and you will find that relatively few can match Mr. Tatum with this uncanny quality of touch and tone-production.
Here's a little sampler. I am not anywhere near Mr. Tatum's league but manage to have fun anyway: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f7YidSs20As.html
If Art Tatum had lived another 10 years when the jazz festival venue exploded and television came into its own as a mass communication technology, he'd be a household name!
ltravail Maybe. He never composed a standard (just re-composing existing songs every bar), and his technique was so beyond everyone else he couldn't influence anyone (except to consider another career).
+skierpage Not only do I disagree with you, but so would Oscar Peterson...and Billy Taylor...and Errol Garner...and Billy Strayhorn...and Rex Stewart...and...Roy Eldridge...and...Paul Maclin (classical)...and...Herbie Hancock...and Mel Powell (classical)...and...need I go on?...I don't know how much you know about jazz, or Art Tatum, but he single-handedly elevated jazz to the level of a serious musical art form on a level with European classical music, and changed the way jazz musicians approached that idiom. He even spawned Charlie Parker! The great bebop sax player, Sonny Rollins, called him "revolutionary." The vast majority of jazz musicians (of all instruments) considered him the consummate musician's musician. It was not just his technical brilliance that put him head and shoulders above all other musicians, but the depth of his knowledge of the European system of music theory and its application to jazz as well. It may be arguable, but it is certainly no overstatement to say he was perhaps the most remarkable musician who ever lived.
ltravail You misunderstand me. I completely agree Tatum is a jazz musician without equal. But he did not compose one standard, and he did not lead jazz into lasting new musical directions the way for example Miles Davis did (even though you can find every musical idea under the sun in Tatum's harmonic inventions). That's my explanation for the sad fact that he is not very well-known, and TV of his performances wouldn't change that. I've read "Too Marvellous for Words", have you?
