Thelonious Monk Sideman Bio

Tatum, Art(hur)(, Jr.) (Toledo, OH, 13 Oct 1909 - Los Angeles, 5 Nov 1956)

Pianist

Life

Despite seriously impaired vision (he was blind in one eye and had only partial sight in the other), he received some formal piano training as a teenager at the Toledo School of Music, and learned to read sheet music with the aid of glasses as well as by the Braille method. Otherwise he was self-taught, learning from piano rolls, phonograph recordings, radio broadcasts, and various musicians whom he encountered as a young man in the area around Toledo and Cleveland. Tatum acknowledged Fats Waller as his primary inspiration, with the popular radio pianist Lee Sims, whose interpretations contained many interesting harmonies, as an important secondary influence. He was playing professionally in Toledo by 1926, and performed on radio in 1929-30. In 1932 he traveled to New York as the accompanist for Adelaide Hall. There, in March 1933, he made his first solo recordings, for Brunswick. After leaving Hall he worked in Cleveland (1934-5) and led a group in Chicago (1935-6). His reputation as the outstanding pianist in jazz was consolidated in 1937 with his performances in various New York clubs and on radio shows. He toured England the following year, and appeared regularly in New York and Los Angeles in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Taking Nat "King" Cole's successful jazz trio as a model, Tatum founded his own influential trio with Slam Stewart (double bass) and Tiny Grimes (electric guitar) in 1943. Grimes left the following year, but Tatum continually returned to this format, using in particular Everett Barksdale.

In 1944 Tatum played in a jazz concert at the Metropolitan Opera House, and in 1947 he made a cameo appearance in the film The Fabulous Dorseys. Although he was regularly active in nightclubs, radio shows, and recording studios, and was lionized by jazz musicians and critics, during this period he did not acquire a large popular following and he was bypassed in jazz popularity polls. In 1953 he began an association with the record producer Norman Granz that led to a number of outstanding small-group recordings with such mainstream musicians as Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, and Ben Webster. More importantly, he was recorded in a long series of solo performances which indicated both the extent of his repertory and his extraordinary imagination. Tatum remained active until shortly before his death, constantly improving his art.

Musical style

Tatum transported the art of jazz piano improvisation beyond the real and imagined confines of his day. His first professional solo recordings in 1933 were seen as a challenge to his own and future generations of jazz and popular pianists. His technical abilities, lightness of touch, and control of the full range of the instrument were unprecedented among popular pianists; he had an unerring sense of rhythm and swing, a seemingly unlimited capacity to expand and enrich a melody, and a profound and continually evolving grasp of substitute harmonies. Throughout his career Tatum retained the original melody and harmonies of a tune as starting points for his improvisations. Most often he chose models from the standard popular repertory, though he also interpreted the blues and sometimes performed parodies on light classical pieces. Only occasionally did he play original works. He was often described as having two distinct musical personalities: in his professional appearances he was thoroughly business-like, obliging audiences with almost literal repetitions of his recorded performances, seldom taking encores, and, in a studio, rarely recording more than one take of a performance. Among friends he was inclined to play (and sing) the blues, to improvise for hours on given chord sequences, and to depart radically and dramatically from the original tune. He made more than 600 recordings (as unaccompanied soloist, with his trios, and with other small and large ensembles), which provide ample evidence of his uncommonly creative genius as an improviser.

Tatum integrated the practices and characteristic gestures of the stride and swing keyboard traditions, at the same time transforming them through his virtuosity. Simple decorative techniques became complex harmonic sweeps of color; traditional repetitive patterns became areas of unpredictable and ever-changing shifts of rhythm. Later generations of jazz musicians were particularly impressed by his intensification of the original harmonies of a tune, particularly his interpolation of passing harmonies, and the textural variety of his work, which frequently led to contrapuntal relationships among lines in different registers. Also important were his ability to apply different variation techniques simultaneously and his astonishing rhythmic sleight of hand. His influence on later jazz pianists was enormous: even musicians of radically different outlook, such as Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano, and Herbie Hancock, learned key Tatum performances by rote, though few could compass his technical range or re-create his inimitable, plush tone. Other musicians, among them Charlie Parker, were inspired by Tatum's technical accomplishments to bring a similar virtuosity to their own instruments.

See also Piano, The Stride School and Art Tatum.

Selected Recordings

as unaccompanied soloist

Tea for Two (1933, Brunswick 6553); Tiger Rag (1933, Brunswick 6543); Gone with the Wind/Stormy Weather (1937, Decca 1603); Elegie (1940, Decca 18049); Sweet Lorraine/Get Happy (1940, Decca 18050); St. Louis Blues (1940, Decca 8550); Rosetta (1940, Decca 8502); Hallelujah/Memories of You (1945, American Recording Artists 4501); Yesterdays (1949, Just Jazz 69); Willow Weep for me/Aunt Hagar's Blues (1949, Capitol 15520); Nice work if you can get it (1949, Capitol 15519)

Piano Music (1949, Capitol H216), including Blue Skies; Art Tatum Piano Discoveries (1950, 1955, 20th Century Fox 3033), including Mr. Freddie Blues (1950), I cover the waterfront (1955); The Genius of Art Tatum, ii (1953, Clef 613), including Makin' Whoopee; The Genius of Art Tatum, vi (1953, Clef 657), including Jitterbug Waltz; The Genius of Art Tatum, v (1953, Clef 618), including Stompin' at the Savoy; The Genius of Art Tatum, x (1953, Clef 661), including Too marvelous for words; The Genius of Art Tatum, viii (1953, Clef 659), including Ain't misbehavin'

as leader

Body and Soul (1937, Decca 1197); Pieces of Eight (1939-55, Smithsonian 029), including Exactly like you; Wee Baby Blues/Battery Bounce (1941, Decca 8526); Stompin' at the Savoy/Last Goodbye Blues (1941, Decca 8536); Corinne, Corinna (1941, Decca 8563); I got rhythm/I ain't got nobody (1944, World Jam Session 32); Body and Soul (1944, Comet 2); Flying Home (1944, Comet 3); Boogie (1944, Asch 4521); with B. Carter and L. Bellson: The Art Tatum-Benny Carter-Louis Bellson Trio (1954, Clef 643), including Idaho

with L. Hampton and B. Rich: The Lionel Hampton-Art Tatum-Buddy Rich Trio (1955, Clef 709), including More than you know; The Art Tatum Trio (1956, Verve 8118), including Trio Blues; with B. Webster: The Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet (1956, Verve 8220), including All the things you are, Night and Day, Where or When

as sideman

L. Feather: Esquire Bounce/ Esquire Blues (1943, Commodore 547); My Ideal (1943, Commodore 548); B. Bigard: Please don't talk about me when I'm gone (1945, Black & White 14); Blues for Art's Sake (1945, Black & White 13); L. Hampton: Lionel Hampton and his Giants (1955, Norgran 1080), including Verve Blues

Bibliography

W. Balliett: "Art and Tatum," Saturday Review, xxxvii (24 Oct 1955), 44

A. Hodeir: "Art Tatum: a French Critic Evaluates the Music of a Great Pianist," Down Beat, xxii/17 (1955), 9

O. Keepnews: "Art Tatum," The Jazz Makers, ed. N. Shapiro and N. Hentoff (New York, 1957/R1979 as The Jazz Makers: Essays on the Greats of Jazz), 156

M. Gibson: "The Paradox of Art Tatum," Jazz Journal, xiii/10 (1960), 3

J. Mehegan: Jazz Improvisation, ii: Jazz Rhythm and the Improvised Line (New York, 1962)

D. Katz: "Art Tatum," Jazz Panorama, ed. M. Williams (New York and London, 1962/R1979) [collection of previously published articles]

J. Mehegan: Jazz Improvisation, iii: Swing and Early Progressive Piano Styles (New York, 1964)

R. Spencer: "Art Tatum Discography," Jazz Journal, xix/10 (1966), 13

R. Spencer: "The Tatum Story," Jazz Journal, xix/8 (1966), 6

R. Spencer: "The Tatum Style," Jazz Journal, xix/9 (1966), 11

W. Balliett: "One Man Band," New Yorker, xliv (7 Sept 1968); reprinted in Ecstasy at the Onion (New York and Indianapolis, 1971), 111

S. Rothman: "The Art of Tatum," The Blade Sunday Magazine (Toledo, OH, 14 June 1970), 4

J. A. Howard: The Improvisational Techniques of Art Tatum (dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1978)

D. C. Brigaud: Art Tatum: essai pour une discographie des enregistrements hors commerce (Paris, 1980) [including listings of radio broadcasts, film music, and V-discs]

Keyboard, vii/10 (1981) [special issue]

J. Distler: Art Tatum (New York, 1981)

A. Bridgers: "Art Tatum," Jazzophone (1982)

A. Laubich and R. Spencer: Art Tatum: a Guide to his Recorded Music (Metuchen, NJ, 1982) [bio-discography]

A. Balalas: "Art Tatum," Bulletin du Hot Club de France, no.304 (1983), 3

F. A. Howlett: An Introduction to Art Tatum's Performance Approaches: Composition, Improvisation, and Melodic Variation (dissertation, Cornell University, 1983)

M. Williams: "Art Tatum: not for the Left Hand Alone," American Music, i/1 (1983), 36

Felicity Howlett, J. Bradford Robinson

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xreferences

1. Howlett, Felicity

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

2. Piano [pianoforte]

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

3. Robinson, J. Bradford

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz

adjacent entries

Tate, Buddy [George Holmes] (Sherman, TX, 22 Feb 1915)

Tate, Erskine (Memphis, 19 Dec 1895 - Chicago, 17 Dec 1978)

Tate, Grady (Durham, NC, 14 Jan 1932)

Tatum, Art(hur)(, Jr.) (Toledo, OH, 13 Oct 1909 - Los Angeles, 5 Nov 1956)

Taylor, Art(hur S.)(, Jr.) (New York, 6 April 1929)

Taylor, Billy [William, Sr.] (i) (Washington, 3 April 1906 - Fairfax, VA, 2 Sept 1986)

Taylor, Billy [William] (ii) (Greenville, NC, 21 July 1921)

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