Art Tatum's fast sound

[romanticshred]

I'm deeply touched by Art Tatum's fast sound he has and his rich harmonic structures they are the type of sounds i hear in my head most the time extremely fast pentatonics and crazy arpeggios with the rich Tatom chord harmonies.

The other superstrar of Jazz Piano i like next to the greatest Jazz Piano Virtuoso is Oscar Peterson he has done so many countless albums but i love many of them. Favourite instrument cd displays the power of Oscar with his strong improvisational skills and his technique is mind blowing he plays very fast runs similar to Art Tatum with octave arpeggios but his solos are fluid. Allan Holdsworth was influenced by Art Tatums and Oscar Petersons fluid soloing style. I got another album he did with Joe Pass he plays the clavichord and he sounds extrmeley expressive. I would recommened getting Art Tatums cd God is in the house, Night train and My favourite Instrument by Oscar Peterson. Shawn lane when from 15 was deeply touched by Art Tatum.

Outstanding touring Virtuoso Pianists such as Vladamir Horowitz and Sergie Rachmaniov were both great admirers of the technique which Art Tatum had. Art Tatum could play basically anything he heard or wished and he had the technique to execute difficult pieces efforlessley.

[shaka40]

Yup, Art Tatum was a God among men. In fact, there's a popular story about Fats Waller getting up from his piano bench in the middle of a performance at a club, telling the crowd "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house." Another musician once said that he has every record Tatum ever made, and he never dares to listen to them because they would make hime throw up his hnds and give up (at the piano)! The scary thing is that he was almost completely blind. A lot of people like to say things to the effect of "imagine what [plug in Tatum, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles etc.] would have been like if they could actually see the keys." But in my opinion, while having sight certainly has its advantages, its almost as if not having sight helps certain people. There sense of hearing tends to be so highly developed. I saw some special report on CNN once about these musical prodigies, all of whom were either blind or mentally retarded. It really is an interesting concept the way their whole world revolves around sound and it translates to being a musical genius. Anyways, enough of my rambling :rolleyes: ...
The point is that you're right; Tatum is ridiculously skilled. It goes without saying that I wish I had his talent! I love listening to his playing; it's listening to MY playing afterwards that is so hard to do. He's so good, it's almost discouraging :frown:.
P.S. Jordan makes me feel that way too, sometimes.

[shaka40]

Oh yeah, I forgot something. It really is a shame that most people don't even know the name Art Tatum. For anyone interested, here's some more background information:

He was born in 1909, and died in 1956 at the young age of 47. He died of uremia, which was the result of heavy drinking starting as a teenager. As romanticshred mentioned, his genre was Jazz. More popular pianists like Oscar Peterson often credit him as their inspiration, admitting that they will never come close to his dexterity and speed. There are only a few rare video clips of him, a couple of which are found on Youtube. I reccomend checking them out for anyone who's never heard of him.

[romanticshred]

I believe Art Tatum was God send and he was a natural talent. I read he played all night till he did not fall asleep on his piano and he was a quite a big guy about 249 pounds 6'2. He had large hands and long fingers. When he was a kid he was already playing music of player pianos and had been influenced by the 1920s virtuoso pianists. You know he was also largely self taught he had been in Piano school for only basic training when he was a kid.