Thomas 'Fats' Waller, a veritable genius of stride, once said " God is in the house" when Art Tatum walked into the club where Waller was playing. This is perhaps one of the more famous anecdotes of Jazz music, and as true as can be.Tatum was to Jazz and jazz piano as Tesla was to electricity. He owned it, changed it, redefined it, evolved it, understood it far beyond people decades after him and presented it in a way nobody could or has been able to since.
A fabulous Japanese trombone playing friend of mine knows of my fascination of Tatum, and he got me a DVD on Art Tatum from his last trip home.
Heaven.
Humeresque... listen, listen
Tatum influenced almost every major jazz pianist who heard him and after him. Many people, at least here, home, in Delhi, haven't heard of Tatum, but even the more commonly known greats like Oscar Peterson and Charlie Parker were highly influenced by him.
Even the brilliant classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz was intimidated by him!
Wiki has a nice compilation of some of these anecdotes here:
And he was mostly blind.
Maybe my ears and hands will work better if I pop out an eye.
Sigh.
Maybe one day ill put up a video of me playing Tatums arrangements... But it ain't gonna be anytime soon.
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