I'm a long-time admirer of Art Tatum recordings. I've just seen him for the first time on YouTube playing Yesterdays and Humouresque. Despite the poor quality of the sound and video I found it mind-blowing. I wondered if anyone in the group knows of more material of this kind. Tatum was playing until the mid 1950s and was arguably the most accomplished jazz pianist ever, so I find it hard to believe that there aren't more movies showing him in action.

That's it all on Youtube as far as I know. Yesterdays is the only complete piece I've seen. Everything else is a snippet, like the bit of him with the Dorseys, or edited (badly) together like Humoresque.

Still, we have a superb audio legacy of both solo and group work. Got any favouites?

There have been recordings of him and the TV have played some but they are rare I think. They pop up in the most unusual places. I have a lot of videos but my muddled existence tends to preclude finding them. I would hope more DVD's will emerge in due course but this is a low captive market I guess.

Any help on this matter would be good, thanks.

Alan (swingal)

There have been recordings Alan (Sorry error)

here's a new one i just found - brief though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfNYtC9uye0&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

p

That Fats Waller - Art Tatum video is not bad. Mainly Fats and his girls. The last bit looks as if it is going to turn into a Tatum solo but it lasts only a second.

I have 'The Tatum Solo Masterpieces', a 13 LP set, recorded over four days in 1953 - 55. Unfortunately my record player is not currently functioning, but back in the days when it did my favourites were Jitterbug Waltz, a beautifully languid version, and Taboo, one of those numbers where you think there must be two or three people playing.

The Pablo solo masterpieces are available on a seven CD set.
Jitterbug Waltz(composed by Waller) is one of my favourites, and the recording is transcribed in full in this book:


There's another recording of Tatum playing Jitterbug Waltz on '20th Century Piano Genius' - you can hear a sample (15th on the second disc)
http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Piano...-7491661#disc_1
This 2 CD set contains some amazing playing, and the Jitterbug Waltz improvisation has one outstanding run I've been meaning to learn & insert into the Pablo transcription.

Regards

Andy

Soon, www.Zenph.com will release an Art Tatum album, with Tatum playing LIVE on a modern grand piano...yes, that's correct, and not a typo! Check it out on their website.......it's phenomenal what Zenph has done here...all the great pianists of any style, classical, jazz etc, that have left this earth, can now be resurrected and recorded live on a modern grand piano as if they were actually playing....Amazing! Zenph has already released the re-performance of the 1955 Recording of Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations to fantastic reviews and great acclaim....incredible!

www.zenph.com

http://zenph.com/PianoStartsHere.html

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695222077,00.html

http://www.glenngould.ca/conference/2007/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=145&Itemid=1

Thank you for sharing this information, Art Tatum. I have never really been able to appreciate his style. Oscar Peterson is my hero in jazz. I will listen to many of the Art Tatum recordings you have recommended online keeping an open mind. Thank you again for sharing your information. If I change my mind I will post. Sandy B

After listening to many more of Art Tatum's recordings I think the same. I admire him as an artist and his has excellent technique but he is much too busy for my taste. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to think this over. Sandy B

My best friend said exactly the same thing when I played him the Keith Jarrett transcription of 'Over the Rainbow'.
LOL.

Well, it's easy to say he is too busy and so forth, but just try and emulate him. He is unique,isn't he. And if you like Oscar (as we all do) his mentor? why Art Tatum. Art Tatum's mentor Fats Waller.

'Enjoy' as they say.

Alan (Swingal)

I'm quite fond of Art Tatum's music, although I like the earlier stride like James P Johnson, Fats Waller and Willie Smith.

I'm very pleased to hear about the Zenph project. I don't suppose, as a Tatum fan, that one can get too upset about the fact that they did Glenn Gould before him:-)

I'd have to say that Oscar P is the easiest, most comforting to listen to, though many might say Richard Clayderman is the bee's knees

I don't like to dissect music too much, but for me...Art Tatum was the first to summit the mountain and show us the way.

It has been said that Tatum's 'Tiger Rag' demonstrates about all one can learn from Fats, his early 'Tea For Two' summarises Earl Hines. However he took the whole piano lexicon, and proceeded to transform jazz. I find it fascinating to hear him play 'outside' be-bop type phrases in 1941, and how his playing matures through the 1940's to become more evocative - as in the Captol recordings of 1949.
Tatum’s final recordings in the mid-1950's feature the greatest artists of that time, Carter, Eldridge, Hampton, DeFranco, and lastly Ben Webster, only a few weeks before Tatum died. These 'Pablo Group Masterpieces' are stimulating to say the least. To hear Tatum grunt appreciation as Buddy Rich drumbrushes thirds across Tatum's swing chords in the bridge of Makin' Whoopee had me laughing out loud...and then Lionel Hampton starts...I digress.
Others have climbed the mountain since, showing us new routes - Bill Evans.

We know Tatum for his dazzling embroidery, changes of key and tempo mid-tune, double glissandos, wonderful walking-filled-bass lines, all improvised at a frightening speed few have ever achieved, all in sure rhythm. He played swing, boogie, & blues with equal mastery, a lightness of touch and near invisible pedalling.
While his melodic invention was sometimes limited, he more than made up for it with harmonic imagination. I can relisten to a familiar tune of his and discover something surprising & delightful. Has any other pianist improvised rhythm and harmony to his level?


That's how much I admire Tatum's playing, and how much it touches me inwardly.


There's a lot of his audio recordings on youtube; I happen to have a couple of his solos saved if anyone would like to check them out:

Tea for Two (1943)
http://www.savefile.com/projects/808510238

Moonglow (1953)
http://www.savefile.com/projects/808471077

One might argue that Tatum provided the Base Camp from which Evans, Jarrett, and a few others launched their ascent toward the real summit.

Maybe it could be said that from his summit, Tatum showed us a vista of the mountain range and Evans climbed a different peak.
Since Evans, most have pretty much been climbing the same peak, Jarrett arguably taking an easier route but with some stunning views

Hey Lurks, you got Yanni's Tribute to Art Tatum?