Art Tatum

Arthur Tatum Jr ?te?t?m October 13 1909 November 5 1956 was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever From early in his career fellow musicians acclaimed Tatums technical ability as extraordinary Tatum also extended jazz pianos vocabulary and boundaries far beyond his initial stride influences and established new ground through innovative use of reharmonization voicing and bitonality Tatum grew up in Toledo Ohio where he began playing piano professionally and had his own radio program rebroadcast nationwide while still in his teens He left Toledo in 1932 and had residencies as a solo pianist at clubs in major urban centers including New York Chicago and Los Angeles In that decade he settled into a pattern he followed for most of his career paid performances followed by long afterhours playing all accompanied by prodigious alcohol consumption He was said to be more spontaneous and creative in such venues and although the drinking did not hinder his playing it did damage his health In the 1940s Tatum led a commercially successful trio for a short time and began playing in more formal jazz concert settings including at Norman Granzproduced Jazz at the Philharmonic events His popularity diminished towards the end of the decade as he continued to play in his own style ignoring the rise of bebop Granz recorded Tatum extensively in solo and small group formats in the mid1950s with the last session only two months before Tatums death from uremia at the age of 47 Description above from the Wikipedia article Art Tatum licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia