Rachmaninoff said that if Art Tatum ever decides to play "serious" music then we're all in trouble. Best insult/compliment from one of the greatest pianists ever lol
Everyone who listens to Tatum immediately realizes that his technique is beyond the bounds of what would normally be considered human limits. And even poor resolution videos make it obvious that his technique appears effortless and feather-light. Both hands were equally agile and completely independent of each other. But his incredible technique and espressiveness was not for me the most amazing aspect of his musicianship. Tatum had the ability to play a standard piece so that it sounded like he had previously set down and for days carefully composed that standard song into something like a concerto or symphony - an introduction, beginning statement, and then movements with motifs and sub-themes worked in to the overall structure. Finally, the ending and resolution that combines everything he previously played and ties everything up into a neat package. His mind worked differently than any other pianist. It worked in a way that allowed him to construct a piece of carefully composed "classical music" from any standard piece and do so as he played it. The only other pianist I have heard that even comes close was Oscar Peterson. But even he admits that he was no Art Tatum. Sometimes people will express how much they like a particular musician by saying that they could listen to that musician for hours on end. Usually, it is just an exprression and not a statement of literal truth. Not so for me and Art Tatum. I have actually listened to Art Tatum piano solo recordings for uninterupted hours. I very much doubt that there will ever be another on piano quite like him. I am grateful that we had at least had one Art Tatum.
Art Tatum was so good that in a recording he did with Buddy Rich, Buddy just sat back and kept time, which he NEVER did. Buddy was almost always the best musician in the group, and needed to lead, to add embellishments and make sure he was swinging the band. But with Art in the band, he could actually relax and just be the time keeper. I don't know of any other time that happened.
He's an amazing improviser and his technique is hardly matched by any pianist. But to say he improvised complex large scale classical forms like a symphony or a sonata is not accurate. He's an improviser, not a composer (though I'm not saying he couldn't have composed such music if he tried).
Dude is amazing and he was half blind plus he key strokes are so quick on the bass keys its craziness!!! I love playing piano. Gotta get better with my left hand though.
I took lessons from a master jazz pianist for a little while (a guy who took lessons from Lennie Tristano), and he never liked Tatum or Peterson--once he said something about there being "too much going on". I am slightly inclined to believe there was a shred of jealously that affected his opinion.
Well, not to bash him or anything, but Art Tatum's style was much more suited for piano-lead groups, and on recordings where he played behind a horn, he did have trouble leaving enough space.
Well, perhaps Tatum was just trying to avoid being bored by only doing traditional two/one hand comping. Not that comping should bore you, but perhaps it did him...
I think a lot of people think of blazing runs as failed melodic passages but really I see them as creating a texture or being atmospheric. Listen to any great "Shredder" and you will notice the best use it more as a roundabout harmonic device often mixed with more melodic phrases.
the key is not to be so enamored by the physical technique as to miss out on the musical sensitivity. just playing insanely fast is worthless, this man had perfect pitch, insane rhythmic timing, and an endless imagination.
A very common technique, actually. It's not that hard to do compared to the many other techniques Art Tatum showcased in this playing. It's only an alternation between the thumb and index in the left hand. You hear it often in 3/4 meter time music.
TLuka Puka here's always some know it all dipshit who says "'it's easy" probably without actually being able to do it himself in the same manner. Fuck you and get lost.
Art Tatum used to literally intimidate pianists. Many pianists attempted to copy him; others questioned their own skills after encountering him, and some even switched instruments in response to hearing him play. He was *that* good at playing the piano.
Ya think! Lol. Reminds me of the British guitarists reactions to Hendrix the first time they saw him play. Tatum probably made a LOT of talented pianists quit. Lol
DAMN........the comments in these Tatum posts are disheartening. Jazz pianists with no appreciation of the intricacies of INTERPRETING Classical music and Classical pianists with little understanding how to pull off these improvisational miracles. Why compare? Why not sit back and enjoy the idiom we are listening to in all its mastery devoid of comparison?
Unbelievably, the number of people who are unable to see the clear mastery. They cannot give a single example of another player who even comes close. Unfortunately, due to brutal racism, there is little to no footage showing Tatum's full virtuosity. Tatum and Oscar Peterson are the best!
It so disrespectful from you to call this talented, or even worse, a gift from a god pffffffff, have you seen his hands? hours and hours of practice going on, all because of his merit, not such a thing as a gift.
Watching videos of Art Tatum always make me marvel at how effortless and relaxed his playing is. It looks almost easy for him. Between 28 and 33 seconds, watch (in the reflection) how independently his left thumb moves while his hand is totally still. He just glides his hands smoothly across the keyboard while he plays runs at ridiculous speeds. He could probably keep a coin balanced on the back of his hand while some of those fast runs. I love this.
Complete harmonic mastery as well! At 1:30 he plays a crazy chord, building on the dissonance of the preceding voicings. It's like an split second he hesitates and picks the most outside chord he can find, it basically a tritone of the V chord in the progression but the voicing he uses is like a tritone 7 stacked on a V7. It's like the furthest chord he can play from the home key, and he chooses this is a millisecond. That's true genius.
And you want to believe that this clip is one of this old black and white sped up vids... And them u click on another tatum vid...and then another... And you finally accept it... "it's actually him playing...with that speed... And flawless accuracy... And dynamics... And feeling... and pulling all this off while looking like he's thinking about what he's eating after the show..." 😔 and he was doing this almost 100 years ago
He goes on expressive tangents and has technical wizardry but I really love how he hits you with that hard groove all of the sudden, right in the pocket the song. Truly the most fluent pianist I’ve ever heard.
Art Tatum is hands down the ultimate pianist in human history. No other had more command of the instrument, not even Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Cziffra...if we talk about raw pianistic ability no one else equals this guy. There are other greats but none as inventive and spontaneous. No one can improvise as quickly, as clearly, and as spontaneously. That is why elite musicians regard him in the extreme. They may sound exaggerated, but it's simply true. As far as a pianist goes, no one beats Tatum.
A genius who moves us to tears. a man who broke the boundaries of the simple harmonies of his time and completely reoriented jazz music. And that as a blind autodidact. A genius
Listen to him rip and watch his hands how in control he is - in classical that is called playing with a quiet hand - it is the mark of a true master of his or her instrument.
Alvaro Munoz-joy not necessarily, the blind pianist Derek Paravicini plays extremely difficult stoccato pieces and improvs completely taking away the notion of tracing the keys to find your next note. its like a sixth sense of their instrument
Ya its insane to see, ive only seen it live once or twice in my life. Buckethead has the same control on the guitar, live it looks like his hand is staying still but he is actually playing the fastest and most complex chromatic scales possible.
I am a classical and Jazz pianist and honestly i have to say that Tatum is simply incredible in many ways. The control , the harmony , the runs , the steady swinging beat , the indipendencd of his hands, the row speed . If you trancribe and analise him you really realise how great he was, under the microscope. Is like when you transcribe Bill Evans . Tatum is quality , if he like Peterson exagerates with tons of notes when you analyse them you see that at that incredible speed everythink make sense . When he plays stride with tenth is simply incredible is the best ever ,only Oscar Peterson came close. And when he plays ballads he plays with feelings . He is not a virtuoso without heart. The king of solo piano . Quality feelings Technique advanced sophisticated tasty chords for that period. Maybe a bit too much . He had to show what he could do often too much. But he was the greatest ever. As a classical pianist too i can sau that merely only technically he was simply one of the greatest.That is impressive for anyone while very few undestand the contents and the complexity of his playing.
GREAT - Thank You for this. Just as a footnote, Stanley Dance's biography states, "According to the pianist Teddy Wilson and the saxophonist Eddie Barefield, "Art Tatum's favorite jazz piano player was Earl Hines. He [Tatum] used to buy all of Earl's records and would improvise on them. He'd play the record but he'd improvise over what Earl was doing ... course, when you heard Art play you didn't hear nothing of anybody but Art. But he got his ideas from Earl's style of playing - but Earl never knew that". I'd say go see the Earl Hines docu here on UA-cam if you haven't seen - and heard! - it. Completely amazing.
Tatum is the source. All pianists should spend some time studying, absorbing and enjoying his pure mastery. His hands were so relaxed when he played, no wasted movement. If you watch the video with the sound turned off it looks like he is barely playing. With the sound back on your jaw drops. SO much to learn from Mr. Art Tatum.
This is the first time I've listened to Art Tatum after hearing that he was Hiromi's idol, and OMG WOW 🤩🤩🤩 1) I can absolutely hear it, and 2) Oh, how I love this! And this was made in the early 1900s???
It took me a whole life to hear that sound from Tatum and I can quite say I’m close distinguishing it from the most important finding in jazz piano that can never be replicated no matter how much the human brain has evolved today ! Classifying it as a. Mystery of piano mastery ! Cold case
I was looking at memorium videos as I am obsessed with dates of when famous people die and the Art Tatum entry pop up for 1956. They way his playing is described made me come here to see him in action. Nothing prepared me for this. Truly astounding musician.
Completely amazing as always. If you go to the Toledo public library (he's from Toledo) they've got the best collection of Art Tatum books, recordings, pictures, etc. My brother lives there. Thanks for posting.
Praise The Almighty for having given us this genius. RIP Art. PS a word of advice to those alive : lay off of any form of alcohol and y'all and yr liver live longer.
Rubinstein: "Shhhh! I am listening to the world's greatest piano player."Rachmaninoff: "If this man ever decides to play serious music we're all in trouble.""Maestro Horowitz, who's the world best pianist?" Horowitz: "Art Tatum."
***** I believe that both men recognized that Tatum had a gift so natural that despite near-blindness and never having had a lesson in his life Tatum was able to do passagework at such lightning-fast tempos that Horowitz and Rachmaninoff believed had he studied seriously he could have eclipsed them as pianists. But Tatum's genius lay in how creative he could be at improvising. His mind was working at twice the speed of any pianist next to him. Horowitz begged Tatum to give him his rendition of Tea for Two and when Tatum told him he didn't have it written down, it was all in his head Horowitz nearly fell over. There is a video on UA-cam of Horowitz attempting jazz and it's truly awful.
J Joe Townley What a lot of people don't understand is that Jazz music has its own methodology and theoretical applications. While it wasn't entirely written down and scholarly studied upon at the time of Tatum, there was still meaning to every note and passage achieved through years of practice and experimentation. In the same way that Horowitz was terrible in his attempt to play Jazz, I don't think Tatum would've been too great in his attempt to play some Classical pieces in same way as Horowitz and Rachmaninoff. That's not to say that he didn't play any Classical music, but Tatum was just born in a different world from Horowitz and Rachmaninoff, and they all thrived immensely in those respective worlds.
***** True, which is why Rachmaninoff said half-jokingly that they were all in trouble if he ever decided to start playing seriously. Rachmaninoff knew Tatum couldn't do it but Rachmaninoff was aware he had the technical facility to be able to if his psychological makeup had been bred to play "by the notes".
This is so badass. I remember as a metal head teenager, reading an interview with the producer Ted Templeman talking about first seeing Eddie Van Halen in a small club, before signing the band. The only two guys that came to his mind while watching him were Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. I thank him for turning me on to those two dudes, and jazz as a whole.
My grandmother who taught me stride piano met Art Tatum for a few minutes after a show he was doing in LA years ago. She told me he just said to 'run your fingers' and go with your flow and let your fingers walk.
I have listened to most of Art Tatum's recordings and believe that he was the most highly evolved and intelligent human being ever to walk the planet earth -- ahead of Einstein, Goethe, Kant, Michelangelo, DaVinci, Galileo, Newton and Edison. Nobody has ever come close to playing the piano or any other instrument like Tatum. Even the greatest classical players like V. Horowitz were humbled before Tatum. Today's jazz greats like Keith Jarrett are wonderful, but do not compare to Tatum for his combination of artful complexity, lightning quick inventiveness, stunning velocity, virtuoso technique ... I could go on. Most listeners are quickly overcome by the avalanche of ideas that pours out of him. The Wikipedia article on Wiki tries to dumb him down with boring recitations of the commonplace aspects of his life, and falls far far short of recognizing his greatness!
When I say literally stunned the first time I heard him… I started crying it was so good. It hit spots in my head that I could never imagine playing. The imagination this man had was not of this Earth. Exceeds legendary.
i agree Kolef. this i the first performance i ever watched on youtube about 2 years ago. it made me a youtube junkie. i started listening to tatum 11 years ago and pretty much had given up on ever SEEING him. still can't comprehend it.
"One of his first exposures to Tatum's musical talents came early in his teen years when his father played Art Tatum's Tiger Rag for him, and Peterson was so intimidated by what he heard that he became disillusioned about his own playing, to the extent of refusing to play the piano at all for several weeks. In his own words, 'Tatum scared me to death' and Peterson was 'never cocky again' about his mastery at the piano." interesting..... :D
I'm familiar with that story, and indeed Peterson recalls it in his "Jazz Odyssey" autobiography, but I wonder how old Peterson was at the time. Tatum's "Tiger Rag" was recorded when Peterson was only 8 years old - surely too young for him to have been harbouring dreams of world jazz piano domination. If the episode didn't occur until some years later (presumably when Peterson was a teen) one wonders why it took so long for Peterson (or rather Peterson's father) to discover this recording, as by all accounts Tatum's first solo recordings in 1933 took the jazz world by storm, and deservedly so. Perhaps the answer lies in the relative isolation of Montreal in those days. But it was hardly a one-horse town at the time.
Freestyle, Tritones, flurries, runs, skips, he plays all concepts. suspended 4,5,9,88 ..lol..... He's like a DJ on a piano crazy Awesome. I do not know how I never saw this video before. If you are a musician, step your game up.
Also, Art used very little theatrics and his fingers were not " curved " which is a classically taught method. I'm amazed at his speed, precision, and on-the-spot improvisation. This man's playing baffles me and is almost god - like!
Rachmaninoff said that if Art Tatum ever decides to play "serious" music then we're all in trouble. Best insult/compliment from one of the greatest pianists ever lol
ok it messed me up to learn that these guys were alive at the same time for decades
@@atlassolid5946 lmao same
I feel like it was Horowitz who said that
The Rack was the hugest piano music ever lol massive chords and near impossible to play.
@@BrandonCuringtonOfficial I love Horowitz
Art Tatum was harmonically so much ahead of his time
It's 2023 and I still don't really understand everything he's doing, or how he just does it like it's nothing.
@@DJFLDJFL haha True
he played piano not harmonica 🙄
@@Bigbossperson☝️🤓
His hands are bigger than my head
Everyone who listens to Tatum immediately realizes that his technique is beyond the bounds of what would normally be considered human limits. And even poor resolution videos make it obvious that his technique appears effortless and feather-light. Both hands were equally agile and completely independent of each other. But his incredible technique and espressiveness was not for me the most amazing aspect of his musicianship. Tatum had the ability to play a standard piece so that it sounded like he had previously set down and for days carefully composed that standard song into something like a concerto or symphony - an introduction, beginning statement, and then movements with motifs and sub-themes worked in to the overall structure. Finally, the ending and resolution that combines everything he previously played and ties everything up into a neat package. His mind worked differently than any other pianist. It worked in a way that allowed him to construct a piece of carefully composed "classical music" from any standard piece and do so as he played it. The only other pianist I have heard that even comes close was Oscar Peterson. But even he admits that he was no Art Tatum. Sometimes people will express how much they like a particular musician by saying that they could listen to that musician for hours on end. Usually, it is just an exprression and not a statement of literal truth. Not so for me and Art Tatum. I have actually listened to Art Tatum piano solo recordings for uninterupted hours. I very much doubt that there will ever be another on piano quite like him. I am grateful that we had at least had one Art Tatum.
❤❤❤❤
amen
His equal was possibly Dorothy Donegan. Fairly certain
Art Tatum was so good that in a recording he did with Buddy Rich, Buddy just sat back and kept time, which he NEVER did. Buddy was almost always the best musician in the group, and needed to lead, to add embellishments and make sure he was swinging the band.
But with Art in the band, he could actually relax and just be the time keeper. I don't know of any other time that happened.
He's an amazing improviser and his technique is hardly matched by any pianist. But to say he improvised complex large scale classical forms like a symphony or a sonata is not accurate. He's an improviser, not a composer (though I'm not saying he couldn't have composed such music if he tried).
Forget his fingers, the speed of his mind is staggering.
I love how happy he looks after he's finished. It makes me smile everytime. (:
Lookin like he's comin back from a trance
Yes! Agreed:)
Same
Me too :)
@@boonrichter3044 l was thinking not a trance but coming back from grace.
THE TECHNIQUE IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING
He ended the piano's career. This instrument has reached its full potential with Tatum.
1337Pwn4g3 lmao
If a piano could play itself it would sound like Art Tatum.
Dude is amazing and he was half blind plus he key strokes are so quick on the bass keys its craziness!!! I love playing piano. Gotta get better with my left hand though.
It's clear you never listened to classical music. There are infinite ways to play piano, that Tatum has never explored.
1337Pwn4g3 clearly you haven't heard Richard Clayderman
The fact that he is blind makes it even more impossible to wrap your head around how good he is
Your kidding right Tatum was blind he was the forerunner to Ray Charles!!!!! The fastest piano who ever lived!!!!
He's blind only from one eye, the other is less viable but he sees from one.
@@alfawr7104 Its still amazing that he was a speed demon on the Ivory keys.
I feel if you're at this level it doesn't really matter if you're blind or not
Nope, being blind makes your other senses stronger. Better coordination with hands.
I took lessons from a master jazz pianist for a little while (a guy who took lessons from Lennie Tristano), and he never liked Tatum or Peterson--once he said something about there being "too much going on". I am slightly inclined to believe there was a shred of jealously that affected his opinion.
a shred.
Well, not to bash him or anything, but Art Tatum's style was much more suited for piano-lead groups, and on recordings where he played behind a horn, he did have trouble leaving enough space.
Well, perhaps Tatum was just trying to avoid being bored by only doing traditional two/one hand comping. Not that comping should bore you, but perhaps it did him...
He must hate Sergei Rachmaninov. Sergei had more goin; on then a juicer.
I think a lot of people think of blazing runs as failed melodic passages but really I see them as creating a texture or being atmospheric. Listen to any great "Shredder" and you will notice the best use it more as a roundabout harmonic device often mixed with more melodic phrases.
the key is not to be so enamored by the physical technique as to miss out on the musical sensitivity. just playing insanely fast is worthless, this man had perfect pitch, insane rhythmic timing, and an endless imagination.
This is no man, this is a god
. yes ^
I agree with you completely or almost completely. I don't think having perfect pitch would be an advantage while playing a piano.
@@Birdlives247 I was thinking the same thing 😂
There is no structure to what he is playing. It is sheer chaos
Watch his left thumb at 0:28...
I played that several times. It still doesn't look real, but I know it is. Incredible!
A very common technique, actually. It's not that hard to do compared to the many other techniques Art Tatum showcased in this playing. It's only an alternation between the thumb and index in the left hand. You hear it often in 3/4 meter time music.
Luka Puka that fast, though? And that clean?
Have you seen late Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Medtner, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Ravel?
TLuka Puka here's always some know it all dipshit who says "'it's easy" probably without actually being able to do it himself in the same manner. Fuck you and get lost.
His fingers float over the keys! What an amazing pianist!!
Art Tatum used to literally intimidate pianists. Many pianists attempted to copy him; others questioned their own skills after encountering him, and some even switched instruments in response to hearing him play.
He was *that* good at playing the piano.
Ya think! Lol. Reminds me of the British guitarists reactions to Hendrix the first time they saw him play. Tatum probably made a LOT of talented pianists quit. Lol
@@cavaleer Difference wa Hendrix wasn't technical genius!
Rachmaninoff supposedly went up to Harlem to hear him and he may have influenced the Paganini Variations.
@@socraticgadfly 15th
it doesnt even look like he's hitting the keys, he's straight up gliding over the notes it's genuinely incredible
Art Tatum could sprint on the keys, nobody is touching that technique,amazing
Art Tatum is considered a piano deity
Genius. He made the impossible effortless.
DAMN........the comments in these Tatum posts are disheartening. Jazz pianists with no appreciation of the intricacies of INTERPRETING Classical music and Classical pianists with little understanding how to pull off these improvisational miracles. Why compare? Why not sit back and enjoy the idiom we are listening to in all its mastery devoid of comparison?
They are completely unable to see clear mastery and virtuosity.
I know right, they feel like they’re much better -_-
they are just trolls, don't care about them, just look and go on
Put the thesaurus away my guy.
calm down
Unbelievably, the number of people who are unable to see the clear mastery. They cannot give a single example of another player who even comes close. Unfortunately, due to brutal racism, there is little to no footage showing Tatum's full virtuosity. Tatum and Oscar Peterson are the best!
Monk
. just found out about him today - this insane man ^
He's amazing, but to say that he's leaps and bounds above every other pianist ever is just weird and wrong.
there are many who are better in terms of music, not speed; monk and bud powell for example
Or maybe Tatum and Earl Hines?
The gift of God.... This talent is unparalled...
It so disrespectful from you to call this talented, or even worse, a gift from a god pffffffff, have you seen his hands? hours and hours of practice going on, all because of his merit, not such a thing as a gift.
Practice not some talent crap! He worked his ass off for this skill..
@@kalirocketdevyou could spend your whole life practicing and never be 1/10th this good. This is raw god given unparalleled talent
that smile at the end... superb hahaha
Humble
Art Tatum was absolutely among the greatest Pianists of recorded history. I can't begin to explain how extraordinary he was
Unrivaled ear, novel harmonies, depth and beauty of tone, clarity, humor, swing when he chooses, dismissal of the usual...
Well said!
Watching videos of Art Tatum always make me marvel at how effortless and relaxed his playing is. It looks almost easy for him.
Between 28 and 33 seconds, watch (in the reflection) how independently his left thumb moves while his hand is totally still. He just glides his hands smoothly across the keyboard while he plays runs at ridiculous speeds. He could probably keep a coin balanced on the back of his hand while some of those fast runs.
I love this.
Complete harmonic mastery as well! At 1:30 he plays a crazy chord, building on the dissonance of the preceding voicings. It's like an split second he hesitates and picks the most outside chord he can find, it basically a tritone of the V chord in the progression but the voicing he uses is like a tritone 7 stacked on a V7. It's like the furthest chord he can play from the home key, and he chooses this is a millisecond. That's true genius.
"outside" is an understatement
Also 0:09 was that the same chord you were referring too? Or am I missing something, (I don’t know why theory so probably )
im sure he thought of it about 5-10 seconds before hand.
What notes form the tritone of the V chord that he plays? I don’t have perfect pitch. Thanks.
possibly the greatest pianist of all time
He is the most technically gifted. The greatest would probably be Chopin.
The legend himself, my opinion the greatest jazz pianist of all time.
Oscar is the only one that even comes close.
Well,Dorothy donogen comes very close. So little known still.
And you want to believe that this clip is one of this old black and white sped up vids... And them u click on another tatum vid...and then another... And you finally accept it... "it's actually him playing...with that speed... And flawless accuracy... And dynamics... And feeling... and pulling all this off while looking like he's thinking about what he's eating after the show..." 😔 and he was doing this almost 100 years ago
No words....I shouldn't even be leaving a comment. No words can describe his greatness.
He goes on expressive tangents and has technical wizardry but I really love how he hits you with that hard groove all of the sudden, right in the pocket the song. Truly the most fluent pianist I’ve ever heard.
Art Tatum is hands down the ultimate pianist in human history. No other had more command of the instrument, not even Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Cziffra...if we talk about raw pianistic ability no one else equals this guy. There are other greats but none as inventive and spontaneous. No one can improvise as quickly, as clearly, and as spontaneously. That is why elite musicians regard him in the extreme. They may sound exaggerated, but it's simply true.
As far as a pianist goes, no one beats Tatum.
Cziffra
A genius who moves us to tears. a man who broke the boundaries of the simple harmonies of his time and completely reoriented jazz music. And that as a blind autodidact. A genius
Listen to him rip and watch his hands how in control he is - in classical that is called playing with a quiet hand - it is the mark of a true master of his or her instrument.
he had to keep his hands low to the keys to feel them as he could not see!
it's quite a way to have to learn hahah
Alvaro Munoz-joy not necessarily, the blind pianist Derek Paravicini plays extremely difficult stoccato pieces and improvs completely taking away the notion of tracing the keys to find your next note. its like a sixth sense of their instrument
Matthew Brewster Er kann aber nicht so gut spielen wie Art Tatum!
Matthew Brewster im not talking about Derek Paravicini, i'm talking about Art Tatum
Ya its insane to see, ive only seen it live once or twice in my life. Buckethead has the same control on the guitar, live it looks like his hand is staying still but he is actually playing the fastest and most complex chromatic scales possible.
I am a classical and Jazz pianist and honestly i have to say that Tatum is simply incredible in many ways. The control , the harmony , the runs , the steady swinging beat , the indipendencd of his hands, the row speed .
If you trancribe and analise him you really realise how great he was, under the microscope. Is like when you transcribe Bill Evans .
Tatum is quality , if he like Peterson exagerates with tons of notes when you analyse them you see that at that incredible speed everythink make sense . When he plays stride with tenth is simply incredible is the best ever ,only Oscar Peterson came close.
And when he plays ballads he plays with feelings . He is not a virtuoso without heart.
The king of solo piano .
Quality feelings Technique advanced sophisticated tasty chords for that period.
Maybe a bit too much . He had to show what he could do often too much.
But he was the greatest ever.
As a classical pianist too i can sau that merely only technically he was simply one of the greatest.That is impressive for anyone while very few undestand the contents and the complexity of his playing.
This "Yesterdays" tells us about the whole "Tomorrows" of piano art: After it, centuries of work await pianists.
GREAT - Thank You for this.
Just as a footnote, Stanley Dance's biography states, "According to the pianist Teddy Wilson and the saxophonist Eddie Barefield, "Art Tatum's favorite jazz piano player was Earl Hines. He [Tatum] used to buy all of Earl's records and would improvise on them. He'd play the record but he'd improvise over what Earl was doing ... course, when you heard Art play you didn't hear nothing of anybody but Art. But he got his ideas from Earl's style of playing - but Earl never knew that".
I'd say go see the Earl Hines docu here on UA-cam if you haven't seen - and heard! - it. Completely amazing.
Tatum is the source. All pianists should spend some time studying, absorbing and enjoying his pure mastery. His hands were so relaxed when he played, no wasted movement. If you watch the video with the sound turned off it looks like he is barely playing. With the sound back on your jaw drops. SO much to learn from Mr. Art Tatum.
His right hand is from the Andromeda Galaxy, his left hand is from another Universe.
This is the first time I've listened to Art Tatum after hearing that he was Hiromi's idol, and OMG WOW 🤩🤩🤩 1) I can absolutely hear it, and 2) Oh, how I love this! And this was made in the early 1900s???
This video was filmed in 1954. Art Tatum is really the greatest pianist to have ever existed!
PERFECT MUSICIAN PERIOD
I love the ending, he is utterly fantastic
GOAT
It took me a whole life to hear that sound from Tatum and I can quite say I’m close distinguishing it from the most important finding in jazz piano that can never be replicated no matter how much the human brain has evolved today ! Classifying it as a. Mystery of piano mastery ! Cold case
I'm glad we have recorded medium so that we may appreciate this man's genius.
Awww God.....speechless
His technique is amazing to watch.
Technically absolutely stunning, but the soul, depth and warmth is even more amazing.
Some people are born and bee find their true calling. Tatum is an example of someone who did what they were born to do.
Art the truth Tatum a true virtuoso.
In my humble opinion, Tatum is the greatest instrumentalist musician of all time that ever played any instrument in any genre in any universe.
Kolef88 js bach
what about outside of your humble opinion
There is nothing quite like Art Tatum.
Tatum's technique overshadows his harmonic prowess, one of a kind.
The joy he brought to us. It really is a shame that he died so young.
How is this humanly possible?!?!
Watching “Everwood” keeps driving me back to GREAT musical artists! WOW!
I was looking at memorium videos as I am obsessed with dates of when famous people die and the Art Tatum entry pop up for 1956. They way his playing is described made me come here to see him in action. Nothing prepared me for this. Truly astounding musician.
he is the true definition of a pianist
The best ever, there will not be another.
Julian Subero check out Jesus Molina, not as good as Art but reminds me of him sometimes
who the fuck can POSSIBLY dislike Art Tatum??? hes plainly #1 and there aint gonna be anyone like him comin anytime soon
Art Tatum the best to ever grace the piano.
How he plays piano is straight up Amazing. and he makes it look simple.
the GOAT
Real Pure genius !!! Infinitely better than the schlock they try to convince you is great today !
gigged constantly, so he was always sharp...There's no one anywhere near Tatum...
Completely amazing as always. If you go to the Toledo public library (he's from Toledo) they've got the best collection of Art Tatum books, recordings, pictures, etc. My brother lives there. Thanks for posting.
Praise The Almighty for having given us this genius. RIP Art.
PS a word of advice to those alive : lay off of any form of alcohol and y'all and yr liver live longer.
Wow,amazing. His hands were born for piano.
His smile at the end. Timeless. rip the master
Rubinstein: "Shhhh! I am listening to the world's greatest piano player."Rachmaninoff: "If this man ever decides to play serious music we're all in trouble.""Maestro Horowitz, who's the world best pianist?" Horowitz: "Art Tatum."
+J Joe Townley Absolutely Right!!!
You have to also remember that Rachmaninoff and Horowitz were very hard on themselves as musicians and as pianists.
***** I believe that both men recognized that Tatum had a gift so natural that despite near-blindness and never having had a lesson in his life Tatum was able to do passagework at such lightning-fast tempos that Horowitz and Rachmaninoff believed had he studied seriously he could have eclipsed them as pianists. But Tatum's genius lay in how creative he could be at improvising. His mind was working at twice the speed of any pianist next to him. Horowitz begged Tatum to give him his rendition of Tea for Two and when Tatum told him he didn't have it written down, it was all in his head Horowitz nearly fell over. There is a video on UA-cam of Horowitz attempting jazz and it's truly awful.
J Joe Townley What a lot of people don't understand is that Jazz music has its own methodology and theoretical applications. While it wasn't entirely written down and scholarly studied upon at the time of Tatum, there was still meaning to every note and passage achieved through years of practice and experimentation. In the same way that Horowitz was terrible in his attempt to play Jazz, I don't think Tatum would've been too great in his attempt to play some Classical pieces in same way as Horowitz and Rachmaninoff. That's not to say that he didn't play any Classical music, but Tatum was just born in a different world from Horowitz and Rachmaninoff, and they all thrived immensely in those respective worlds.
***** True, which is why Rachmaninoff said half-jokingly that they were all in trouble if he ever decided to start playing seriously. Rachmaninoff knew Tatum couldn't do it but Rachmaninoff was aware he had the technical facility to be able to if his psychological makeup had been bred to play "by the notes".
Absolutely. .The greatest natural born talent nobody can match and that includes classics.
This guy was blind !!!!
Damnit man! If he walked into a piano competition, everyone else would get up and leave
This is so badass. I remember as a metal head teenager, reading an interview with the producer Ted Templeman talking about first seeing Eddie Van Halen in a small club, before signing the band. The only two guys that came to his mind while watching him were Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. I thank him for turning me on to those two dudes, and jazz as a whole.
This chord at 1:31 seconds is sick!
My grandmother who taught me stride piano met Art Tatum for a few minutes after a show he was doing in LA years ago. She told me he just said to 'run your fingers' and go with your flow and let your fingers walk.
Genius... thats the word!!!!!
I have listened to most of Art Tatum's recordings and believe that he was the most highly evolved and intelligent human being ever to walk the planet earth -- ahead of Einstein, Goethe, Kant, Michelangelo, DaVinci, Galileo, Newton and Edison. Nobody has ever come close to playing the piano or any other instrument like Tatum. Even the greatest classical players like V. Horowitz were humbled before Tatum. Today's jazz greats like Keith Jarrett are wonderful, but do not compare to Tatum for his combination of artful complexity, lightning quick inventiveness, stunning velocity, virtuoso technique ... I could go on. Most listeners are quickly overcome by the avalanche of ideas that pours out of him. The Wikipedia article on Wiki tries to dumb him down with boring recitations of the commonplace aspects of his life, and falls far far short of recognizing his greatness!
Wikipedia and Jimmy Wales give new meaning to the word "bias"
RE: Einstein--as Mrs Einstein said to her husband, "what the hell do YOU know"?
One of the most infectious smiles ever. I smile along with him every time. He's spreading smiles over the centuries.
...which is to say nothing of the sheer musical brilliance of what he's playing.
He is the exalted master and keyboard colossus.
this is the best piano I have ever seen. And I have seen piano, but this something beyond.
the best there ever was - period. god bless him.
Totally . .
tom knoll Tatum vs Liszt
tom knoll
My money is on Horowitz.
Is it okay if I would rather hear Earl Hines?
Bob Taylor
Who?
That smile is so freaking adorable!
The greatest pianist of all time, right here folks... Mr. Art Tatum
When I say literally stunned the first time I heard him… I started crying it was so good. It hit spots in my head that I could never imagine playing. The imagination this man had was not of this Earth. Exceeds legendary.
wouldn't it be a blessing if you could just do for 15 minutes what he can do so easily. it sure would be an incredible experience!!
Possibly the most talented pianest ever, bar none.
The master
The master
The master
he left a void in jazz which can never be refilled
a TRUE legend
a TRUE virtuoso
THE GREATEST PIANO JAZZ PLAYER OF ALL TIMES!
Holy shit man!?!?! I don’t remember ever seeing a pianist ever playing like that....!
He was the absolute best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i agree Kolef. this i the first performance i ever watched on youtube about 2 years ago. it made me a youtube junkie. i started listening to tatum 11 years ago and pretty much had given up on ever SEEING him. still can't comprehend it.
There are Many Classical fans that are SO Pompus.....they couldn't take a Jazz or Rock Guy seriously and frankly its a shame
The same can be said about jazz players.
@@HermanIngram yes, but not all. same with (90s) 'hip hop purists'. the list/cycle/chain goes on.
"One of his first exposures to Tatum's musical talents came early in his teen years when his father played Art Tatum's Tiger Rag for him, and Peterson was so intimidated by what he heard that he became disillusioned about his own playing, to the extent of refusing to play the piano at all for several weeks. In his own words, 'Tatum scared me to death' and Peterson was 'never cocky again' about his mastery at the piano." interesting..... :D
Really glad you're reading into this stuff. This is material I never read about till my first year of college. Keep it up.
thanks :)
I'm familiar with that story, and indeed Peterson recalls it in his "Jazz Odyssey" autobiography, but I wonder how old Peterson was at the time. Tatum's "Tiger Rag" was recorded when Peterson was only 8 years old - surely too young for him to have been harbouring dreams of world jazz piano domination. If the episode didn't occur until some years later (presumably when Peterson was a teen) one wonders why it took so long for Peterson (or rather Peterson's father) to discover this recording, as by all accounts Tatum's first solo recordings in 1933 took the jazz world by storm, and deservedly so. Perhaps the answer lies in the relative isolation of Montreal in those days. But it was hardly a one-horse town at the time.
hmmm thats interesting...
Molly Janae Northcutt when a pianist is just that Good...WHEW
I wondered why there would be a subtitles button, but it actually is pretty accurate : this performance really does leave you speechless
This is everything. Tatum plays all kinds of music, and very entertainingly.
I heard some classic there! something like a chopin etude!
One great one genius total Piano,
Freestyle, Tritones, flurries, runs, skips, he plays all concepts. suspended 4,5,9,88 ..lol..... He's like a DJ on a piano crazy Awesome. I do not know how I never saw this video before. If you are a musician, step your game up.
Danuel O'Neal indeed
_"DJ on a piano"_
That smile of his at the end shows his humility despite his enormous talent.
The man was a true genius, to play is hard enough but to play like Art was incredible.
Also, Art used very little theatrics and his fingers were not " curved " which is a classically taught method. I'm amazed at his speed, precision, and on-the-spot improvisation. This man's playing baffles me and is almost god - like!