05 March 2024

Art Tatum – Jazz Piano Genius – Phantom Dancer

Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show

Art Tatum was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever. From early in his career, fellow musicians acclaimed Tatum’s technical ability as extraordinary. Tatum also extended jazz piano’s vocabulary and boundaries far beyond his initial stride influences, and established new ground through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality. He is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist.

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ART

1950–1956
Tatum began working with a trio again in 1951. The trio – this time with bassist Stewart and guitarist Everett Barksdale – recorded in 1952.

In the same year, Tatum toured the U.S. with fellow pianists Erroll Garner, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis, for concerts billed as “Piano Parade”.

Tatum’s four-year absence from the recording studios as a soloist ended when Granz, who owned Clef Records, decided to record his solo playing in a way that was “unprecedented in the recording industry: invite him into the studio, start the tape, and let him play whatever he felt like playing. […]

At the time this was an astonishing enterprise, the most extensive recording that had been done of any jazz figure.”

Over several sessions starting late in 1953, Tatum recorded 124 solo tracks, all but three of which were released, spread over a total of 14 LPs.

Granz reported that the recording tape ran out during one piece, but Tatum, instead of starting again from the beginning, asked to listen to a playback of just the final eight bars, then continued the performance from there on the new tape, keeping to the same tempo as on the first attempt.

Clef released the solo pieces as The Genius of Art Tatum, which was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978.

Granz also recorded Tatum with a selection of other stars in seven more recording sessions, which led to 59 tracks being released. The critical reception was mixed and partly contradictory. Tatum was, variously, criticized for not playing real jazz, the choice of material, and being past his best, and praised for the enthralling intricacy and detail of his playing, and his technical perfection. Nevertheless, the releases renewed attention on him, including for a newer generation; he won DownBeat magazine’s critics’ poll for pianists three years in a row from 1954 (he never won a DownBeat readers’ poll).

Following a deterioration in his health, Tatum stopped drinking in 1954 and tried to control his weight. That year, his trio was part of bandleader Stan Kenton’s 10-week tour named “Festival of Modern American Jazz”.

The trio did not play with Kenton’s orchestra on the tour, but had the same performance schedule, meaning Tatum sometimes traveled long distances by overnight train while the others stayed in a hotel and took a morning flight. He also appeared on television in The Spike Jones Show on April 17, to promote the imminent release of The Genius of Art Tatum. His solo performance of “Yesterdays” on the show has survived as a video recording.

By 1956, Tatum’s health had deteriorated due to advanced uremia. Nevertheless, in August of that year he played to the largest audience of his career: 19,000 gathered at the Hollywood Bowl for another Granz-led event. The next month, he had the last of the Granz group recording sessions, with saxophonist Ben Webster, and then played at least two concerts in October. He was too unwell to continue touring, so returned to his home in Los Angeles. Musicians visited him on November 4, and other pianists played for him as he lay in bed.