Art Tatum- Body and Soul (1946)

Art Tatum- Body and Soul (1946)

Arthur Tatum Jr. (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso.

With an exuberant style that combined dazzling technique and sophisticated use of harmony, Art Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Critic Scott Yanow wrote "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries ... Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists."

Tatum's technique was distinctive. The effortless gliding of his hands over difficult passages puzzled most who witnessed the phenomenon. He especially mystified other pianists to whom Tatum appeared to be "playing the impossible."

With a calm physical demeanor, the blind Tatum played scintillating runs at astounding velocity, while it appeared that his fingers hardly moved. Using self-taught fingering, he executed the pyrotechnics with superb accuracy and timing. Tatum also displayed supreme independence of the hands and improvised counterpoint with a command no other jazz pianist has achieved.

Tatum introduced a strong, swinging pulse to jazz piano, interspersed with spectacular cadenzas that swept across the entire keyboard. His interpretations of popular songs were grandiose in structure and intricate in detail. He sometimes improvised lines that presaged bebop and later jazz genres but generally he did not venture far from the original melodic lines of songs. But Tatum embellished those melodic lines with an array of signature devices and runs that appeared throughout his repertoire. As he matured, Tatum became more adventurous in terms of abandoning the melodies and elongating those improvisations.

But, really, you just have to hear Tatum to believe it. The great Oscar Peterson, one of the finest pianists in jazz, said that as a young man, he was almost dissuaded from continuing with his piano playing after hearing Tatum. "I knew there was no way in hell I was ever gonna be able to play like that and I just thought 'what's the use?'. Listening to Art Tatum, one can understand how Peterson felt. Tatum still makes my jaw drop.

Tracklist:



1 - Sweet Lorraine

2 - I'll Get By

3 - I'll Never Be The Same

4 - Elegy

5 - Can't We Be Friends

6 - I've Got The World On A String

7 - I'm Coming Virginia

8 - Day In, Day Out

9 - Make Believe

10 - Sweet Emmalina, My Gal

11 - Body And Soul

12 - Lover

13 - Poor Butterfly

14 - Where Or When