Art Tatum: Biography, Style, and Influence - Essay Example

Biography The great jazz musician Art Tatum was born in Toledo, Ohio on October 13, 1909 to a very musically-oriented family. His father played the guitar and acted as an elder at Grace Presbyterian Church. His mother played piano at the same church. Unfortunately, their son began suffering from cataracts while still in his infancy. This caused blindness in one of his eyes and near blindness in the other. Although he went through a number of surgeries throughout his childhood that did work to improve his vision slightly, an assault at the age of 20 reversed these beneficial effects and left him again without vision. In spite of his blindness, though, Art Tatum grew to become one of the great jazz musicians of his time. Tatum’s musical ability manifested itself at an early age. By the age of three, he was replicating music he had heard on the radio on the piano. His parents encouraged him in his music and eventually sent him off at the age of 16 to attend the Columbus School for the Blind. While learning how to read Braille, Tatum also studied music, both at his school and later with Overton G. Rainey, a classic pianist, at the Toledo School of Music. Tatum’s jazz talent was thus primarily self-taught but was good enough to get him his own show on the local radio station by the time he was 18. One year later and Tatum was working at Ohio’s Waiters’ and Bellmans’ Club, playing piano with singer Jon Hendricks. News of the young player began to spread and famous jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Joe Turner and Fletcher Henderson began dropping in as they passed through town to hear him play. It wasn’t until 1932 when Tatum was 22 that singer Adelaide Hall decided to bring him to New York as her accompanist and his music began to be recorded. The earliest known recording is a 1932 test pressing of ‘Tiger Rag’, which was professionally recorded the following year. The song provides an excellent example of Tatum’s abilities as it features crashing bass notes, flowing cascades on both the left and right hands and a brutally fast tempo that showed off Tatum’s amazing dexterity. Tatum also participated in so-called ‘cutting contests’ while he was in New York, competing against other pianists such as Fats Weller and James P. Johnson for bragging rights that he never lost. Between 1933 and 1938, Tatum traveled around playing his piano visiting many of the large cities with big jazz followings including Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and several locations in England, quickly establishing himself as a major name in the jazz set. He spent the 1940s touring America with his own jazz trio, formed with Slam Stewart on bass and Tiny Grimes on guitar. Producer Norman Granz signed the blind pianist in 1953 after which Tatum spent much of his time recording both solo and with other jazz legends. Some of the names he performed with include Benny Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster and Harry Sweets Edison. Tatum’s skill and talent contributed to the high rate of production experienced during this period of his life. In his biography of the man and the artist, Ray Spencer claimed Tatum was always “refining and honing down after each performance until an ideal version remained needing no further adjustments”. Tatum seemed only limited by the people he worked with. For example, most of his solo sessions were completed in two days, meaning 69 tracks recorded with only three of them requiring more than a single take. Although he was working strongly, Tatum’s musical career was cut short when he died, at the age of 47, of uremia, a form of kidney failure, on November 5, 1956. Style Trained in classical music at the Toledo School of Music, Tatum gravitated more toward the free-swinging sounds of James P. Johnson and Fats Weller as he was developing his own taste. Both of these artists were themselves inspired by the stride piano sound of Earl Hines. Tatum is largely recognized as the inventor of swing for the jazz piano, using fast improvisation techniques and strong embellishment of the melody. While he does not fit easily into any one particular style, Tatum made significant use of stride, as can be heard in “Willow Weep for Me.” Tatum’s versions of popular songs are characterized by a certain exuberance while remaining sophisticated and intricate. He rarely went far from the original melodies, but his inventions later gave rise to bebop and future jazz. In the 30s, jazz had not yet developed the strong improvisational element that characterized it in the 50s. However, Tatum still managed to remain strongly true to the original song while also giving it his own signature sound and recognizable runs that identified the musician at a single hearing. At times, he would abandon the original melody almost entirely in order to explore an improvisational inspiration such as the use of the pentatonic scale that would later be adopted by many other improvisational jazz musicians. Tatum’s innovation was based largely on his ability to reharmonize melodies either by shifting the supporting chord progressions or by changing the root movements of the song in order to permit him to apply other familiar harmonies. Several of his chord voicings and harmonic concepts were far ahead of their time when he first appeared in New York and they would become prominent features in the be-bop explorations a decade later. His practice of working in some of the upper extensions of chords in his lines was picked up by future musicians such as Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, both of whom had a significant impact on ‘modern’ jazz. Another addition Tatum brought to jazz was the concept of using dissonance in jazz, as can be heard in his recording of “Aunt Hagar’s Blues.” This song makes extensive use of dissonance as a means of achieving a strong blues-type effect. Tatum’s repertoires became popular standards on Broadway because the chord progression enabled a great deal of variety and energy. This allowed him to prove his talent in voicing, reharmonizing and embellishing melodies. His mutable style combined elements such as stride, jazz, boogie-woogie, swing and classical techniques to create musical ideas that flowed at a break-neck speed. His playfulness and spontaneity enabled him to incorporate quotes from other songs in his improvisations without ever losing his own control over them. Influence Beginning with his foundation of stride, Tatum contributed giant leaps forward in musical technique and harmony as he perfected groundbreaking improvisational techniques and greatly expanded what was deemed possible in jazz piano. These contributions would later influence other great jazz pianists such as Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor, Bill Evans and Chick Corea. Bud Powell was another great musician who had his early start in classical training but had shifted his interest to jazz by the age of eight. He perfected his skills by playing his own transcriptions of Tatum and Fats Weller. It is widely believed that Monk is the pianist featured in recordings made by Jerry Newman at Minton’s Playhouse in 1941 when Monk was supposed to be the house pianist at the Manhattan Club. The style on these recordings is often described as ‘hard-swinging’ and has an unmistakable link to the sounds of Tatum. Peterson was exposed to Tatums music in his teens when his father played ‘Tiger Rag’ for him. Peterson was reportedly so intimidated by what he heard that he began to doubt the talent of his own playing and refused to play for several weeks. Never again over-confident about his own abilities, Peterson continued to model his playing after Tatum through the 40s and 50s and was eventually able to develop a close friendship with his idol. However, Peterson was always reluctant about being compared with Tatum and rarely played the piano in Tatums presence. Read More