Art Tatum
Art Tatum is the greatest technical virtuoso jazz has ever known on the piano, and arguably on any instrument. His playing presents such daunting problems to the analyst that it has never really been done credit. Born virtually blind, Tatum began his musical life as a violinist, but from the age of thirteen he began teaching himself piano. What followed can only be described as phenomenal. After working locally he arrived in New York in 1932 and soon established himself as the most wonderful solo pianist of all time. From 1943 until his death he forsook the role of piano soloist for most of the time to lead a highly successful instrumental trio, but it is as literally a one-man band that he is revered. His style is so baroque as to encompass all styles; indeed, one of the deepest pleasures of listening to him lies in following the shift, or sometimes the leap, from one convention to the next, even though each of them is steeped in something unique to Tatum. The great paradox of his career has been that the very infallibility of his keyboard mastery which won him his reputation, allied to his apparently limitless harmonic imagination, proved too heady a brew for some coarser critical tastes, so that the legend lingered for a while that he was hardly a jazz musician at all. In fact he is indisputably the outstanding jazz pianist in history, a player whose convolutions of time never once in a long career confused him to the point where the tempo drifted, a creator whose questing mind enabled him to endow the most familiar themes with sudden sumptuous harmonic variations, an artist whose mastery of every jazz virtue and every jazz style made him very likely the most awe-inspiring jazz musician who ever lived. Born in Toledo, Ohio: October 13, 1910. Died in Los Angeles, California: November 4, 1956. (Bio and photo credits: courtesy of Concord Music Group)
ALBUM
Una raccolta completa degli album di Art Tatum, dalle prime produzioni ai successi più recenti.
Art Tatum
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 5
Art Tatum
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 4
Art Tatum
The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 8
Art Tatum
The Best Of The Pablo Group Masterpieces
Remastered
Art Tatum
Ultimate
Art Tatum
Art Tatum: Finest Hour
Art Tatum
The Complete Capitol Recordings Of Art Tatum
GArt Tatum
20th Century Piano Genius
Art Tatum
Classic Early Solos (1934-1937)
US ReleaseBIOGRAFIA
Art Tatum is the greatest technical virtuoso jazz has ever known on the piano, and arguably on any instrument. His playing presents such daunting problems to the analyst that it has never really been done credit. Born virtually blind, Tatum began his musical life as a violinist, but from the age of thirteen he began teaching himself piano. What followed can only be described as phenomenal. After working locally he arrived in New York in 1932 and soon established himself as the most wonderful solo pianist of all time. From 1943 until his death he forsook the role of piano soloist for most of the time to lead a highly successful instrumental trio, but it is as literally a one-man band that he is revered.
His style is so baroque as to encompass all styles; indeed, one of the deepest pleasures of listening to him lies in following the shift, or sometimes the leap, from one convention to the next, even though each of them is steeped in something unique to Tatum. The great paradox of his career has been that the very infallibility of his keyboard mastery which won him his reputation, allied to his apparently limitless harmonic imagination, proved too heady a brew for some coarser critical tastes, so that the legend lingered for a while that he was hardly a jazz musician at all. In fact he is indisputably the outstanding jazz pianist in history, a player whose convolutions of time never once in a long career confused him to the point where the tempo drifted, a creator whose questing mind enabled him to endow the most familiar themes with sudden sumptuous harmonic variations, an artist whose mastery of every jazz virtue and every jazz style made him very likely the most awe-inspiring jazz musician who ever lived.
Born in Toledo, Ohio: October 13, 1910.
Died in Los Angeles, California: November 4, 1956.
(Bio and photo credits: courtesy of Concord Music Group)
ULTIME NEWS
03.12.2010
Due box per l'arte inarrivabile di ART TATUM
ART TATUM: Semplicemente, il più grande pianista jazz di tutti i tempi. E uno dei più grandi in assoluto. Universal Music Italia prosegue nellla realizzazione di box a prezzo eccezionale, dedicati ai grandi album dei maestri del jazz: questa volta sono in uscita contemporanamente i 125 capolavori per piano solo (la vera "summa" del pianismo di Tatum) e la serie completa delle incisioni in gruppo, tutte incisioni organizzate da quel genio della discografia che rispondeva al nome di Norman Granz. I due box, entrambi di otto CD con libretto completo di tutte le indicazioni discografiche, sono da oggi pronti per un Natale all'insegna del grande jazz.
05.10.2010
ART TATUM: i Pablo Solo Masterpieces raccolti in un nuovo box
Art Tatum: nome e cognome, semplicemente, del più grande pianista di jazz di tutti i tempi. Negli anni ´50 il geniale impresario Norman Granz (nella foto di Herman Leonard, per gentile concessione di Verve Records) decise di varare una serie epica di registrazioni in solitudine del grande genio, che rispose con circa 8 ore e mezza di musica entrata nel mito. Niente prove o preparazione di sorta: Tatum sedeva al piano, i macchinari venivano avviati, la maratona aveva inizio. Quattro sedute per registrare 121 brani. Fu a un tempo il canto del cigno e la summa dell'arte dello straordinario virtuoso: queste incisioni occuparono il poco che restava della vita di Tatm, scomparso nel 1956, poco dopo avere partecipato ad un concerto in cui si produsse al piano solo nelle quattro tracce "live" aggiunte alla fine dell'ultimo CD.
16.10.2009
