Art Tatum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Art Tatum - Essay causaIn spite of his blindness, though, Art Tatum grew to become one of the great jazz musicians of his time.Tatums musical power manifested itself at an early age. By the age of three, he was replicating music he had heard on the tuner receiver on the pianissimo. 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. Tatums jazz talent was gum olibanum 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 Ohios Waiters and Bellmans Club, playing piano with singer Jon Hendricks. News of the young player began to spread and famous jazz greats much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Joe Turner and Fletch er Henderson began dropping in as they passed through town to hear him play.It wasnt 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 soonest known recording is a 1932 test pressing of Tiger Rag, which was professionally recorded the side by side(p) year. The song provides an excellent example of Tatums abilities as it features crashing bass notes, flowing cascades on both the left and right hands and a brutally fast tempo that showed off Tatums 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,