Art Tatum
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 7
1991
FLAC


Personnel:
Art Tatum
Buddy DeFranco
Red Callendar
Bill douglass


  1. Deep Night (Album Version)
  2. This Can't Be Love
  3. Memories Of You
  4. Once In A While
  5. A Foggy Day
  6. Lover Man
  7. You're Mine You
  8. Makin' Whoopee
  9. Deep Night (Alternate Take)
10. Once In A While (Alternate Take)
11. This Can't Be Love (Alternate Take 2)


Thank you.  enjoy!

--
Art Tatum was among the most extraordinary of all jazz musicians, a 

pianist with wondrous technique who could not only play ridiculously 

rapid lines with both hands (his 1933 solo version of "Tiger Rag" sounds 

as if there were three pianists jamming together) but was harmonically 30 

years ahead of his time; all pianists have to deal to a certain extent 

with Tatum's innovations in order to be taken seriously. Able to play 

stride, swing, and boogie-woogie with speed and complexity that could 

only previously be imagined, 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.

Born nearly blind, Tatum gained some formal piano training at the Toledo 

School of Music but was largely self-taught. Although influenced a bit by 

Fats Waller and the semi-classical pianists of the 1920s, there is really 

no explanation for where Tatum gained his inspiration and ideas from. He 

first played professionally in Toledo in the mid-'20s and had a radio 

show during 1929-1930. In 1932 Tatum traveled with singer Adelaide Hall 

to New York and made his recording debut accompanying Hall (as one of two 

pianists). But for those who had never heard him in person, it was his 

solos of 1933 (including "Tiger Rag") that announced the arrival of a 

truly major talent. In the 1930s, Tatum spent periods working in 

Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and (in 1938) England. 

Although he led a popular trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes (later Everett 

Barksdale) and bassist Slam Stewart in the mid-'40s, Tatum spent most of 

his life as a solo pianist who could always scare the competition. Some 

observers criticized him for having too much technique (is such a thing 

possible?), working out and then keeping the same arrangements for 

particular songs, and for using too many notes, but those minor 

reservations pale when compared to Tatum's reworkings of such tunes as 

"Yesterdays," "Begin the Beguine," and even "Humoresque." Although he was 

not a composer, Tatum's rearrangements of standards made even warhorses 

sound like new compositions.

Art Tatum, who recorded for Decca throughout the 1930s and Capitol in the 

late '40s, starred at the Esquire Metropolitan Opera House concert of 

1944 and appeared briefly in his only film in 1947, The Fabulous Dorseys 

(leading a jam session on a heated blues). He recorded extensively for 

Norman Granz near the end of his life in the 1950s, both solo and with 

all-star groups; all of the music has been reissued by Pablo on a six-CD 

box set. His premature death from uremia has not resulted in any loss of 

fame, for Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern 

pianists. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide