Saturday, November 23, 2019

Take 5 With Art Tatum

In a documentary on the legendary Art Tatum, Les Paul recalls being overwhelmed by seeing Tatum that he gave up piano. Similarly, Fats Waller announced "God is in the house" when Tatum entered a club he was playing at. Today's short playlist simply gives a few highlights from the musical legacy of him. We first start with a brief clip of him playing "Yesterdays."


Now we go to his rendition of "Tea For Two."


Here we have Tatum playing a piece of Ellingtonia, "Caravan."


Tatum recorded a staggering amount of solo and small group performances for Norman Granz. These recordings were made available on Granz's Pablo Records. Here is a solo performance of "On the Sunny Side of the Street."


The final recording will be from the Pablo Group Masterpieces with Ben Webster on tenor sax, Red Callendar on bass and Bill Douglas on drums performing "Gone With the Wind."






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