[78-L] Art Tatum 100th birthday

[Taylor Bowie]

I learned a while ago that today October 13th was the 100th anniversary of 
the birth of Art Tatum,  so I thought that would be a  good occasion to stir 
up some trouble.

Some people prefer traveling in something along the lines of the SST, 
because it is fast,  sleek,  mechanicaly complex,  etc.   Gets you there 
before you know it!

That's all fine,  but going so fast I think you miss a lot of scenery which 
is part of what makes the trip enjoyable.

And that's pretty much what I think of the playing of Art Tatum.  Yes,  it 
is impressive.  Yes,  he has technique to spare.  But I always get the 
feeling that he is not so much interpreting the melody as discecting it into 
little pieces...kind of like a surgeon doing an autopsy.

Plus,  after a while,  you can always tell where and when he will make one 
of his little "runs" with which he likes to punctuate his playing.  I never 
experience the kind of joy or surprise in his work which I find in many 
other players.  It seems so calculated.

When a record of his is over...I don't feel any sense of 
satisfaction....more like exhaustion.

But year after year you read that he is the "greatest" piano player in jazz, 
blah blah blah.

To me his playing  seems more like a stunt than music ...cold, clinical and 
machine like...disigned to get into the Guinness Book of Records as "most 
piano notes played in ten seconds."

So Tatum fans...tell me what it is I'm missing.


Taylor