Arthur Tatum Jr (November 5,
1956) was a jazz pianist.
Tatum grew up in Toledo, Ohio,
where he began playing piano professionally and had his own radio program,
rebroadcast nationwide, while still in his teens. He left Toledo in 1932 and
had residencies as a solo pianist at clubs in major urban centers including New
York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Throughout his career, Tatum also
played for long periods at night in after-hours venues – at which he was said
to be more spontaneous and creative than in his regular paid performances.
Tatum drank large quantities of alcohol when performing, and although it did
not negatively affect his playing, it did damage his health.
In the 1940s, Tatum led a
commercially successful trio for a short time and began playing in more formal
jazz concert settings, including at Norman Granz-produced Jazz at the
Philharmonic events. Granz recorded Tatum extensively in solo and small group
formats in the mid-1950s, with the last session occurring only two months
before the pianist's death from uremia at the age of 47.
Tatum is widely regarded as one
of the greatest jazz pianists. His playing encompassed the styles of earlier
greats, while adding harmonic and rhythmic imagination and complexity. Often
playing passages at high velocity, he extended what was considered possible in
jazz piano and established new ground in jazz more broadly through innovative
use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.