Fw: [Dixielandjazz] Art Tatum Still King

[John Farrell]

 For once I totally agree with Steve Barbone :

 "Tatum is still King and he had a lot more than "acrobatic display" as I
and
 the reviewer, if one carefully reads the review, hear it."

 Tatum was a unique phenomenon in the history of jazz piano, nothing stumped
 him - he could handle any popular tune of the day in any key, in any
 company, at any tempo. Whatever musical idea popped into his head, no
matter how complicated, he could
 execute it with ease, he was acknowledged by all his peers as being the
very
 best at the physical act of playing jazz piano. No other
 pianist possessed such a breathtakingly impressive store of pianistic
 ammunition.

 Of course there are those who, despite being well-versed in OKOM, do not
 care for Tatum's stylings (Leslie Johnson and Jerry Brown for instance),
 underlining the fact that the appreciation of any given musician is wholly
a
 subjective matter. However that does not alter another fact - that when it
came to playing
 jazz piano Art Tatum could wipe the floor with all the opposition. To this
 day he remains the most accomplished keyboard artist the world has ever
 seen, I doubt that we shall ever see his like again.

 John Farrell
 stridepiano at tesco.net
 http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/midifiles.htm