[Dixielandjazz] Art Tatum

[JimDBB at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/22/2003 12:44:28 AM Central Standard Time, 
ringwald at calweb.com writes:

> I once heard a story about Tatum:
> 
> It seems that a great classical pianist in France was going to meet Tatum.
> He took one of Tatum's piano arrangements  and practiced it for months.
> 
> When the day came, he sat down &played it, note for note, perfect for
> Tatum.
> 
> Tatum was very complimentary to the classical player.  Then, Tatum sat down,
> played the very same song, completely different arrangement, just as
> complicated, off the top of his head.
> 
> The classical pianist was completely blown away.  He couldn't believe it.

   This is a nice story, Bob.  I would say that Tatum probably just played 
the tune with a different set of runs. He had a bag of incredible runs and this 
is essentially what he played on every tune.

   Jim Beebe