Art Tatum

Arthur Tatum Jr. was born on the thirteenth of October 1909 at Toledo, Ohio, the son of Arthur Tatum Sr. — a Toledo Black mechanic — and Mildred Hoskins Tatum. He was born with cataracts in both eyes — and was blind in his left eye and partially sighted in his right eye across his life.

He was instructed at the principal Toledo School of Music from 1921 to 1924 — and was self-taught in jazz-piano-and-stride-piano across the principal late-1920s Toledo Black-piano-and-vaudeville community.

He was hired in 1927 at the principal Toledo radio station WSPD as a principal piano player — and held the principal Toledo radio-station pianist position from 1927 to 1932 at the principal Toledo Black-and-mainstream-American radio-station piano-player community.

He relocated to New York in 1932 — as a principal piano accompanist of the principal Harlem-and-New-York Black-singer-and-vaudeville Adelaide Hall — and was discovered at the principal post-1932 Harlem Black-Bohemian Onyx-Club-and-Reuben's piano-and-stride-piano performance community.

He recorded the principal first Art Tatum solo-piano session at the principal Brunswick Records at New York in March 1933 — including the principal 'Tea for Two' and 'Tiger Rag' performances. The principal Brunswick session is at this day the principal foundational document of the principal Art-Tatum virtuoso-stride-and-jazz-piano American jazz-piano-canon.

He founded the principal Art Tatum Trio at New York in 1943 — alongside the principal guitarist Tiny Grimes and the principal bassist Slam Stewart — at the principal post-1943 Art Tatum Trio commercial-jazz-trio performance community. The principal Art Tatum Trio recorded approximately fifty principal Asch-and-Capitol-and-Verve recordings across the principal 1943 to 1956 Art-Tatum-Trio commercial period.

He was hailed across the principal post-1933 American jazz-piano-and-classical-piano performance community as the principal virtuoso pianist of the principal post-1933 American jazz-piano-canon — and was the principal pianist whom the principal classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz and the principal classical composer Sergei Rachmaninoff cited as the principal virtuoso pianist of any tradition.

He died at Los Angeles on the fifth of November 1956 of complications of uremia, at forty-seven.

He is honored here as the principal virtuoso pianist of the American jazz tradition.