Art, as in Tatum

"I don't feel that I have all of the technical facilities that I would like to have." -- Art Tatum

"That's the musical equivalent of hearing Alfred Hitchcock tell a reporter that he wished his movies were scarier!" --Terry Teachout

From this cool article, title You Never Saw Art Tatum Sweat, on the centennial of Art Tatum's birth, which was Friday (November 13, 2009).

The way Art Tatum plays the piano, man, that is just scary. --Mr. Greg

If you don't know Art Tatum and you look at the video here, one note. Art Tatum was blind. Which means the video is scary. CD suggestion: Art Tatum, Classic Early Solos (1934-1937), Decca (via GRP). This is the kind of stuff that prompted Fats Waller to say, one night at he cub where he was playing and Tatum showed up, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm just the piano player. God is the house!"

Terry Teachout has a wonderful new biography of Louis Armstrong out, by the by. Title: Pops.