Art Tatum : NPR

All Songs Considered

Keren Ann, Art Tatum on Harold Arlen, The Postal Service

March 9, 2005 • A new single from The Postal Service; The Pink Floyd-inspired Radar Brothers; Ambient electronica from Oregon's Eluvium; Misadventures with Andrew Morgan; Mediterranean music and more.

Keren Ann, Art Tatum on Harold Arlen, The Postal Service

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Music Interviews

Art Tatum: A Talent Never to Be Duplicated

November 5, 2006 • Fifty years ago Sunday, the jazz musician Art Tatum died. He's among the piano geniuses of all time, in any genre. People who heard him for the first time on a record often thought they were listening to two piano players. Yet his legacy is often overlooked.

Art Tatum: A Talent Never to Be Duplicated

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Shadow Classics

A Jazz Genius Goofs Off

October 18, 2006 • Art Tatum was such a towering figure that it's easy to wonder whether he did things differently when he was off-duty and out of the spotlight. What did he sound like playing a private party or an after-hours club, that jazzman's preferred hangout, in the company of friends?

Review

Basic Jazz Record Library

Art Tatum: 'The Chronological Art Tatum: 1949'

August 1, 2001 • With some of the fastest reflexes in the history of jazz piano, Art Tatum deftly mastered stride, swing, and boogie woogie. Although nearly blind, Tatum had a knack for playing out-of-tune keyboards with sticky notes. On The Chronological Art Tatum: 1949, Tatum was at the apex of his career.

Art Tatum: 'The Chronological Art Tatum: 1949'

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Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

Hard Up: Jazz For Empty Pockets

90.5 WESA

May 4, 2009 • Money is on everyone's mind right now. Maybe you're worried about your own money, worried about the state of the world economy or just relieved to have a job and a paycheck. Got the money blues? Listen to these five jazz tunes — a good investment for your ears and your soul.

Fats Waller seemed to pack 10 lifetimes of fun into his 39 years on the planet. Evening Standard/Hulton Archive hide caption

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Evening Standard/Hulton Archive

Take Five: By Instrument

Stride Piano: Bottom-End Jazz

Jazz24

April 12, 2010 • Born out of Harlem in the 1920s, stride pianists took the basic left-hand "oompah" rhythm of ragtime, but played it with more swing and complexity, while the right hand played the melody and the ever-increasing improvisations upon it. Read and hear a five-song introduction to a style that travels great distances up and down the keyboard.

Lester Young gave Billie Holiday her nickname: "Lady Day." William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress via flickr.com hide caption

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William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress via flickr.com

Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

Jazz Centennials: Legends At 100

WBGO

April 23, 2009 • Jazz has no shortage of celebrated masters. Every year brings an abundance of new milestones for record labels to celebrate. With that in mind, we present songs by six American jazz musicians who would have become centenarians in 2009, including Lester Young.

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Deceptive Cadence

Dead Composers At Your Dinner Table

November 5, 2010 • Inspired by All Souls Day, this week we asked prominent musicians and our readers the same question: which long-gone composer would make the perfect dinner guest. Read some of the comments.

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Columbia Pictures/Handout/Getty Images

NPR's 'Jazz Profiles'

Art Tatum, 'The Musician's Musician'

June 20, 2007 • Count Basie called him "The 8th Wonder of the World" and the clarity and speed of his playing has never been matched.

Art Tatum, 'The Musician's Musician'

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