Dark Eyes – AUDIO
It’s been this writer’s good fortune to have talked with and interviewed many top jazz pianists. Naturally, the question of “who’s your favorite pianist of all time” has been put. Far and away the most frequent answer has been “Art Tatum!” It’s easy to understand, too, especially from a pianist’s view point. For here is a technique that has never been equalled in all of jazz history, a mastery so great that it drew prodigious praise from one of the greatest classical pianists and teachers of all time, the late Leopold Godowsky. Tatum’s was the first great piano technique in jazz history, and, as such, it not only captivated the admiration of his fellow musicians but, what’s even more important, it enabled him to do things harmonically and rhythmically that none of his fellow jazz pianists were able to do, and which many of them have been trying ever since to imitate.
How_It_Was Club 