Customer Reviews

Too Marvelous for Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum

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I am ecstatic that this marvelous book has been written. I truly believed, until this book became known to me, that I would for all my life enjoy Art Tatum without ever knowing anything about him. To me, this is a first rate book that will stand the test of time and be cherished by future generations. The author is an accomplished pianist and he writes about Tatum in a way that I, as a pianist, can profoundly relate to. I suspect this will probably be the only book that will ever be written about Tatem, as he was born in 1909 and the people who knew him are dying off. For me, the journey to this book was to first read the wonderful biography of Bud Powell by Francis Paudras, then read the fascinating biography of Bill Evans by Peter Pettinger, and then read this incredible Tatum biography. Reading this book has inspired me to study, more deeply, Fats Waller. The era during which which Art Tatum, Fats Waller, J.P. Johnson, Willie the Lion, et al., were kings, is a fascinating, riveting period that deserves study by all who have a love of jazz piano.

I was disappointed although I don't think the fault lies with the author. He faced an uphill task as he notes with fading memories and a lack of cooperation with the family and other sources. Nor were the usual diaries or letters available. Although the matter is apparently in some dispute, there is little doubt, in my mind, that Tatum was legally, and for all practical purposes, blind. He was not likely to leave a written record behind.

It was a sadder story than I anticipated. Reading between the lines, its hard not to conclude that alcoholism killed him. His family most likely wanted no part of this project because they didn't want to dredge all that up again.

So, much of the story rests on speculation and supposition of the author. I think he exercises good judgment on most issues except the issue of Fats Waller's influence on Tatum's piano playing. One of the few statements Tatum had on the record was that his primary influence was Fats Waller. The author chooses Earl Fatha Hines as the more likely influence.

Well, I'm with Tatum on this issue. I hear Waller's touch, I hear Waller's whole piano sound. I hear Waller in the background. Of course, Tatum recasts the sound of stride piano in a new light, but there is a strong element of stride piano with more than a few tips of the hat to Waller.

This doesn't in any way diminish Hines as a wonderful and influential piano player. But, Earl HInes piano in the 1920's came out of the riffs and breaks structure used by the Chicago bands of that era, Armstrong and Morton. The runs that Hines played were really akin to the breaks a soloist in the 20's would play between two band riffs. He developed and expanded on that idea. I hear Hines in Teddy Wilson and Nat King Cole, not Tatum.

Tatum's piano is based on Harlem stride all the way.

With Tatum, the piano was his everything. Away from the piano, he was evidently a lost soul. I'm thankful that Norman Granz recorded Tatum in his last years and preserved his aptly named "Solo Masterpieces" for us to hear.

This book does a wonderful job explaining Art Tatum's monumental talent and the almost mythic regard in which he was held by world class jazz and even classical musicians. Forty years after his death, Tatum is still seen as a towering and intimidating presence by pianists. The book relates, in great detail, one Tatum anecdote after another by jazz legends of Tatum's startling talent. Where the book falls down though, is trying to explain Tatum, the man. I learned very little about Tatum other than his gift for music and love of playing and drinking. Overall though, an interesting read about a little known genius.

This is not an ordinary biography of an extraordinary musian: it is an excellent biography. It's the best jazz bio I have read, in fact. Concise, compelling, carefully crafted into a meaningful story about the greatest jazz pianist ever. The book is built on dozens of interviews with people who had entered or witnessed moments of Tatum's life. Lester quotes generously, nimbly weaving the material together to form a rich picture of an often elusive character. Tatum emerges as an absorbing, riveting figure. This is a must for all those fascinated with the origins and development of genius: innate or acquired? And for those fascinated with Tatum: unique phenomenon or "mere" virtuoso? There is much food for thought here.

It's been about 10 years since this book was published. I've read it over and over more than 10 times.Lester never made any bones about finding new material about Art. He always admitted that he was just putting pen to paper about Tatum using known history, just because nobody else had seen fit to do so--- yet.
Lester loved that man-- as did anybody who was lucky enough to know him. I was one of the lucky ones. The book is a gem; it manages to get to the very essence of Tatum, the man. We all know everything about Tatum the brilliant super-pianist. Now you have the chance to read about Tatum, the boy next door.

...

Art Tatum is considered by many to be the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived. Though blind in one eye and with limited sight in the other, he was gifted with perfect pitch and, through study and practice, developed the most advanced harmonic and melodic means of improvising on a song known (some musicians were afraid to play with him, knowing they couldn't keep up with his musicianship). He was born in Toledo, Ohio, and began playing piano at an early age, performing professionally on the radio by age 17. He went to NYC, the jazz Mecca, in 1932, and soon had every jazz pianist in the city in awe of him. He made a series of recordings for Decca between 1934 and 1941, often in a solo setting, many of which are still considered definitive performances. He also began working on fabled 52nd Street with a trio consisting of Slam Stewart (bass) and Tiny Grimes (guitar), which became a big success. In the 1950s, Norman Granz recorded Tatum in marathon sessions, some with guest artists, others in the solo format, that became a monument to his legacy. Tatum died in LA in 1956.

James Lester has written an entertaining and informative biography of the great pianist. He interviewed hundreds of musicians who knew or played with Art, and the excerpts from these interviews, which are interspersed throughout the text, are delightful. What impressed most musicians about Tatum's playing was his sheer musical brilliance and technical virtuosity. Nobody played MORE piano than Tatum. Lester also deals with the down sides to Art's life: his unstable marriage and family life, the incredibly heavy drinking (one fellow pianist who knew him reported that he believed it was "routine" for Tatum to drink two quarts of whiskey and a case of beer every 24 hours). But through it all Art Tatum produced some of the most remarkable jazz piano music ever heard. Lester's biography serves such a master well.

(...) Reading "Too Marvelous For Words" is true to Tatum's life. Jim Lester, he a trombonist, presents an exhaustive survey of who the man was. I've read and re-read the book several times; getting more enjoyment each time.

(...)

The author could have safely assumed that anyone who was interested to buy a book like this could have understood the meaning of terms like: C#m7b5 or Abmaj13#11 (which are terms that may have come up in describing Tatum's harmonic sophistication).

Some analysis of his new developments in harmonic structure (at the time)or actual quantitation of his piano velocity might have helped. (I also happen to know that his recordings have been studied for a very long time and people have slowed them down to see if the rhythms were in fact correct-- and inaccuracies were not covered up the sheer speed at which he played. So some of those studies could have been quoted.)

Instead, the book came across as a bunch of hearsay mishmashed into a book. The author spent some time giving different versions of the same story (such as how Tatum made it to New York), but I could have done without knowing all the details of how he arrived there as much as knowing in which way his piano playing evolved over time-- or what specific things that he did that no one had ever done before. (Dick Hyman has some videos on Youtube that give detailed analyses of what Tatum did.) The author himself was a working musician, and so he would have know how to describe some of the craft. (An example of a pianist talking about the nuts and bolts of working is Earl Hines. He developed the idea of playing the melody in octaves so as to adjust for the size of the room.) Alas, Lester gives us none of this.

I can appreciate the yeoman's work that Lester did in the many interviews that were necesary to complete this book, but it still left some things to be desired.

It was interesting to note that alcoholism is what killed Tatum (more than any one thing). And perhaps the characterization of such a laconic man was very difficult. (If a person doesn't say that much, then what is there to know about him?) This book was elucidating in some ways, but ultimately not that fulfilling.