Art Tatum plays Chopin (Valse in C# Minor, Op. 64, No. 2)

i'm tired of these classical pianists complaining about his renditions of certain classical music. Of course classical pianists would never attempt this. Improvising that's what it is. Horowitz actually went out to one of his nightclubs and was in tears after hearing Tatum. Tatum was a genius. He could distinguish the dominant note from a toilet flush. What more do you need to know?

Mind blowing.
Thanks a lot for posting.

To anyone who is just now discovering Art, in his recordings after 1950 or so (which are plentiful) he was just a shadow of his earlier self. See if you can source some of his earliest recdordings -- listen for his phrasing.

This is fun but not so beautifully using the possibilities of the piano as Chopin does in his compositions - lots of finesse are lost here.

It is like hearing Gabriela Montero improvising over the Aria from the Goldberg Variations - nice. Just nice.

Yeah, this post kinda hurts in a couple places. No matter, I'm sure by now we've both enjoyed many of the other posts. What a joy to WATCH him play after a lifetime of listening.

If a guy like Vladimir Horowitz went to dark smokey nightclubs to check this guy out, that says something

no way Horowitz would! nice one though, kinda funny!

tropicvibe-Let the record show tat I accidentally hit the spam as it is where the approve box normally is.Let me also say that both Rachmaninov and Artur Rubinstein were great fans of his and took in his performances in New York whenever possible. They both considered him the very best

Thanks for that interesting info.

Not trying to be a contrarian, but as much as I appreciate his brilliance and technique, I find listening to him exhausting and slightly unpleasant. I like dissonant and difficult music (his is not terrible dissonant - I mean who has time to process his cadences) - but his music is slightly off putting for all its brilliance. I prefer Earl Hines. Sorry