TT: You never saw him sweat

Like most columnists, I try to keep up with anniversaries, but the centennial of Art Tatum’s birth–October 13–slipped past me. No wonder, since scarcely anyone seems to have taken note of it, whether in print or on stage. Yet Tatum, who died in 1956, is still the most admired pianist in the history of jazz, and it seems likely that he will hang onto that status for decades, even centuries, to come. On the other hand, he isn’t especially well known to the general public, at least not by comparison with Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington.
Why isn’t Tatum a household name? Is it because jazz itself is no longer as popular as it used to be? Or might there be something about his elaborately virtuosic style that has kept him out of the public eye? I’ll be exploring this question in my “Sightings” column for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. If you’re curious, pick up a copy of tomorrow’s paper and see what I have to say.
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UPDATE: Read the whole thing here.
Art Tatum plays his jazz interpretation of Dvorak’s “Humoresque” on The Faye Emerson Show in 1950: