JH: Art Tatum’s mother scrubbed floors in a bank building downtown. One day she came home and said, “Arthur, I saw a piano roll and this fellow said he’d sell it to me cheap because nobody was buying them, so I bought it and brought it home.” I don’t know if you remember piano rolls, but there were player pianos set up to automatically play these pieces that were recorded on the paper rolls, while you pumped the pedals. When she heard this roll being played she said, “That’s pretty. I wonder if Arthur can play it.” She didn’t understand it was two guys playing the music on the piano roll. She took it home and said, “Arthur, I’d like to hear you play this when I come home from work tomorrow.” Art said, “Momma, I’ll be ready for you to hear it tomorrow. I’ll spend today learning it.” He didn’t know it was two guys. She came home the next day and she asked him, “How are you coming along with that?” He said, “I’m ready!” And he played it! I said, “Whoooo, look at that!” Then I whispered in her ear, and told her it was two guys playing. She said, “It is?” I said “Yeah!” She was so surprised. He not only played it, he learned it by ear and played it in a day. To this day, I’ll never forget that. jazztimes/articles/147291-jon-hendricks-poet-laureate-godfather-of-jazz-vocalese
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 19:50:32 +0000
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