June 15th – Art Tatum – My Heart Stood Still

One of the many sayings attributed to Thelonious Monk is “Stop playing all those weird notes, play the melody”.  Art Tatum never forgot the melody but somehow managed to embellish it with more notes than most of us could even imagine.  Some critics deplored what they regarded as his excessive ornamentation. Others were dazzled by his technique which was as intricate and virtuosic as any in the pre-bebop era.  Here he is relatively late in his career (1949) with a typically inventive take on this Rodgers and Hart standard.

 

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