Art Tatum - Yesterdays (1954)

For more in-depth Art Tatum analysis, please visit Classic Jazz Arranging, here:
https://classicjazzarranging.blogspot...

The classic clip featuring Art Tatum performing live on the Spike Jones TV show from 1954 (shortly before his death). The only complete performance, as in live film footage, of Tatum that we currently have.

If you would like to see Tatum's hands in slow (as in poetry-in-) motion, I have uploaded a half-speed version so you can see how his hands are dancing, moving so beautifully physically in space:    • Art Tatum - Yesterdays HALF-SPEED  

When trying to get your head around this (or any) performance by the phenomenal Art Tatum, I think it's important to mention a few points. Tatum's original arrangement of "Yesterdays" was pretty much 'down' by this stage of his life (he died a few months later). So, in this performance he's improvising around his own more-or-less worked-out structure. This fact should in no way be considered somehow 'inferior', the way some people make out nowadays, implying a lack of creativity. On the contrary, you should look at it like this: after many years of playing the song, he settled on a particular way of playing it ("arrangement"), and within/over that framework he plays/improvises. He created the arrangement, and endless variations, just like J.S.Bach.
Check out the blog here:
https://classicjazzarranging.blogspot...
N.B. This clip uploaded for study and research purposes only!