Art Tatum – Meeting the Kings
For those of you out there who don’t know your jazz masters as well as you should, this is an excellent introduction to Art Tatum. His name hasn’t survived as well as some (like Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk), but he was an acknowledged master at the time. This mini recounts the first time some legends of Harlem heard Art, and how they were able to recognize the prescence of greatness almost at once. Granted, some of this might be creative license, but it’s hard to imagine the greats hearing this guy and NOT thinking that they were hearing something completely different. Joey breaks down the specifics far better than I could, and does an excellent job of transforming music into images. If you’re at all curious about this kind of music Art Tatum wouldn’t be a bad place to start, and this comic wouldn’t be a bad intro to all of it. No price, so let’s say $2.
