Art Tatum (1909-1956) Class of 2004 "Tell them New York cats to look out," a 22-year-old Art Tatum told a musician passing through his hometown of Toledo, Ohio in 1931. "Here comes Tatum!" He was blind in one eye and nearly sightless in the other but already a local piano legend. His recording debut two years later established him as the most dauntingly accomplished pianist in jazz. Equally adept with either hand even at blistering tempos and armed with a seemingly limitless reservoir of fresh ideas and novel harmonies, startling shifts in rhythm and dynamics, and witty musical quotations from other tunes, he overwhelmed his rivals. "The first time I listened to Tatum," the pianist Jimmy Rowles remembered, "I thought I was listening to four guys!" Fats Waller was playing at a New York club one evening when he saw Tatum come through the door. He stopped playing and got up from the piano bench so that Tatum could get at the keyboard. "Ladies and gentlemen," Waller said. "I play the piano, but God is in the house tonight." Photo credit: William P. Gottlieb