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Struggles Of Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong, And Societal Unreadiness

1845 Words8 Pages

Hope Obolanle
April 16, 2023
AFRST 160: History of Jazz
Midterm Essay
The Racial Struggles of Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday and Societal Unreadiness

Introduction Jazz music originated from the cultural collision in African American communities of New Orleans. In addition to the multitudes of languages from New Orleans in the 1920s, the altering of harmonies and changing the tone of functional music formed the foundation of jazz. The complex harmonies and legato music gave rise to many great pianists, singers, and trumpeters like Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. Since, jazz was rooted in African American culture many artists faced racism, discrimination, and marginalization. Despite their immense talent, …show more content…

Tatum was bornin Toledo, Ohio with milk cataracts in both eyes, and went through surgery repairing vision in one eye which was later injured by a holdup man rendering Tatum totally blind. Despite this disability Tatum developed patterns of fast runs and his own techniques with influences from James P Johnson and Fats Walker. He added to stride and classical piano to create his own style where he can start with a moderate pitch and end with multiple runs with various pitches. In his musical work “Over the Rainbow” Tatum engages the audience with an assembly of accelerated runs, steady chords, and high tones inciting a light, positive …show more content…

One classical pianist critic even said “Sure, Art's great, but he fingers the keys the wrong way." During this time many white critics wanted jazz music to follow the conventions of music and preferred a piano to sound orthodox without the improvisation, and embroidery. People did not want to see a blind black man make music use techniques others deemed as impossible. Tatum did not give people what they could digest and bring himself to their level, he showed people raw talent and hard work which other could not comprehend. At times Tatum would express his disdain for the discrimination he is facing, "Did you hear so-and-so's latest record? What a waste of wax, for Christ's sake! There must be over 2,000 fellows who can play more than this cat. But you see who he's recording for? It will probably sell half a million copies while Willie the Lion just sits back smoking his cigar, without a gig. When will it end?" White critics couldn’t handle the stress that a black person could out play a white person, especially in a society that deems white people are supreme. Many people tried to belittle Tatum’s talent because it did not “fit” comfortably in jazz because his playing was not to satisfy fragile white men. Tatum showed resilience and continued playing and pursed his passion, and society was unprepared to appreciate Tatum and his

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