I asked my baby, could she stand to see me cry

Art Tatum died fifty years ago this week. In honor of the great pianist, here are a few songs he recorded with Big Joe Turner.

By January 21, 1941, both Joe Turner (he wasn’t Big Joe until September 1941) and Art Tatum had established careers, this was the first time they recorded together. Tatum’s playing is amazing – it always is – but he’s playing backup here. He’s not too busy or taking the focus away from Joe. The number one complaint about Tatum his playing is too busy, that he played too many notes. That ain’t happening here. The band stays out of the way.

“Wee Baby Blues” is great. The songs from this session were released by Decca Records in February and March 1941. The flipsides on both records were instrumentals by Art Tatum & his Band. Hot instrumentals. I’m not sure but this may be the earliest electric guitar solo in my collection.

Musicians:
Art Tatum - piano
Joe Turner - vocals
Ed Hall - clarinet
John Collins - guitar
Eddy Dougherty - drums
Billy Taylor - bass
Joe Thomas - trumpet