Editing Art Tatum (section)

===1927–1937===
In 1927, after winning an amateur competition, Tatum began playing on Toledo radio station [[WSPD]] during interludes in a morning shopping program and soon had his own daily program.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=52}} After regular club dates, he often visited after-hours clubs to be with other musicians; he enjoyed listening to other pianists and preferred to play after all the others had finished.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=31, 94–95}} He frequently played for hours on end into the dawn; his radio show was scheduled for noon, allowing him time to rest before evening performances.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=31, 94–97}} During 1928–29, the radio program was rebroadcast nationwide by the [[Blue Network]].{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=52}} Tatum also began to play in larger Midwestern cities outside his home town, including Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=59}}

As word of Tatum spread, national performers passing through Toledo, including [[Duke Ellington]] and [[Fletcher Henderson]], visited clubs where he was playing.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=48–51}} They were impressed by what they heard: from near the start of his career, "his accomplishment [...] was of a different order from what most people, from what even musicians, had ever heard. It made musicians reconsider their definitions of excellence, of what was possible", his biographer reported.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=49}} Although Tatum was encouraged by comments from these and other established musicians, he felt that he was not yet, in the late 1920s, musically ready to move to New York City, the center of the jazz world and home to many of the pianists he had listened to growing up.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=50–51, 67–68}}

This had changed by the time that vocalist [[Adelaide Hall]], touring the United States with two pianists, heard Tatum play in Toledo in 1932 and recruited him:{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=51, 68–71}} he took the opportunity to go to New York as part of her band.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=67–68}} On August 5 that year, Hall and her band recorded two [[Phonograph record|sides]] ("[[I'll Never Be the Same]]" and "Strange as It Seems") that were Tatum's first studio recordings.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=72–73}} Two more sides with Hall followed five days later, as did a solo piano test-[[record press|pressing]] of "[[Tea for Two (song)|Tea for Two]]" that was not released for several decades.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=73}}

After his arrival in New York, Tatum participated in a [[cutting contest]] at Morgan's bar in Harlem with the established stride piano masters – Johnson, Waller, and [[Willie "The Lion" Smith]].{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=75}} Standard contest pieces included Johnson's "Harlem Strut" and "Carolina Shout" and Waller's "Handful of Keys".{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=75–76}} Tatum played his arrangements of "Tea for Two" and "[[Tiger Rag]]".{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=76}} Reminiscing about Tatum's debut, Johnson said, "When Tatum played 'Tea for Two' that night I guess that was the first time I ever heard it really ''played''."<ref name="Kirkeby">{{cite book|last1=Kirkeby |first1=Ed |last2=Schiedt |first2=Duncan P. |last3=Traill |first3=Sinclair |title=Ain't Misbehavin': The Story of Fats Waller |url=https://archive.org/details/aintmisbehavinst00kirk |url-access=registration |access-date=May 20, 2019 |date=1975 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-70683-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/aintmisbehavinst00kirk/page/149 149]}}</ref> Tatum thus became the preeminent jazz pianist.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=76–77}} He and Waller became good friends, with similar lifestyles: both drank excessively and lived as lavishly as their incomes permitted.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=77–78}}

[[File:52nd Street, New York, by Gottlieb, 1948.jpg|thumb|left|Clubs on [[52nd Street (Manhattan)|52nd Street]] in New York, where Tatum often played (May 1948)]]
Tatum's first solo piano job in New York was at the [[Onyx Club]],{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=77}} which was later reported to have paid him "$45 a week and free whiskey".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Burke |first=Patrick |date=2006 |title=Oasis of Swing: The Onyx Club, Jazz, and White Masculinity in the Early 1930s |journal=American Music |volume=24 |issue=3 |page=333 |doi=10.2307/25046035 |jstor=25046035 }}</ref> The Onyx was one of the first jazz clubs to open on [[52nd Street (Manhattan)|52nd Street]],{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=77}} which became the city's focal point for public jazz performance for more than a decade.<ref>{{Citation |date=2016 |chapter=52nd Street |publisher=Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press |doi= 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J149700|title= Oxford Music Online|isbn= 978-1-56159-263-0}}</ref> Tatum recorded his first four released solo sides, for [[Brunswick Records]], in March 1933: "[[Saint Louis Blues (song)|St. Louis Blues]]", "[[Sophisticated Lady]]", "Tea for Two", and "Tiger Rag".{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=80}} The last of these was a minor hit, impressing the public with its startling tempo of approximately 376 ([[quarter note]]) [[Tempo#Measurement|beats per minute]], and with right-hand [[eighth note]]s adding to the technical feat.{{sfn|Schuller|1989|pp=482–483}}

Tatum's only known child, Orlando, was born in 1933, when Tatum was 24.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=30, 81}} The mother was Marnette Jackson, a waitress in Toledo; the pair were not married.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=30, 81–83}} It is likely that neither parent had a major role in raising their son, who pursued a military career and died in the 1980s.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=81–83}}

During the hard economic times of 1934 and 1935, Tatum mostly played in clubs in Cleveland, but also recorded in New York four times in 1934 and once in 1935.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=83}} He also performed on national radio, including for the ''[[Fleischman Hour]]'' broadcast hosted by [[Rudy Vallee]] in 1935.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=83}} In August of that year, he married Ruby Arnold, who was from Cleveland.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=85, 99}} The next month, he began a residence of about a year at the Three Deuces in Chicago, initially as a soloist and then in a quartet of alto saxophone, guitar, and drums.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=84}}

At the end of his first Three Deuces stint, Tatum moved to California, traveling by train because of his fear of flying.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=89}} There, he continued a routine that characterized the greater part of his career: performing paid gigs followed by informal late night sessions, all accompanied by heavy drinking.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=91-94}} A friend from his early days in California observed that Tatum drank [[Pabst Blue Ribbon]] beer by the case.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=92}} This lifestyle contributed to the effects of the diabetes that Tatum probably developed as an adult, but, as highlighted by his biographer, James Lester, Tatum would have faced a conflict if he wanted to address his diabetes: "concessions – drastically less beer, a controlled diet, more rest – would have taken away exactly the things that mattered most to him, and would have removed him from the night-life that he seemed to love more than almost anything (afternoon baseball or football games would probably come next)".{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=93–94}}

In California, Tatum also played for Hollywood parties and appeared on [[Bing Crosby]]'s radio program late in 1936.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=91–92}} He recorded in Los Angeles for the first time early the following year – four tracks as the sextet named Art Tatum and His Swingsters,{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=97}} for Decca Records.{{sfn|Howlett|1982|p=xi}} Continuing to travel by train, Tatum settled into a pattern of performances at major jazz clubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York interspersed with appearances at minor clubs where musicians of his standing did not normally play.{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=101}} Thus, in 1937 he left Los Angeles for another residence at the Three Deuces in Chicago, and then went on to the [[Famous Door]] club in New York,{{sfn|Lester|1994|p=101}} where he opened for [[Louis Prima]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Salamone |first=Frank A. |title=Music and Magic: Charlie Parker, Trickster Lives! |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-5172-5 |page=44 }}</ref> Tatum recorded for Brunswick again near the end of that year.{{sfn|Lester|1994|pp=101–102}}