How Did Art Tatum Influence African American Culture

African American culture is so diverse and it is still evolving as we speak. Our history has such a strong and inspiring story. From our ancestors being enslaved to the Civil War and Emancipation, and so much more. Unfortunately, our history hasn't been taught from an African American standpoint nor is it really being taught in our school systems. Yet, being able to have the experience to actually analysis and see our true history is just amazing. What some may know as the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, which was a development era of black culture in the early 20th Century. This spanned in the 1920s, had a literary and intellectual blossoming dealing with cultural identity for African-Americans. Moreover, this includes an artistic
Legally blind, his artistic vision and capableness made him an icon of jazz piano. He is a musician who impact will be felt for generations to come. Art was born in Toledo, Ohio. Both of Tatum’s parents had a musical background. From birth he suffered from cataracts, this causes him blind in his left eye, and with only very limited vision in the other. He played piano from his youth, Art was a musical prodigy at a very young age. By the age of six, he was able to play songs originally performed as duets and didn’t know that it was two players for the song. In this way, he developed an incredibly fast playing style, without losing any of his accuracies. As a child Art was also very sensitive to the piano's intonation and insisted it is tuned often. Yet, of his talents, his influences got him to where is today as well. His inspirations from the pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, who exemplified the stride piano style. Tatum identified Fats Waller as his main