Tatum's 'triplet runs'?

[cuberdrift]

I find them quite interesting. Recently I learned how to produce the sound Art Tatum did with his very quick, elegant runs, and although I am not very proficient with it, their glittery, sparkly nature is a charm to the ears. It's basically a descending run using the right hand (actually can be done by the left hand as well, ascending, but Tatum didn't do that).

Well basically a simple variant of this would be using 2-3-1 repeatedly on a descending C-Major scale (on C-D-B-A-B-G-F-G-E-D-E-C etc.). Done fast, it appears very dazzling! It seems to be 50% faster than the regular scale pattern. Of course one can apply this to many other patterns - like playing around an D diminished chord - using 3-5-1-2-3-1 repeatedly on D-F-B-Ab-B-F, for instance, or Ab minor 7th using same fingering (3-5-1-2-3-1) on Ab-C-F-Eb-F-C repeatedly down the keyboard.

Tatum's early 1930's recordings extensively use this type of run - like 'Tea for Two' and 'Tiger Rag'. In 'Tiger Rag' two of these are played after 0:35, right before the stride section:

I have a question though - why does it sound so fast? I was thinking it is because it simply skips the middle note in between, but it seems to be deceptively quick while not being that hard to pull off.

It is such an interesting, ornamental technique...

[falala]

Interesting. I've never seen them analysed before.

I think the key thing must be that the hand shape is staying basically the same, and only moving quite slowly down the piano. So the first of the runs you mention after 0.35 consist of C minor triads alternating with G-C-Bb shapes, and the second one consists of alternating Bb and Ab triads.

Presumably once the hand is on the chord shape, the movement through the notes themselves is as much just a roll of the wrist as individual finger work. Unlike normal scale and arpeggio playing, there isn't the passage of the thumb to worry about. Neat how he manages to avoid that.

I've always hated these RH cascades that Tatum does because they sound like such a mannerism. He throws them in with no sense whatsoever of whether they make any musical sense or have any musical connection to what comes before or after. They're like a kind of nervous tic.

Still interesting to see how it works though. And the whole thing is astonishingly fast. Really very difficult indeed to believe it's all been played by a human.

[polishookm]

Here's an entire book about the runs Tatum played in his right hand.

https://www.amazon.com/The-Right-Hand-According-Tatum/dp/0943748852

with fingerings, explanations, etc.

[cuberdrift]

Still interesting to see how it works though. And the whole thing is astonishingly fast. Really very difficult indeed to believe it's all been played by a human.

Surely it is not any more impressive than Cziffra's Paris Bumble bee recording?