Who Were Art Tatum's Influences?

Question

Art Tatum is one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz piano. He propelled the music forward perhaps more than any other jazz pianist. Specifically, Art was known for his reharmonizations (and chord substitutions) and his modern chord voicings, which would later impact bebop players and virtually all future jazz pianists.

Do these specific musical qualities (chord substitutions and voicings) appear in earlier artists who influenced Art? The evidence I'm looking for is a musical analysis comparing Art's work and known/possible influences on areas of chord substitutions and chord voicings.

Answer 1

According to TOO MARVELOUS FOR WORDS: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum by James Lester (1994,) some of Art Tatum's direct influences were James P. Johnson, Willie (The Lion) Smith, Earl Hines, and Fats Waller.

He was also a fan of Lee Sims and, likely, Luckey Roberts... all of these musicians played ragtime and more than one of them are accredited with the creation of the Stride Piano style.

The specific qualities of the chord substitutions and voicing used by Tatum comes directly from the unique nature of Stride as a style:

The name “stride piano” came from the look of the striding motion of the pianist’s left hand, with its constant alternation of bass note on beats one and three and mid-range chord on beats two and four.

[The left hand characteristically plays a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, major seventh or major tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a chord on the second and fourth beats.]

Art Tatum had also a piano teacher by the name of Overton G. Rainey... But, Bill Cummerow, another partially blind pianist (like Tatum,) said that Rainey didn't improvise and also discouraged his students from doing so haha.