Nearly blind from childhood, Art Tatum developed a piano technique so fast and harmonically dense that fellow musicians treated him as a category of one, reharmonizing standards on the fly with runs and substitutions that jazz pianists are still studying. He extended the stride-piano tradition he grew up on into something far more virtuosic and orchestral-sounding for a single set of hands, setting a technical bar that shaped how jazz and R&B pianists after him thought about the instrument's possibilities.

the sound in question

1939

Tea for TwoArt Tatum