Art Tatum was mostly self taught. When he was little he used to play the piano rolls of his mother’s player piano. Sometimes the songs the piano played were duets. He didn’t realize that and learned how to play all the parts at once. Maybe this how he learned how to play so fast. Blind in one eye and partially blind in the other, he was attended the Toledo School of Music briefly were he learned how to read music using braille.

Many of the filmed recordings of Art Tatum playing were destroyed long ago. This one is from an appearance he made on a television show in 1954.