Arthur Tatum Jr. (/ˈteɪtəm/, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist.

Tatum grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where he began playing professionally and had his own radio program, rebroadcast nationwide, while still in his teens. He left Toledo in 1932 and had residencies as a solo pianist at clubs in major urban centers including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Throughout his career, Tatum also played for long periods at night in after-hours venues – at which he was often more spontaneous and creative than in his paid-for performances – and drank enormous quantities of alcohol. Although drinking did not negatively affect his playing, it did damage his health. In the 1940s, Tatum led a commercially successful trio for a short time and began playing in more formal jazz concert settings, including at Norman Granz-produced Jazz at the Philharmonic events. Granz recorded Tatum extensively in solo and small group formats in the mid-1950s, with the last session occurring only two months before the pianist’s death from uremia at the age of 47.

Tatum is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists. His playing encompassed everything that had come before, added great harmonic and rhythmic imagination and complexity, and was often at very high speed. He extended what was considered possible in jazz piano and established new ground in jazz more broadly through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality. Tatum’s mother, Mildred Hoskins, was born in Martinsville, Virginia, around 1890, and was a domestic worker. His father, Arthur Tatum Sr., was born in Statesville, North Carolina, and had steady employment as a mechanic. In 1909, they made their way from North Carolina to begin a new life in Toledo, Ohio. The couple had four children; Art was the oldest to survive, and was born in Toledo on October 13, 1909. He was followed by Arline nine years later and by Karl after another two years. Karl went to college and became a social worker. The Tatum family was regarded as conventional and church-going.