PIANO STARTS HERE

Renowned illustrator Parker supplies both an affecting text and luminescent watercolors in homage to the virtuosic Tatum. Blending information and imagination, the plainspoken, first-person-present text examines the jazz pianist’s childhood and musical development, progressing from school and church functions to Toledo bars, the club circuit and New York. Parker’s phrases perfectly correlate with his subject: Early details merit short simple declaratives (“This is my father. He’s a mechanic.”), while Tatum’s near-blindness obviates evocations of sounds and smells rather than sights: “I love our church—the way it smells like soap, furniture polish, and flowers; the way footstep sounds echo off the walls.” Ink-lined watercolors revel in as resplendent an interplay of hue and tone as Tatum’s improvisations. Sunny childhood scenes (a charming spot depicts toddler Arthur, playing the family piano on tiptoe) yield to clubs’ sultry blue light. Gorgeous abstract washes dial Tatum’s legendary extemporizations. Fusing Parker’s artistic talent and passion for jazz (he's a musician, too), this sensitively embellished biography is totally on time. (author’s and biographical notes, bibliography of adult sources) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)