The thought-processes determining that one public-domain session is an Essential Jazz Classic (see Monk above) and another is a mere Poll Winner are obscure, to say the least. Perhaps it’s that, in the Poll Winners series, there are enough alternate versions of the same tunes by the same artist to fill out a decent-length CD – hence brief appearances here by the Tatum trios with either Barksdale or Hampton. But the meat of this presentation is the fairly low-key 1956 set with bass and drums, his only one in that format, done nine months before his death. Callender and Jones are on the money but in a discreetly supportive role, and it’s up to Tatum to do his thing, which inevitably includes amazing moments somewhere in each track. Many of these moments are not just about absolute facility and imagination, but occasional stabs of blues between the filigree, which are frequently overlooked especially by the pianist’s detractors. It’s still a shock to find the final five minutes of the original album being a straightforwardly funky ‘Trio Blues’ but, along with the famous quartet with Ben Webster seven months later, it was a fitting memorial to a still misunderstood genius.