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Thomas “Fats” Waller was a legendary stride pianist, a ...)
Thomas “Fats” Waller was a legendary stride pianist, a wildly entertaining comedic singer, and the composer of such classic melodies as “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and hundreds more. This is the intimate, behind-the-scenes story of his exuberant life, as told by his son, Maurice Waller. The public knew him as a charming, rascally, and effervescent showman. Friends like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin knew him as a serious piano stylist and composer. Maurice Waller reveals the rarely seen side of Fats as a family man, struggling to juggle domestic affairs with the demands of being one of the era’s busiest jazz men. From his earliest days as a child prodigy to his wild nights playing Harlem rent parties to his appearances on stages around the world and his eventual commercial success, it’s all here. Few stories capture the frenetic energy of the age quite as well as the life story of this rollicking, hard living jazz icon.
(This third volume of our complete Waller edition charts o...)
This third volume of our complete Waller edition charts our hero's progress from November 1934 to August 1936. Here we see the emergence of Fats, the larger-than-life entertainer, he of the relentless swing, utter mastery of his craft and unfailing good humour. And, my word, did he need that humour, given some of the less than first rate material he had to record. Funny thing is, it doesn't seem to make that much difference. The master takes us into his confidence, playing unpromising material and masterpiece alike for all they are worth, but with a knowing wink which says Hey, let's have a party! As ever, we have sought out the best originals and applied our customary care in remastering - we also have a hitherto unissued second take of Lulu's Back In Town, which surfaced recently. The two years covered here are among the most productive of Fats' (or any other contemporary musician) career. This is when he made his historic recordings of My Very Good Friend The Milkman, I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter and I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby among many others. The remastering on these sides is to JSP's usual exacting standards who, again have entrusted the project to Ted Kendall. Great care has been taken to locate the cleanest originals which makes this latest addition to the Waller collection as close to definitive as it is possible to be.
(This is part of a mini-series on our competitively priced...)
This is part of a mini-series on our competitively priced budget label Fabulous under the banner of Jazz Legends, presenting some of great and influential names of jazz, with recordings drawn from the classic era of the genre's development between 1920 and 1950. Thomas ""Fats"" Waller was a hugely popular and equally influential pianist, organist, singer, composer and comedic entertainer during the formative decades of jazz, and his unique style, and memorable hit songs earned him a special place in the world of entertainment, transcending the boundaries between jazz and wider popular culture, and enjoying success on both sides of the Atlantic. Waller was a pioneer of the stride piano style distinctively associated with Harlem, and it was the basis of many of the hits he wrote, which have become perennially popular standards such as ""Honeysuckle Rose"" and ""Ain't Misbehaving"", among many others. This collection traces his career from his first recordings in the early '20s through to just before his untimely death in 1943, when he appeared in the movie ""Stormy Weather"", and features him performing both on piano and organ, singing hits recorded with quintet or sextet ""Fats Waller & His Rhythm"", and also accompanying Adelaide Hall. It's an enjoyable snapshot of a great artist's work.
(Thomas 'Fats' Waller was born in New York in 1904. His mu...)
Thomas 'Fats' Waller was born in New York in 1904. His musical talents were obvious early - as was his charm - aged six, Fats talked his way into unlimited access to a neighbor's piano. His older brother Bob persuaded the family to buy their own instrument. Fats was sent to lessons, but soon dropped out - he could learn a tune simply by watching his teacher play it. It was at school that Fats first sensed the fun of playing to an audience. He found that he could easily work a crowd into a frenzy of stamping and clapping with a combination of humorous asides, knowing winks and artistry. By Fats' fourteenth birthday it was obvious that his destiny lay in music. He quit school so that he could get a job to finance piano lessons. Before long, he gravitated to a food delivery company that specialised in the discreet supply of booze. This gave him an entree into Harlem's clubs, where he was able to watch piano idols like James P Johnson. Fats inveigled himself into the Lincoln movie theatre. He sat in for both the pianist who accompanied the movies and the intermission organist. When the organist fell sick, Fats - then 15 - stepped in. Soon after, he was offered the job permanently. In 1920 Fats met James P Johnson who recognised the young man's talent. Johnson coached Fats, introduced him to the jazz fraternity and got him gigs. By the time the first two tracks here were cut, Fats had married. The producer on the session had brought the sheet music for Muscle Shoals Blues to the studio - so this might have been the first time Fats had seen it. Already the mature artist is on display. Fats was asked to improvise a B-side. Birmingham Blues was the result. Not a bad morning's work. Thus started a career in entertainment, which almost never faltered. Fats himself was in a continuous state of forward motion, his energy undimmed until shortly before the end. But that's the future. In the meantime we have a heap of supremely entertaining music to enjoy.
Fats Waller: Complete Recorded Works 1940-42, Vol. 6
(This is the final volume in JSP's Fats Waller series. Up ...)
This is the final volume in JSP's Fats Waller series. Up to the end, there was no pause in his energy or creativity. Fats had toured Europe twice to deal with his waning American popularity, but as 1940 dawned, that could be forgotten. In early February, he appeared in Detroit in front of record audiences. This was the start of a seemingly unending schedule of tours, recordings, movies and radio work. Recorded Waller product continued to be popular - America was edging ever closer to World War - a cheery voice was ever more welcome. With December 7th's attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, the world changed. On the session of 26th December, the mood is as cheery as ever. Cash For Your Trash is obviously inspired by a recycling drive. This is typical of Fats' response to the war - he was an early and enthusiastic promoter of War Bonds and gave frequent troop shows. As well as recordings made with his regular sidemen, featured here are recordings made with the cast of 'Stormy Weather' which Fats had starred in and rare V-Discs which were exclusively for the use of the Armed Forces - important because they are the only recordings made during the Musicians Union recording ban. By the end of 1943, Fats was on the West Coast. There was no let-up in the work or the partying. After two weeks of furious activity, Fats fell ill with influenza. He was confined to bed for ten days, after which he resumed the hectic round. At a press conference on Sunday 12th December he 'fell asleep' and returned to his hotel to rest. On Monday 13th, he caught the eastbound Super Chief, looking forward to Christmas with his family. By the time the train pulled into Kansas City he was dead - from pneumonia. Sixty years after his death, Fats' fame is undiminished - his most famous songs are still a radio staple. He might have hoped to surpass his piano playing jester image - but in dispensing joy to the world, his was a unique legacy.
Fats Waller: Ain't Misbehavin' 1930s & 40s Jazz Piano
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Fats' ability to transform even the most trite popular ...)
Fats' ability to transform even the most trite popular song into gold led to hundreds of classic recordings, his larger-than-life character and irrepressible humour bursting through, perfectly complimenting the brilliance of the musical performance, creating that unique sound that was Fats Waller.
Everybody Loves My Baby
Cheatin On Me
Its A Sin To Tell A Lie
When Somebody Thinks Youre Wonderful
Youre Gonna Be Sorry
Yacht Club Swing
The Sheik Of Araby
Twenty-Four Robbers
Come Down To Earth, My Angel
Carolina Shout
Smoke Dreams Of You
I Wish I Were Twins
Got A Bran New Suit
Stop Pretending
Clarinet Marmalade
Dont Let It Bother You
Blue, Turning Grey Over You
African Ripples
My Very Good Friend The Milkman
The Curse Of An Aching Heart
Shortnin Bread
The Jitterbug Waltz
Your Feets Too Big
Old Grand Dad
Aint Misbehavin
(By 1929, aged 25, when this compilation opens, Fats had e...)
By 1929, aged 25, when this compilation opens, Fats had established himself among the inner circle of New York session players; with Andy Razaf he was getting into his stride as a songwriter; he was a recording artist; he had contributed to a couple of hit Broadway shows; he had played Carnegie Hall. The opening track show Fats as a gifted soloist and as an inspiring bandleader. Handful Of Keys has Fats in his stride-influenced glory, dazzling with what Jelly Roll Morton called a 'picture-show' right hand. Ain't Misbehavin' was written for the 1929 revue 'Hot Chocolates'. As well as consolidating Louis Armstrong's showbiz career, it established Waller/Razaf as a leading writing team. There are some of Fats' distinctive organ numbers here. Victor had bought a church in Camden to use as a studio. The church came with its own organ which was familiar to Fats. He had used it for his first Victor cut in 1926. Few players in the prewar years could produce such authentic jazz from the instrument. At the end of the 'Roaring Twenties' came the Stock Market crash. Few escaped. The recording industry was no exception. Victor had sold about 35 million discs in 1929. In 1930, sales were half that, and in 1931 they were 3 million. The situation could have been serious for Fats - but that would be to underestimate his selling power. He cut only two sessions in 1930, but that was as slow as his recording career ever got. Fats' irrepressible personality was made for radio and live performance. That's part of the story. He was now writing his own scintillating material. This might have been because he was so often asked to record inferior work written by others. The problem was, even when he was given below-standard writing he was able by some alchemy to turn it into gold. The evidence here - if it was ever needed - is that Fats never cut a dud side.
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer.
Background
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller was born in New York City, the youngest son and seventh in a family of twelve children, six of whom died in infancy. His parents, Edward Martin Waller and Adeline (Lockett) Waller, had moved from Virginia sometime in the 1880's, settling first in Manhattan's Negro community in Greenwich Village and later moving uptown to Harlem. Both parents were deeply religious; his father, who had his own trucking business, was a deacon of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. The family also had a musical tradition: Thomas's mother played the piano and the organ, and his paternal grandfather, Adolph Waller, had toured the South as a violinist shortly after the Civil War. The death of his mother in 1920 left him disconsolate.
Education
Young Waller began learning the piano before he was six, with his mother as teacher, and soon progressed to the organ. His musical interests became so all-absorbing that he dropped out of New York's DeWitt Clinton High School at the age of fourteen.
Career
He won a local piano contest and was hired as organist at the Lincoln Theatre in Harlem, providing background music for silent films. While still in his teens, Waller attracted the attention of established Harlem jazz musicians, including the brilliant pianist-composer James P. Johnson. Johnson offered the youngster personal instruction and a basic grounding in the music business of the period, then dominated by publishers of sheet music and firms producing rolls for player-pianos. Waller was quickly accepted into the fraternity of older ragtime-based composer-pianists that included, besides Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, and Clarence Williams. By 1922 Waller had cut his first piano roll, had turned out several phonograph recordings for the Okeh label, and had become a composer by reworking an old piece called "Boy in the Boat" into a new number, "Squeeze Me. " He composed with remarkable ease and swiftness, often conceiving and completing a song in less than half an hour. This gift led him naturally to writing scores for musical shows, particularly the elaborate revues staged by Harlem nightclubs for white audiences. The first of these, Keep Shufflin' (1928), produced his song "Willow Tree. " The songs for another 1928 show, called Load of Coal (most of these productions included stereotyped, often offensive, roles for black performers, and even artists of Waller's rank had to live with the facts of bigotry), included "Honeysuckle Rose, " "Zonky, " and "My Fate Is in Your Hands. " His first big success in popular song writing was "Ain't Misbehavin', " which he and his lyricist, Andy Razaf, wrote in 1929 for Connie's Hot Chocolates. Other successful songs, tossed off with Waller's usual facility, were "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling, " "Blue, Turning Grey over You, " "Keepin' out of Mischief Now, " and "I'm Crazy about My Baby. " More important musically are Waller's many excellent piano solos. "Clothes Line Ballet, " "Viper's Drag, " "African Ripples, " "Handful of Keys, " "London Suite, " "Jitterbug Waltz, " and "The Rusty Pail" are of permanent interest for both form and content. The last was performed on the pipe organ; Waller was the only jazz organist of consequence during his lifetime. A deeply committed jazz musician, he continually developed his art, studying composition with Carl Bohm at the Juilliard School of Music and, during a Chicago engagement, Bach with Leopold Godowsky. Waller had a warm, easy personality and an irrepressible sense of humor that made him a natural entertainer. By 1925 he was touring in cabaret and vaudeville appearances. In 1931, for the first time, he made a set of recordings on which he sang as well as played. His vocals--sometimes facetious, sometimes raucous - made an immediate hit, and thereafter the entertainer came to obscure the creative pianist. His boisterous singing and lilting playing were ideally suited to radio; he was a pioneer performer on the air, starting at a small Newark station in 1923, and by the early 1930's had his own program on the Columbia network. He made the first of several trips abroad in 1932, and after 1934 spent most of his professional time on the road. His energy and conviviality seemed limitless as he clowned his way over the United States, around the British Isles, and across Europe. As a youth he had earned the nickname "Fats. " In maturity nearly six feet tall, with large hands that easily played octaves and spanned even thirteenths without difficulty, he grew larger in girth, weighing close to 300 pounds. His reputation for consuming vast amounts of liquor encouraged fans and acquaintances to challenge the big man to ever greater excesses. By 1943 he had reached an apex of popularity and commanded a large income at a time when most jazz musicians were struggling to subsist. Ignoring his failing health, during that year Waller appeared in the film Stormy Weather, turned out the score for another show (Early to Bed), made tours to entertain the armed forces, and still maintained a crushing schedule of one-night stands and theatre performances. Early in December, while in Hollywood to play an engagement, he suffered an attack of influenza but started back to New York by train to spend the holidays with his family in St. Albans, Long Island. He was found dead in his Pullman compartment when the train stopped at Kansas City, Mo. ; an autopsy established the immediate cause of death as bronchial pneumonia. After funeral services at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, he was cremated at the Fresh Pond Crematory, Middle Village, N. Y. From the start "Fats" Waller's life was filled with paradoxes.
Quotations:
"No one to talk with, all by myself. No one to walk with, but I'm happy on the shelf. "
"If you've got to take it. Take it easy. Never hurry to a date. Eat your supper; let 'em wait. "
"Whenever I'm with you alone. You weave a magic spell and though it be a danger zone. I only know that you're swell. "
"A little bit independent in your walk. A little bit independent in your talk. There's nothing like you in Paris or New York. You're awfully easy on the eyes. "
"I love you, yes I do, I love you. If you break my heart I'll die. So be sure it's true when you say I love you It's a sin to tell a lie. "
"Be sure it's true when you say I love you. It's a sin to tell a lie. Millions of heart have been broken. Just because these words were spoken. "
Personality
His youth had encompassed both a middle-class churchgoing home and New York's speakeasy subculture. A loving family man and a generous friend, he was careless about money and could never remember to support his firstborn child; on at least one occasion he spent time in jail for nonsupport. A dominating, life-of-the-party figure who on occasion improvised at the piano for stag films, he periodically retreated to an organ loft to play spirituals, Bach, or extemporized sonatas. He scorned elaborate arrangements or even minimal planning for his recording sessions, but his best formal compositions were meticulously developed, and in them he explored the expressive potential of both piano and organ with the care and precision of a Chopin or a Liszt. Perhaps the best measure of Waller's musical contribution is to be found in the stature of those pianists who regard him as a major influence in their development.
Connections
At seventeen, he married a childhood friend, Edith Hatchett. They had a son, Thomas Wright, but the marriage was short-lived, and in 1926 Waller married Anita Priscilla Rutherford, by whom he had two more sons, Maurice and Ronald.