Fats Waller

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Fats Waller

Background information
Birth name Thomas Wright Waller
Born May 21, 1904(1904-05-21)
Origin New York City
Died December 15, 1943 (aged 39)
Genre(s) Jazz
Occupation(s) Pianist
Instrument(s) Piano

Fats Waller (born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904 — December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer.

A skilled pianist -- widely recognized as a master of stride piano -- Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in his homeland and in Europe. Waller was also a prolific songwriter, with many songs he wrote or co-wrote still known to modern audiences, such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz" in a favorable comparison to Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz[1]. A prolific composer of novelty swing tunes in the 1920s and 30s, Waller sold many of his compositions for relatively small sums, and as they became hits, other songwriters had already claimed them as their own. Thus many standards are alternatively, controversially attributed to Waller.

Contents

[edit] Biography

He was born in New York City on 10th Avenue[2] to a Baptist minister father. In 1888, when the Waller family migrated from Virginia to New York City they chose Waverly Place in Greenwich Village in order to belong to the Abyssinian Baptist Church. When the church moved uptown to Harlem the family followed and settled eventually at 107 West 134th street.[3][2] Fats's grandfather, Adolph Waller, was an accomplished violinist.

Waller started his musical career at an early age. He studied classical piano and organ as a child, taught largely by the music director of his Baptist church, who insisted he also learn the organ works of J. S. Bach. Waller learned the latest piano style from following a player piano recording of legendary Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout." Subsequently, Waller took regular piano lessons from Johnson, a pivotal jazz artist, and joined him making piano rolls for the QRS Music Roll Company. He also benefitted from legendary stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, who gave Fats the nickname "Filthy".[3] The Lion's love for 19th Century impressionistic composers helped extend Waller's use of classical pianistic devices.

Johnson introduced Waller to the world of rent parties (parties with a piano player, designed to help pay the rent by charging the guests), and obtained his first piano roll assignments and recordings for Okeh Records when Waller was only 18.

On December 15, 1943, Waller died of pneumonia while stopped at the railroad station in Kansas City. He was in his private railroad car, returning to New York after a two week engagement in Los Angeles. Waller was only 39.[4] His weight of nearly 300 pounds (136 kg) and perpetual drinking habit are believed to have contributed to his premature death. His size was the subject of jokes in one of his final radio appearances, December 5 on the Edgar Bergen - Charlie McCarthy show.

[edit] Musical contributions

An excellent and much copied jazz pianist, Waller is considered one of the very best to have played in the stride style. With a touch that varied from subtle and extremely light to very powerful, he was a master of dynamics and tension and release. However, it was his singing, songwriting, and lovable, roguish stage personality that sold his hundreds of recordings for RCA Victor, in a day when much of society did not recognize jazz as "serious" music. He played with many performers, from Gene Austin to Erskine Tate to Adelaide Hall, but his greatest success came with his own five- or six-piece combo, "Fats Waller and his Rhythm". Fats Waller was such an impressive and talented pianist that he came to the attention of the rich and famous—- sometimes whether he wanted to or not. Waller was in Chicago in 1926 and, upon leaving the building where he was performing, he was kidnapped by four men, who bundled him into a car and drove off. The car later pulled up outside the Hawthorne Inn, owned by infamous gangster Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, to find a party in full swing. With a gun against his back, Waller was pushed towards a piano, whereupon the gangsters demanded he start playing. A terrified Waller suddenly realized he was the "surprise guest" at Al Capone's birthday party. Soon comforted by the fact that he wouldn't die, Waller played, according to rumor, for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash given to him by Capone himself and by party-goers as tips.[3]

Among his songs are "Squeeze Me" (1919), "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now", "Ain't Misbehavin'" (1929), "Blue Turning Grey Over You", "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" (1929), "Honeysuckle Rose" (1929), and "Jitterbug Waltz" (1942). He collaborated successfully with the Tin Pan Alley lyricist Andy Razaf for a number of years. Waller also composed stride piano display pieces such as "Handful of Keys", "Valentine Stomp" and "Viper's Drag." His songs have become standards of the jazz repertoire.

Waller made a successful tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland in the late 1930s, and appeared in one of the earliest BBC Television broadcasts. While in Britain, Waller also recorded a number of songs for EMI on their Compton Theatre organ located in their Studios in St John's Wood, London. He appeared in several feature films and short subject films, most notably "Stormy Weather" in 1943, which was released only months before his death.

For his hit Broadway show, "Hot Chocolates", with Razaf he wrote "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue)?" (1929) which became a hit for Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong. This song, a searing treatment of racism, black and white, calls into question the early accusations of "shallow entertainment" ignorantly leveled at both Armstrong and Waller.

Waller could read and write music well (from his classical keyboard studies) and would even, on occasion, perform organ works of Bach for small groups. He left his stamp on many pre-bop jazz pianists. Count Basie and Erroll Garner, for example, would have sounded very different absent the Waller sound. Today, Dick Hyman, Mike Lipskin, Louis Mazatier and other jazz pianists perform in the Waller idiom. Although the stride style, like all jazz, must be learned primarily by ear, many scholars have transcribed his brilliant improvisations from old recordings and radio broadcasts, in sheet music form. The pianist and keyboard professor Paul Posnak has produced transcriptions of 16 of Waller's greatest solos, published by Hal Leonard, which Posnak uses in concerts worldwide.

In addition to his virtuosic playing, Waller was known for his many quips during his performances, including: "One never knows, do one?" "No lady, We can't haul your ashes for 25 cents, that's bad business." "Mercy!" "Well all right then!" "I wonder what the poor people are doing... I'd love to be doing it with them!" "Run into and stab me, but don't bruise me!" and "Wot's da matta wit DAT?!"

[edit] Grammy Hall of Fame

Recordings of Fats Waller were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

Fats Waller: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[5]
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted Notes
1934 Honeysuckle Rose Jazz (Single) Victor 1999
1929 Ain't Misbehavin' Jazz (Single) Victor 1984 Listed in the National Recording Registry
by the Library of Congress in 2004.

[edit] Revival and posthumous awards

A Broadway musical revue showcasing Waller tunes entitled Ain't Misbehavin' was produced in 1978. (The show and a star of the show, Nell Carter, won Tony Awards for the show.) The show opened at the Longacre Theatre and ran for over 1600 performances. It was revived on Broadway in 1988. Performed by five African American actors, it included such songs as "Honeysuckle Rose", "This Joint Is Jumpin'", and "Ain't Misbehavin'".

Waller's music is featured in the 2008 movie "Be Kind Rewind".

[edit] Inductions

Year Inducted Title
2008 Gennett Records Walk of Fame
2005 Jazz at Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
1993 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
1989 Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1970 Songwriters Hall of Fame

[edit] Popular culture

  • Referenced in the 1979 movie The Muppet Movie.
  • Referenced in Robert Pinsky's poem "History of My Heart."
  • An Episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway had Wayne Brady perform as Fats Waller doing the ad-libbed safari-themed song "Lion Nibblin' On My Toes".
  • His organ music is prominently featured in the David Lynch cult hit, Eraserhead.
  • A part of Alligator Crawl is featured during the "Intermission" sequences of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • The 2008 film Be Kind Rewind features a young man played by Mos Def who believes Fats Waller was born in the video shop where he works. Despite eventually discovering the story to be false, he brings his neighbors together to make a film celebrating the spirit of Fats and of their community.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Palmer, David. All You Need Is Love. Viking Press. 1976. ISBN 0670114480.
  2. ^ a b Krebs, Albin and Robert Thomas Jr. Plaque in Harlem a Memorial to Fats Waller. New York Times. 19 August 1981.
  3. ^ a b c Waller, Maurice and Anthony Calabrese. Fats Waller. Schirmer Books. 1977. ASIN B000JV3G1U.
  4. ^ Fats Waller, Negro Band Leader, Dies. San Antonio Light. 15 December 15 1943, p. 4.
  5. ^ Grammy Hall of Fame Database

[edit] See also

[edit] External links