Fats Waller

At 39 years old, Fats Waller has this physical status:

Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller, 1904-43, was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, and comedian. He died on December 15, 1943, as a comedic entertainer and pianist.

Harlem stride style's inventions paved the way for modern jazz piano.

"Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose," two of his best-known compositions, were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999.

Over 400 songs were sold by Waller, several of whom were co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf.

Razaf referred to his companion as "the soul of melody... a man who made the piano perform... both large in body and in mind... a bubbling bundle of joy."

It's likely that he composed several more popular songs and sold them to other performers during grueling times. Waller began playing the piano at the age of six and became a qualified organist at the age of 15.

He was a recording artist by the age of 18.

"Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues," Waller's first recordings, were released in October 1922 for Okeh Records.

"Got to Cool My Doggies Now" was his first player piano roll, which took place in the United States.

"Squeeze Me," Waller's first published composition, was published in 1924.

He became one of the most popular entertainers of his time, touring around the world and achieving critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe.

He died of pneumonia at the age of 39.

Darren Waller, Darren Waller, who is Fats' great-grandson, is one descendant.

Early life

Waller, the seventh child of 11 (five of whom survived childhood), was born in New York City to Adeline Locket Waller, a singer, and Reverend Edward Martin Waller, a trucker and pastor. He began playing the piano when he was six years old and then went on to play the organ at his father's church four years later. His father taught him in his youth, and he took other music lessons while doing so by working in a grocery store. Waller attended DeWitt Clinton High School for one semester but left school at 15 to work as an organist at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem, where he earned $32 a week. He had composed his first rag within 12 months. He was the prize winner and then the mentor and colleague of stride pianist James P. Johnson. On November 10, 1920, his mother died as a result of diabetes caused by a stroke.

"Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues," Waller's first albums, were released in October 1922 by Okeh Records. "Got to Cool My Doggies Now" became his first player piano roll in the United States this year. In 1924, Waller's first published composition, "Squeeze Me," was released.

Personal life

In 1920, Waller married Edith Hatchett, with whom he had his first son, Thomas Waller Jr., in 1921. Hatchett divorced Waller in 1923. In 1926, Waller married Anita Rutherford. Maurice Thomas Waller, their son, was born on September 10, 1927. Ronald Waller, the second son of Waller and Rutherford, was born in 1928.

Waller was one of the first African Americans to buy a house in St. Albans, Queens,'s Addisleigh Park neighborhood, a New York City neighborhood with loosening covenants. Many wealthy African Americans followed after his purchase and trial in the New York State courts, including Count Basie, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, and Milt Hinton.

Source

Career

Waller is "the black Horowitz," according to Pianist and composer Oscar Levant. Fats produced the music and/or performed in many lucrative Broadway shows, including 1928's "Keep Shufflin'," 1929's "Doctor George Marion, Jr.), 1943's "Early To Bed," along with his long-time songwriting partner, lyricist Andy Razaf, Jr.

Waller is said to have written several novelty tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums, attributed to another composer and lyricist.

"I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" is a term used to describe Waller's "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" is often quoted. Adelaide Hall made the song popular in 1928's Broadway show Blackbirds.

Barry Singer argued that this song was written by Waller and lyricist Andy Razaf and gave a history of the sale to the New York Post in 1929) (consistent with Jimmy McHugh's contributions to Harry Delmar's Revels, 1927, and then to 1928 Blackbirds). In Waller's hand, he said that early handwritten manuscripts in the Dana Library Institute of Jazz Studies' "Spreadin's Rhythm Around" (Jimmy McHugh 1935) are in the author's possession. According to jazz historian Paul S. Machlin, the Singer conjecture has "serious [historic] justification." Waller's son never to play the song within earshot because he had to sell it when he needed money, according to a biography by Waller's son Maurice. On the radio, Maurice Waller said that his father objected to hearing "On the Sunny Side of the Street."

The anonymous sleeve notes on the 1960 RCA Victor album Handful of Keys state that Waller ripped over 400 songs, many of which were co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf. Razaf characterized his partner as "the soul of melody" and a man who made the piano sing; both physical and mental... a teething bundle of joy." Gene Sedric, a clarinetist who worked with Waller in the 1930s, made the following remarks in the same notebook. "Fats was the most relaxed guy I ever saw in a studio, and so did everyone else relax." We'd just need to make a side if it was a daunting figure after a balance had been established.

Waller was a member of Nathaniel Shilkret, Gene Austin, Erskine Tate, Fletcher Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Adelaide Hall.

On one occasion, his playing seemed to have put him in danger of injury. When leaving a 1926 appearance, Waller was kidnapped in Chicago. Four men bundled him into a sedan and whisked him to Al Capone's Hawthorn Inn. A party was held inside the building and found a party. He was pushed toward a piano and told to play with a pistol on his back. At Capone's birthday party, a terrified Waller realized he was the "surprise guest" and was relieved that the kidnappers had no intention of killing him.

With the organ solos "St. Louis Blues" and his composition "Lenox Avenue Blues," Waller began his recording relationship with Victor Talking Machine Company/RCA Victor, his main record company for the remainder of his life. Although he appeared in numerous bands, including Morris' Hot Babes (1927), Fats Waller's Buddies (1929), and McKinney's Cotton Pickers (1929), his most notable contribution to Harlem's string piano style was a series of solo recordings of his compositions: "Handful of Keys," "Numb Fumblin's" (1929). In May 1934, Ted Lewis (1931), Jack Teagarden (1931), and Billy Banks' Rhythm (1932), he began recording with a tiny band called Fats Waller and his Rhythm. Herman Autrey (sometimes replaced by Bill Coleman or John "Bugs" Hamilton), Gene Sedric or Rudy Powell, and Al Casey were all present in this six-piece group.

"Keep Me" (1919), "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "Ain't Misbehavin'" (1929), "I'm Falling" ("Because" (1929), "I'm a Feeling" (1942), "Witterbug Waltz" (1942). "Handful of Keys," "Valentine Stomp," and "Viper's Drag" were three of his stride piano performance pieces.

In the 1930s, he enjoyed touring the United Kingdom and Ireland, appearing on one of the first BBC television broadcasts on September 30, 1938. While in the United Kingdom, Waller performed a number of songs on EMI's Compton Theatre organ, which is located in St John's Wood's Abbey Road Studios. He appeared in several feature films and short subject films, most notably Stormy Weather in 1943, which was released only months before his death. He and Razaf wrote "What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue" (1929), which became a hit for Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong.

On occasion, Waller conducted Bach organ pieces for small groups. He influenced many pre-bebop jazz pianists, and Count Basie and Erroll Garner revived his hit songs. Waller was known for his many amusing quips during his performances in addition to his playing.

Waller made a series of pipe organ solo recordings between 1926 and 1927. This was the first time syncopated jazz compositions were played on a full-size church organ. Waller performed organ at the Vendome in Chicago in April 1927, where his organ-playing was praised for "witter cueing" and "eccentric stop coupling."

"A Little Bit Independent," written by Joe Burke and Edgar Leslie, was no. 1 on Waller's Victor recording of "A Little Bit Independent." In 1935, they had one on Your Hit Parade for two weeks. He also charted with "What Honey Are You?" "Lulu's Back in Town," "Sweet and Low," "You're Laughing at Me," "You're Not the Author," "You're Not the Kind," "Protesters in a Highchair"), "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," "You're Singing an Old Fashioned Song to a Young Sophisticated Lady," "I Love to Whistle," "You're a" "It "It'st's Back in Town" "You's to a "You's To a "It" "It a," "You's I Love to a a" "I Love to Whis," "You's To a To a" "You's Tell a a a a a a a a a a a Woman" "It a "You'spot" "Itle" "Itle," "You'stle" "You's Tuckle," "You'stle" "You's," "You's Tuckle" "You's a a a a Young Fashione" "You's A Young Fashione" "You's a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a "You'stle" "You's, "It a a a a "You'ste a a "You's" "You's Til" "You'stle" "You'stle" "You'stle" "Itle" "You'stle" "You'stle" "It'stle" "It'stle" "You'stle" "You'stle" "You'stetle" "Itetle" "You't'Sing at Me" "You'stle" "It'st defa Sing in a a Young Fashionetle" "It A Young Fashione" "You'stle" "You's Til in a "Itle" "It" "It a "You'st'stle" "You's Til Laughing at "You'stle" "You's a "You's "It Laughing in a "You's in a Young Sing in a Laughing in Laughing in a "You's Laughing in a Laughing in Laughing in -In a Laughing in Laughing in a Laugh" "You's In a Laughing in a Laughing in a Laugh in Laughtle" "You's Telling in a Laughing in Laughing in a... "It To a Laugh in a Laughing in a a Laughing in a Laughing in Laughing in a Laugh" "You's Til Laughing in a a a..." "You's in a a a a a Baby" "You's in a a Baby, "You's, "Itle" "You's in a In a a a "It a Baby" "You's in a Young Sing in a t a "You's a a a a a a a a a a...

Later in Waller's career, he had the distinction of being the first African-American songwriter to compose a hit Broadway play that was seen by a largely white audience. In a 2016 essay about Waller, an American academic and linguist who is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Broadway producer Richard Kollmar's selection of Waller to create the 1943 musical Early to Bed was remembered.

It was still playing in a Broadway theater six months after the premiere of Early to Bed; at that point, newspapers announced Waller's premature death.

Source