Fats Waller
Fats Waller | |
---|---|
Jazz pianist | |
Years active | 1918–1943 |
Spouses |
|
Children | 3 |
Relatives | Darren Waller (great-grandson) |
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American
Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf. Razaf described his partner as "the soul of melody... a man who made the piano sing... both big in body and in mind... known for his generosity... a bubbling bundle of joy". It is likely that he composed many more popular songs than he has been credited with: when in financial difficulties he had a habit of selling songs to other writers and performers who claimed them as their own.[3] He died from pneumonia, aged 39.
Early life
Waller was the seventh child of 11 (five of whom survived childhood) born to Adeline Locket Waller, a musician, and Reverend Edward Martin Waller, a trucker and pastor in New York City.[4][5] He started playing the piano when he was six and began playing the organ at his father's church four years later. His mother instructed him in his youth, and he attended other music lessons, paying for them by working in a grocery store.[4] 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.[6][7] Within 12 months he had composed his first rag. He was the prize pupil and later the friend and colleague of the stride pianist James P. Johnson.[8] Waller also studied composition at the Juilliard School with Carl Bohm and Leopold Godowsky.[9] His mother died on November 10, 1920, from a stroke due to diabetes.[10]
Waller's first recordings, "Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues", were made in October 1922 for Okeh Records.[11] That year, he also made his first player piano roll, "Got to Cool My Doggies Now".[11] Waller's first published composition, "Squeeze Me", was published in 1924.[4]
Career
Pianist and composer Oscar Levant called Waller "the black Horowitz".[12] Working with his long-time songwriting partner, lyricist Andy Razaf, Fats also wrote the music and/or performed in several successful Broadway musicals, including 1928's Keep Shufflin',[13] 1929's Hot Chocolates[14] and (with lyricist George Marion Jr.) 1943's Early To Bed.[15]
Waller is believed to have composed many novelty tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums,[3] attributed to another composer and lyricist.[16]
Standards attributed to Waller, sometimes controversially, include "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby". The song was made famous by Adelaide Hall in the Broadway show Blackbirds of 1928.[17]
Biographer Barry Singer conjectured that this song was written by Waller and lyricist Andy Razaf and provided a description of the sale given by Waller to the New York Post in 1929 – he sold the song for $500 to a white songwriter for use in a financially successful show (consistent with Jimmy McHugh's contributions to Harry Delmar's Revels, 1927, and then to Blackbirds of 1928).[3] He noted that early handwritten manuscripts in the Dana Library Institute of Jazz Studies of "Spreadin' Rhythm Around" (Jimmy McHugh 1935) are in Waller's hand.[3][18] Jazz historian Paul S. Machlin commented that the Singer conjecture has "considerable [historical] justification".[19] According to a biography by Waller's son Maurice, Waller told his son never to play the song within earshot because he had to sell it when he needed money.[5] Maurice Waller wrote that his father objected to hearing "On the Sunny Side of the Street" on the radio.[16]
The anonymous sleeve notes on the 1960
Waller played with Nathaniel Shilkret, Gene Austin, Erskine Tate, Fletcher Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Adelaide Hall.
According to Waller he was kidnapped in Chicago while leaving a performance in 1926. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by Al Capone. Waller was ordered inside the building and found a party taking place. With a gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the "surprise guest" at Capone's birthday party and was relieved that the kidnappers had no intention of killing him.[20]
In 1926, Waller began his recording association with the
Waller wrote "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 composed stride piano display pieces such as "Handful of Keys", "Valentine Stomp" and "Viper's Drag".
He enjoyed success touring the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1930s, appearing on one of the first
Waller performed
Between 1926 and the end of 1927, Waller recorded a series of pipe organ solo records. These represent the first time syncopated jazz compositions were performed on a full-sized church organ. In April 1927, Waller played organ at the Vendome in Chicago for movies alongside Louis Armstrong, where his organ-playing was praised for "witty cueing" and "eccentric stop coupling".[23]
Waller's Victor recording of "A Little Bit Independent", written by Joe Burke and Edgar Leslie, was No. 1 on Your Hit Parade for two weeks in 1935. He also charted with "Whose Honey Are You?", "Lulu's Back in Town", "Sweet and Low", "Truckin'", "Rhythm and Romance", "Sing an Old Fashioned Song to a Young Sophisticated Lady", "West Wind", "All My Life", "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie", "Let's Sing Again", "Cross Patch", "You're Not the Kind", "Bye Bye Baby", "You're Laughing at Me", "I Love to Whistle", "Good for Nothing", "Two Sleepy People", and "Little Curly Hair in a Highchair".[24]
Waller's final recording session was with an interracial group in
Soundies
Today's audiences can see and hear Waller performing his own works in
Broadway musicals
Later in Waller's career, he had the distinction of becoming the first African-American songwriter to compose a hit Broadway musical that was seen by a mostly white audience. Broadway producer
Six months after the premiere of Early to Bed, it was still playing in a Broadway theater; at that point newspapers reported Waller's premature death.
Personal life
In 1920, Waller married Edith Hatch, with whom he had a son, Thomas Waller Jr., in 1921. In 1923, Hatch divorced Waller.[27] Waller married Anita Rutherford in 1926.[28] Together, they had a son, Maurice Thomas Waller, born on September 10, 1927.[29] In 1928, Waller and Rutherford had their second son, Ronald Waller.[27]
In 1938, Waller was one of the first African Americans to purchase a home in the Addisleigh Park section of St. Albans, Queens, a New York City community with racially restrictive covenants. After his purchase, and litigation in the New York State courts, many prosperous African Americans followed, including many jazz artists, such as Count Basie, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, and Milt Hinton.[30]
Death and descendants
Waller contracted pneumonia and died on December 15, 1943, while traveling aboard the famous cross-country Los Angeles–Chicago train the Super Chief near Kansas City, Missouri. Waller was returning to New York City from Los Angeles, after the smash success of Stormy Weather, and a successful engagement at the Zanzibar Room in Santa Monica, California, during which he had fallen ill.[31]: 6 More than 4,200 people were estimated to have attended his funeral at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem,[31]: 7 which prompted Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who delivered the eulogy, to say that Waller "always played to a packed house."[32] Afterwards, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over Harlem from an airplane piloted by an unidentified African-American World War I aviator.[33]
American football player Darren Waller is his great-grandson.[34]
Tribute artists
Waller had many admirers, during and after his heyday. In 1939, while nightclubbing in Harlem, Waller discovered a white stride pianist playing Waller tunes – the young
Waller also had contemporaries in recording studios. Waller recorded for Victor, so Decca Records hired singer-pianist Bob Howard for recordings aimed at Waller's audience, and Columbia Records followed suit with Putney Dandridge.
Probably the most talented pianist to keep the music of Waller alive in the years after his death was Ralph Sutton, who focused his career on playing stride piano. Sutton was a great admirer of Waller, saying "I've never heard a piano man swing any better than Fats – or swing a band better than he could. I never get tired of him. Fats has been with me from the first, and he'll be with me as long as I live."[35]
Actor and bandleader Conrad Janis also did a lot to keep the stride piano music of Waller and James P. Johnson alive. In 1949, as an 18-year-old, Janis put together a band of aging jazz greats, consisting of James P. Johnson (piano), Henry Goodwin (trumpet), Edmond Hall (clarinet), Pops Foster (bass), and Baby Dodds (drums), with Janis on trombone.[36]
A
In 1981, Thin Lizzy released the album Renegade, which contained the song "Fats", co-written by Phil Lynott and Snowy White as a tribute to Waller.[37]
Recognition and awards
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
|
Recordings of Waller were inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[38] | |||||
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 in 2004.
by the Library of Congress |
In popular culture
- Waller is the subject of the Irish poet Michael Longley's "Elegy for Fats Waller".[39]
- Waller's version of "Louisiana Fairytale" was used for many years as the theme song to the American television series This Old House.[40]
- Waller's church organ music featured prominently in David Lynch's film Eraserhead in 1977.[41]
- In Mos Def) led him and some people in their neighborhood in making an alternate history documentary about Fats Waller with Mike portraying Fats Waller.[42]
- The story of Fats Waller's performance at Al Capone's birthday party was told in the Mysteries at the Museum Season 21 episode "Columbus and the Mermaid, Skyscraper Snafu and Stealing the Show".[43]
- In 1950, the story of Fats Waller was retold as "The Shy Boy" in the weekly Destination Freedom radio drama, written by Richard Durham.[44]
- ”Ain't Misbehavin'” by Fats Waller is featured in Appalachia Radio, a virtual station in the video game, Fallout 76. Included in the game's soundtrack, the composition enhances the retro post-apocalyptic atmosphere, receiving positive player reception for its nostalgic and immersive contribution to the experience.[45]
Key recordings
Source:[46]
Title | Recording date | Recording location | Label |
---|---|---|---|
"African Ripples" | November 16, 1934 | New York | Victor 24830 (reissued Bluebird B-10115) |
"After You've Gone" | March 21, 1930 | New York | Victor 22371-B |
"Ain't Misbehavin'" | February 8, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor 22092, 22108 |
"All God's Chillun Got Wings" | August 28, 1938 | London | Victor 27460 |
"Alligator Crawl" | November 16, 1934 | New York | Victor 24830 (reissued Bluebird B-10098) |
"Baby Brown" | November 3, 1935 | New York | (only issued on LP) |
"Baby, Oh! Where Can You Be?" | August 29, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor unissued, issued on LPV-550 |
"Basin Street Blues" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Bluebird B-10115 |
"Because of Once Upon a Time" | November 3, 1935 | New York | RFW |
"Believe It, Beloved" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Victor |
"Birmingham Blues" | October 21, 1922 | New York | Okeh 4757-B |
"Blue Black Bottom" | February 16, 1927 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Blue Turning Gray Over You" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Victor |
"California, Here I Come" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Victor |
"Carolina Shout" | May 13, 1941 | New York | Victor |
"Clothes Line Ballet" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Victor 25015 |
" I Can't Give You Anything but Love" (vocals by Adelaide Hall )
|
August 28, 1938 | London | HMV B8849 |
"Deep River" | August 28, 1938 | London | Victor 27459 |
"Goin' About" | November 9, 1929 | New York | Victor |
"Gladyse" | February 8, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Go Down, Moses" | August 28, 1938 | London | Victor 27458 |
"Handful of Keys" | January 3, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor V-38508 |
"Honeysuckle Rose"[47] | 1934 | New York | Victor |
"I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby" | 1931 | New York | Victor |
"I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling" | February 8, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Jitterbug Waltz" | March 16, 1942 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Keeping Out of Mischief Now" | November 6, 1937 | New York | Bluebird 10099 |
"Lennox Avenue Blues" | November 17, 1926 | Camden, N.J. | Victor 20357-B |
"Lonesome Road" | August 28, 1938 | London | Victor 27459 |
"Minor Drag" | January 3, 1929 | New York | Victor |
"Messin' Around with the Blues Blues" | January 14, 1927 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"My Fate Is in Your Hands" | April 12, 1929 | New York | Victor |
"My Feelin's are Hurt" | April 12, 1929 | New York | Victor |
"Numb Fumblin'" | January 3, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Russian Fantasy" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Victor |
"Soothin' Syrup Stomp" | January 14, 1927 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Sloppy Water Blues" | January 14, 1927 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Smashing Thirds" | September 24, 1929 | New York | Victor |
"Sweet Savannah Sue" | February 8, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"The Rusty Pail" | January 14, 1927 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"That's All" | August 29, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor 23260 |
"Valentine Stomp" | February 8, 1929 | Camden, N.J. | Victor |
"Viper's Drag" | November 16, 1934 | New York | Victor |
"Whose Honey Are You?" | March 6, 1935 | New York | Victor 24892 |
"Zonky" | November 3, 1935 | New York | Victor |
Filmography
Source:[46]
Title | Director | Year |
---|---|---|
King of Burlesque | Sidney Lanfield | 1936 |
Hooray for Love | Walter Lang | 1935 |
Soundies shorts
|
Warren Murray | 1941 |
Stormy Weather | Andrew L. Stone | 1943 |
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0810856561. Retrieved June 7, 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Tenenholtz, David. "Waller, Fats (Thomas Wright)". JAZZ.COM. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Tyle, Chris (2012). "I Can't Give You Anything but Love (1928)". JazzStandards.com. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
- ^ a b c "Thomas Wright Waller". Encyclopedia of World Biography (vol. 16) (2nd ed.). Detroit: Gale. 2004. pp. 81–82.
- ^ ISBN 978-1452956671.
- ^ Pelisson, Gerard J.; Garvey III, James A. (2009). The Castle on the Parkway. Scarsdale, New York: The Hutch Press. p. 40.
- ^ Ivy, James (2011). "Waller, Fats (1904–1943)". In Price, Emmett G. (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American Music. Santa Barbara: Greenwood. pp. 986–987.
- ^ "James P. Johnson | American composer and pianist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
- ^ "Fats Waller, a 'master of jazz'". Baltimore Sun. February 2, 2002. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
- ISBN 978-1349085675.
- ^ a b Bromberg, Howard (2012). "Waller, Fats". In Rollyson, Carl (ed.). The Twenties in America. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press. pp. 904–905.
- ISBN 0670114480.
- ^ "Keep Shufflin'". Playbill.com. Playbill, Inc. February 27, 1928. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
Keep Shufflin' – Music: Thomas "Fats" Waller – "On The White Keys"
- ^ "Hot Chocolates". Playbill.com. Playbill, Inc. June 20, 1929. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
Thomas "Fats" Waller – Music
- ^ "Early To Bed". Playbill.com. Playbill, Inc. June 17, 1943. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
Thomas "Fats" Waller – Music
- ^ a b Waller, Maurice; Calabrese, Anthony (1977). Fats Waller. Schirmer. p. 164.
- ISBN 0826458939.
- ISBN 978-0810831223. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0895794673.
- ^ Waller-Calabrese, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Fats Waller: Profiles in Jazz". Syncopatedtimes.com. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- ^ Vitery, Edwin. "Fats Waller in Europe: London". Rutgers.edu.
- ISBN 978-0393065824.
- ^ Fragias, Leonidas (2017). Your Hit Parade Charts: 1935–1940. Arts & Charts.
- ISBN 978-0-595-42060-5
- ^ McWhorter, John (October 14, 2016). "The Fats Waller You've Never Heard". City Journal. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-1349085675. Retrieved June 7, 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Waller-Calabrese, 1977, p. 64.
- ^ Waller-Calabrese, 1977, p. 70.
- ^ Greene, Bryan, "This Green and Pleasant Land", in Poverty and Race, p. 3.
- ^ ISBN 978-1349085675– via Google Books.
- ^ "Waller, Fats (Thomas Wright)". Jazz.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ISBN 0552123714. From "Gone with the wind, sort of: ashes of 19 famous people – and 1 dog."
- ^ "Darren Waller". RamblinWreck.com. CBS. Archived from the original on June 21, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
- ^ Schacter, James D. Piano Man: The Story of Ralph Sutton, Chicago, IL: Jaynar Press, p. 12.
- ^ Uhl, Jim. "For Conrad Janis, Acting and Jazz Share the Spotlight," The Mississippi Rag, pp. 1–9, Sept. 2002, Minneapolis, MN.
- ^ "Thin Lizzy - Renegade Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
- ^ "Grammy Hall Of Fame". Grammy.org. Archived from the original on January 22, 2011. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ^ "Workshop Poems – The Belfast Group". Beck.library.emory.edu. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ^ "FAQs | This Old House TV". This Old House. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ^ "David Lynch's Eraserhead Soundtrack". DavidLynch.de. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (February 22, 2008). "Be Kind Rewind". Theguardian.com.
- ^ "Travel Channel Schedule". Travelchannel.com. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
- ^ "The Shy Boy", Destination Freedom
- ^ "Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin' (Audio)". Retrieved January 4, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ a b "Fats Waller". Redhotjazz.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
- ^ "Honeysuckle Rose" sung by Fats Waller in a 1941 Minoco Production Soundie
Further reading
- Machlin, Paul S., ed. (2001). Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller: Performances in Transcription, 1927–1943. Music of the United States of America (MUSA), vol. 10. Madison, Wisconsin: A-R Editions.
- Taylor, Stephen (2006). Fats Waller on the Air: The Radio Broadcasts & Discography. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810856565.
External links
- Fats Waller piano rollography
- Red Hot Jazz, a selection of Fats Waller's Recordings
- Fats Waller Forever Archived January 23, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, a digital exhibit of Fats Waller's musical career
- Fats Waller Archived September 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at Music of the United States of America (MUSA)
- Fats Waller memorabilia
- AllMusic
- Fats Waller, the King of Stride, Welcome on this site dedicated to Fats Waller (English/French)
- Fats Waller recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.