Fats Waller

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Fats Waller

Fats Waller (born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904 and deceased December 15, 1943) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
jazz pianist

Jazz piano

Jazz piano is the use of an acoustic piano or electric piano as an improvising instrument in a jazz group or jazz fusion ensemble. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings....
, organist, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
and comedic

Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
entertainer.

as a skilled pianist, and master of stride piano

Stride piano

Stride, also known as New York ragtime, is a jazz piano style wherethe pianist's left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a bass note or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a Chord on the second and fourth beats, or an interrupted bass with three single notes and then a chord while the right hand plays melodies, riffs an...
, having been the prize pupil and later friend and colleague of the greatest of the stride pianists, James P. Johnson

James P. Johnson

James Price Johnson [A.K.A. "Jimmy Johnson"] was an African-American pianist and composer. With Luckey Roberts, Johnson was one of the originators of the Stride piano style of jazz piano playing....
. Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in his homeland and in Europe.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Fats Waller'

Start a new discussion about 'Fats Waller'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Fats Waller (born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904 and deceased December 15, 1943) was an American

United States

Jazz piano

Composer

Comedy

Significance

He was a skilled pianist, and master of stride piano

Stride piano

James P. Johnson

Honeysuckle Rose (song)

"Honeysuckle Rose" is a 1928 song composed by Fats Waller, with lyrics written by Andy Razaf.Fats Waller's 1934 recording was inducted in the List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients E-I in 1999....
", "Ain't Misbehavin'

Ain't Misbehavin' (song)

"Ain't Misbehavin" is a 1929 song written by Harry Brooks , Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller and Andy Razaf . Waller recorded the original version that year for Victor Records and also later performed the song in the 1943 film Stormy Weather ....
" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant was an United States pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in film and television, than for his music....
dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz

Vladimir Horowitz

Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz ; ) was a Russian American pianist. His technique, use of Timbre and the excitement of his playing are legendary....
" . Waller composed many novelty swing tunes in the 1920s and 30s, and sold them for relatively small sums. When the compositions became hits, other songwriters claimed them as their own. Many standards are alternatively and sometimes controversially attributed to Waller.

Musical contributions

Waller was an excellent and much copied jazz pianist and improvisor, and he was considered one of the best stride style players. His touch varied from subtle and extremely light to very powerful, and he was a master of dynamics and tension and release. However, it was Waller's singing, songwriting, and lovable, roguish stage personality that sold his hundreds of recordings for RCA Victor

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986....
, at a time when society did not recognize jazz as "serious" music. He played with many performers, from Gene Austin

Gene Austin

Gene Austin was an United States singer and songwriter who is considered to have been the first "crooner". His 1920s compositions "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and "The Lonesome Road" became pop and jazz standards....
to Erskine Tate to Adelaide Hall

Adelaide Hall

Adelaide Hall was an United States-born United Kingdom jazz singer and entertainer.Hall was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and was taught to sing by her father....
, but his greatest success came with his own five- or six-piece combo

Combo

Combo may refer to:*A California record company founded by jazz trumpeter Jake Porter. The label specialized in Doo Wop and Rhythm and Blues recordings in the early 1950s....
, "Fats Waller and his Rhythm".

His impressive and talented playing once put him at risk of injury. Waller was kidnapped in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
leaving a performance in 1926. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by gangster Al Capone

Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone , commonly nicknamed "Scarface", was an Italian-American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and Rum-running of alcoholic beverage and other illegal activities during the Prohibition in the United States Era of the 1920s and 1930s....
. Fats was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing. Gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the "surprise guest" at Al Capone's birthday party, and took comfort that the gangsters didn't intend to kill him. According to rumor, Waller played for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips.

Waller wrote "Squeeze Me" (1919), "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now", "Ain't Misbehavin'

Ain't Misbehavin' (song)

"Ain't Misbehavin" is a 1929 song written by Harry Brooks , Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller and Andy Razaf . Waller recorded the original version that year for Victor Records and also later performed the song in the 1943 film Stormy Weather ....
" (1929), "Blue Turning Grey Over You", "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" (1929), "Honeysuckle Rose

Honeysuckle Rose (song)

Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City-centered History of music publishings and songwriters who dominated the American popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century....
lyricist Andy Razaf

Andy Razaf

Andy Razaf , was an African American composer, poet, and lyricist of such well-known songs as "Ain't Misbehavin' " and "Honeysuckle Rose "....
. 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.

He enjoyed success touring United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
and Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an Island country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned by the British on 3 May 1921....
in the late 1930s, and appeared in one of the first BBC Television

Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
broadcasts. While in Britain, Waller also recorded a number of songs for EMI

EMI

The EMI Group is a United Kingdom music company comprising the major record label EMI Music ? which operates several labels and is based in Kensington in London, England, United Kingdom ? and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York City....
on their Compton Theatre organ

Theatre organ

A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra, but in latter years new designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
located in their Studios

Abbey Road Studios

Abbey Road Studios, established in November 1931 by EMI in London, England, is a recording studio located at number 3 Abbey Road , in St John's Wood in the City of Westminster....
in St John's Wood

St John's Wood

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. He appeared in several feature films and short subject film

Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s, most notably "Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather (1943 film)

Stormy Weather is the title of an United States musical film motion picture produced and released by 20th Century Fox in 1943 in film.The film is one of two major Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 in film with primarily African-American casts, the other being MGM's Cabin in the Sky, and is considered a time capsule showcasing some...
" in 1943, which was released only months before his death.

For the hit Broadway show, "Hot Chocolates", he and Razaf wrote "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue?" (1929), which became a hit for Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters was an United States blues and jazz vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, rock and roll and pop music, on the Broadway theatre stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues....
and Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer.Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an innovative cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence on jazz, shifting the music's focus from collective improvisation to solo performers....
. This searing treatment of racism

Racism

Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that Race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race....
refutes the early criticism of Waller that his creations and performances were "shallow entertainment".

Waller was an accomplished composer and performer due to his classical keyboard studies. He performed [Bach] organ pieces for small groups on occasion. Waller influenced many pre-bop jazz pianists; Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an United States Jazz piano, organist, bandleader, and composer. Widely regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time, Basie led his popular Count Basie Orchestra for almost 50 years....
and Erroll Garner

Erroll Garner

Erroll Louis Garner was an United States jazz pianist and composer known for his Swung note playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad Misty became a jazz standard with singers....
would have sounded different absent Waller. Today, Dick Hyman

Dick Hyman

Dick Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer best known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer....
, Mike Lipskin

Mike Lipskin

Mike Lipskin is a stride pianist of the pre bop jazz style, noted piano instructor, record producer and author. He has striven to keep alive the form of jazz piano known as Harlem Stride Piano....
, 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. Pianist and keyboard professor Paul Posnak

Paul Posnak

Paul Posnak is an United States pianist and music academic. He is noted for playing repertoires mixing twentieth century American music with European romantic classics, ranging from George Gershwin to Fr?d?ric Chopin, from classical to jazz....
has produced transcriptions of 16 of Waller's greatest solos that are published by Hal Leonard. Posnak performs this music in concert.

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 in and stab me, but don't bruise me!" ... "Wot's da matta wit DAT?!" ... and - of a large lady vocalist - "All that meat and no potatoes!"

Death

Waller contracted pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an Inflammation illness of the lung. Frequently, it is described as lung parenchyma/alveolus inflammation and abnormal alveolar filling with fluid ....
and died on a cross-country train trip near Kansas City

Kansas City

Kansas City may refer to:* Kansas City Metropolitan Area, metropolitan area surrounding Kansas City, Missouri includes territory in both Missouri and Kansas....
, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska....
on December 15, 1943. His ashes were flown and spread over Harlem by the famous WW1 aviator known as "The Black Ace" .

Grammy Hall of Fame

Recordings of Fats Waller were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

Grammy Hall of Fame Award

The Grammy Hall of Fame Award 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"....
, 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."

Year Recorded	Title	Genre	Label	Year Inducted	Notes
Fats Waller: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards
1934	Honeysuckle Rose Honeysuckle Rose (song) "Honeysuckle Rose" is a 1928 song composed by Fats Waller, with lyrics written by Andy Razaf.Fats Waller's 1934 recording was inducted in the List of Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients E-I in 1999....	Jazz (Single)	Victor	1999
1929	Ain't Misbehavin' Ain't Misbehavin' (song) "Ain't Misbehavin" is a 1929 song written by Harry Brooks , Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller and Andy Razaf . Waller recorded the original version that year for Victor Records and also later performed the song in the 1943 film Stormy Weather ....	Jazz (Single)	Victor	1984	Listed in the National Recording Registry List of recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry The recordings preserved in the United States National Recording Registry form a registry of recordings selected yearly by the National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.... by the Library of Congress Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books.... in 2004.

Revival and posthumous awards

A Broadway musical revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre entertainment that combines music, dance and sketch comedy. The revue has its roots in nineteenth-century American popular entertainment and melodrama, but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca....
showcasing Waller tunes entitled Ain't Misbehavin'

Ain't Misbehavin'

Ain't Misbehavin' is a musical revue with a book by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr., music by Fats Waller, and lyrics by various writers....
was produced in 1978. (The show and a star of the show, Nell Carter

Nell Carter

Nell Carter was an African-United States singer, and film, stage, and television actress....
, won Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live United States theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City....
s for the show.) The show opened at the Longacre Theatre

Longacre Theatre

The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre theatre located at 220 West 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts in 1912, it was named for Longacre Square, the original name for Times Square....
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

Honeysuckle Rose (song)

Ain't Misbehavin' (song)

"Ain't Misbehavin" is a 1929 song written by Harry Brooks , Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller and Andy Razaf . Waller recorded the original version that year for Victor Records and also later performed the song in the 1943 film Stormy Weather ....
".

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

Be Kind Rewind

Be Kind Rewind is a 2008 in film Cinema of the United States comedy film from New Line Cinema, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow....
".

Inductions

Year Inducted	Title
2008	Gennett Records Gennett Records Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.... Walk of Fame
2005	Jazz at Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz at Lincoln Center is a constituent of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., whose performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle....
1993	Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award The Grammy Award Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording" ....
1989	Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1970	Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductees of the Songwriters Hall of Fame Dates of induction to the "Songwriters Hall of Fame" are given alongside the names...

In popular culture

Referenced in the 1979 movie The Muppet Movie
The Muppet Movie

The Muppet Movie is the first of a series of live-action musical film feature films starring Jim Henson's Muppets. Released in 1979 in film, the film was produced by The Jim Henson Company under their second name and ITC Entertainment....
.
Referenced in Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky

Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary criticism, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress....
's poem "History of My Heart."
An Episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway had Wayne Brady
Wayne Brady

Wayne Alphonso Brady is an Emmy Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated United States actor, singer, comedian and television personality, known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and as the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show....
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
David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an United States film director, screenwriter, Film producer, Painting, cartoonist, composer, video artist and performance artist....
cult hit, Eraserhead
Eraserhead

Eraserhead is a surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch, and released in . In 1971, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to study for an MFA degree at the AFI Conservatory....
.
A part of Alligator Crawl is featured during the "Intermission" sequences of Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 in film film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python , and directed by Gilliam and Jones....
.
The 2008 film Be Kind Rewind
Be Kind Rewind

Be Kind Rewind is a 2008 in film Cinema of the United States comedy film from New Line Cinema, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow....
features a young man played by Mos Def
Mos Def

Dante Terrell Smith , is an American MC and actor known by the stage name Mos Def. Mos Def started his hip hop music career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul....
who believes Fats Waller was born in the Passaic, New Jersey
Passaic, New Jersey

Passaic is a City in Passaic County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 67,861....
building that now houses the video shop where he works. He brings his neighbours together to make a wildly inaccurate "documentary" film celebrating the spirit of Fats and of their community.
Bill Withers
Bill Withers

Bill Withers is an United States singer-songwriter and hall-of-fame songwriter who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Ain't No Sunshine," "Use Me ," "Lovely Day ," "Lean on Me ", "Grandma's Hands", and "Just the Two of Us "....
references Fats Waller in the song Soul Shadows.

External links

A selection of Fats Waller's Recordings
A digital exhibit of Fats Waller's musical career
A hodge-podge of Waller memorabilia
A tribute to the King of Stride Piano
Stride Piano & Sheet Music

Fats Waller

Significance

Musical contributions

Death

Grammy Hall of Fame

Revival and posthumous awards

Inductions

In popular culture

See also

External links

tag relocation