WALLER

Fats Waller was one of the greatest of jazz pianists and one of the first to introduce the organ to jazz ensembles. He was also a consummate showman with an irrepressible sense of fun. Compositions such as “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and the London Suite inspired generations of jazz musicians.

Thomas Wright Waller was born on May 21, 1904, in New York. His mother was an organist and pianist and his father a Harlem Baptist lay preacher. At age six, he started playing piano in his school orchestra. After the death of his mother when he was 14, he moved in with the family of pianist Russell Brooks. He took classical lessons from Leopold Godowsky and from Carl Böhm at the Juilliard School of Music, but also became the protégé of blues pianist James P. Johnson.

At 15, Waller got the job of playing the Wurlitzer organ at the Lincoln Theater. Soon after he was playing in nightclubs, and by age 18 had cut his first record, “Birmingham BluesV’Muscle Shoals Blues.” He then played piano and organ at parties, clubs, and theatres, and backed blues vocalists including Bessie SMITH. In 1923, he made his first radio broadcast and was thereafter heard regularly on radio, with programs like Fats Waller’s Rhythm Club. He also collaborated with lyricist Andy Razaf on three Broadway shows: Keep Shufflin ’in 1928, and Load of Coal and Hot Chocolates in 1929- It was this last show that included the famous “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” sung first by Cab Calloway and then by Louis ARMSTRONG.

Waller began with Victor Records in 1926, recording his own compositions such as “Smashing Thirds” and “Handful of Keys” on solo piano. These recordings show Waller’s magisterial “stride” technique. A large man with a light touch, he used a powerful left hand to play a rapid-fire stream of octaves and tenths. With an exclusive contract in 1934, Fats Waller formed a group, “Fats Waller and His Rhythm,” which scored a long list of hits with “The Joint Is Jumpin’” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.”

Onstage, Waller was a spectacle. His comical demeanour and clever vocals infused whatever he played, and he was a master at subverting the racist lyrics that were forced on him. “Stupid or mediocre songs—he recorded hundreds—are sent up by various means,” said the New Republic magazine. “Sarcastic or falsetto delivery … heavy sighs, mock-gospel-meeting exhortations … and outrageous sound effects.”

Showmanship aside, he was an amazing pianist. Giving a swing sensibility to the Hammond and pipe organs—a staccato right hand accompanied by fancy pedal work and creative changes of registration—he turned them into jazz instruments.

Apart from concerts, recordings, and radio, Waller appeared in films such as Hooray for Love! (1935) and King of Burlesque (1936), and the musical Stormy Weather (1943), which starred Lena HORNE.

In 1938, Waller made a tour of Europe, distinguishing himself again by being probably the only jazz musician to play the organ in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. On a second tour the next year, he recorded the London Suite, a series of six related pieces for solo piano, but returned home on the outbreak of World War II. His health began to deteriorate around this time. He had always been overweight, and ate and drank to excess all his life. Coupled with this, the stress of his personal life and a gruelling tour schedule took their toll. After becoming ill at a Hollywood concert, Waller died of pneumonia on the train back to New York on December 15, 1943.

Although the public remembers him mainly for his humour, Waller’s piano style had an enormous influence on Count BASIE, Thelonious MONK, and the whole next generation of jazz pianists.

Brett Allan King

FATS

WALLER