HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FATS WALLER!

Happy Birthday to composer/pianist Fats Waller.

From All Music Guide (follow link for complete bio and more information on Fats.

Biography

by Richard S. Ginell

Not only was Fats Waller one of the greatest pianists jazz has ever known, he was also one of its most exuberantly funny entertainers — and as so often happens, one facet tends to obscure the other. His extraordinarily light and flexible touch belied his ample physical girth; he could swing as hard as any pianist alive or dead in his classic James P. Johnson-derived stride manner, with a powerful left hand delivering the octaves and tenths in a tireless, rapid, seamless stream. Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ and Hammond organ in jazz — he called the pipe organ the “God box” — adapting his irresistible sense of swing to the pedals and a staccato right hand while making imaginative changes of the registration. As a composer and improviser, his melodic invention rarely flagged, and he contributed fistfuls of joyous yet paradoxically winsome songs like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin,’” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “Blue Turning Grey Over You” and the extraordinary “Jitterbug Waltz” to the jazz repertoire.

During his lifetime and afterwards, though, Fats Waller was best known to the world for his outsized comic personality and sly vocals, where he would send up trashy tunes that Victor Records made him record with his nifty combo, Fats Waller & His Rhythm. Yet on virtually any of his records, whether the song is an evergreen standard or the most trite bit of doggerel that a Tin Pan Alley hack could serve up, you will hear a winning combination of good knockabout humor, foot-tapping rhythm and fantastic piano playing. Today, almost all of Fats Waller’s studio recordings can be found on RCA’s on-again-off-again series The Complete Fats Waller, which commenced on LPs in 1975 and was still in progress during the 1990s.

Here at the J. Paul Leonard Library, we have materials that may help you learn more about this talented composer and animated performer. Below are some suggestions:

Fats Waller : the cheerful little earful / Alyn Shipton.

Ain’t misbehavin’ : the story of Fats Waller / Ed Kirkeby

Ain’t misbehavin’ : the new Fats Waller musical show.

Ain’t misbehavin’: original Broadway cast recording. [Sound recording]

And here is a video featuring Fats Waller at the piano. Fats Waller is performing his own ‘Aint Misbehavin’ in 1943. The drummer is Zutty Singleton, trumpet Benny Carter and the bassist is Slam Stewart. This video segment is from the film Ain’t Misbehavin which also starred Lena Horne whom you can also see in this clip.

Here’s a website that also offers biographical information, with links to mp3 files for audio research.

http://www.redhotjazz.com/fats.html

Enjoy learning about Fats Waller!