Fats Waller

As a young piano player, hearing Thomas "Fats" Waller for the first time was one of the most exciting and awe-inspiring moments of my life. On one level, the volume of sheer joy that Fats injected into his music, not just through his vocals but through in his improvisational patterns, jolly rhythms and funny fills, was inspirational - he made piano playing sound real fun. On the other hand, the complexity of his top-line runs, the full-sounding chords and tenths in the bass line were plain awesome and way beyond the technical means of the poor student I was.

Although many laymen view Fats primarily as a musical clown who played some extremely pleasant ditties such as 'Ain't Misbehavin' and 'Honeysuckle Rose', Thomas Waller was a virtuoso piano player firmly rooted in the Harlem stride piano style. Although Fats loved jazz, he also revered the classics and 'serious' music and worked hard at his playing and compositional techniques - there was more than plain genius to this man. He may have loved having a good time but there was a serious drive under the suface which gave him the technical freedom to improvise productively on just about any piece which took his fancy from his own stride classics such as 'A Handful of Keys' to 'Loch Lomond' when he appeared in Scotland.

To these ears, Fats' greatest recordings were his piano solos, which were sadly confined to three minutes due to technical restrictions of the day. 'Alligator Crawl' with its walking bass opening, the decorative 'African Ripples', the sway of 'Clothes Line Ballet' and the comic reference to Grieg's 'In The Hall of the Mountain King' in the opening lines of the bluesy 'Viper's Drag' are all great performances. However, the greatest are his solo renditions of his own classics, 'Ain't Misbehavin', 'Honeysuckle Rose' - recorded a la Beethoven-Brahms-Waller on May 13, 1941 - and James P Johnson's 'Carolina Shout' cut on the same day. The cream of the crop is 'A Handful of Keys', his signature tune, which runs at breakneck pace, taking in just about every part of the keyboard on the way and twisting in and out of the themes.

Of his bandwork, 'The Minor Drag' is one of the most remarkable performances. There is no double bass or drums - Fats pounds low bass to drive the trumpet, trombone, reedsman and banjo along. More remarkable is the fact that, according to the biography co-written by his son, Maurice Waller, this track was made up in the back of a taxi while Fats was rounding up players for the recording session. This is perhaps jazz in its purest form - a group of musicians rounded up at a few hours' notice to play a piece of music which they have only ever heard hummed by the pianist and bring it to life through improvisation.

Fun comes to the fore in 'The Joint Is Jumpin' and 'Your Feet's Too Big', sentimentality is hammed up in 'Two Sleepy People' and 'Until The Real Thing Comes Along' while band versions 'The Shiek of Araby', 'Honeysuckle Rose', 'I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby' and 'Ain't Misbehavin' just swing like crazy.

However, there was a spiritual side to Fats - after all, he was the son of a minister - which came out in an incredible set of recordings of spirituals, some of them with Fats on church organ. However, the fun wasn't far away and 'Oh, Dem Golden Slippers' fairly bounces along while his version of St Louis Blues played on the pipe organ is heart-grabbingly soulful.

Fats was a player who swung like nobody else, lived a short life packed with energy and fun despite marital troubles, brushes with the law and racisim. He was far more than the musical clown he is primarily remembered as nowadays, with his influence on pianists such as Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum and the catalogue of swing standards which were to be adapted by the be-bop players in the creation of 'modern' jazz, his contribution to jazz was enormous as he was.

Fats Waller on CD

There seem to be about a million billion zillion compilations of Fats Waller's music floating around, many double up on many tracks but there's always that one track which you havn't got on anything else which can make it worth forking out for yet another collection. Believe it or not, I only have four Fats CDs since I've yet to see a track selection which really impresses me and I havn't got the energy to hunt for everything on CD again - I must be getting old. The best I know of is called The Joint Is Jumpin' and includes a good representation of his piano solos - Handful of Keys, Ain't Misbehavin', Tea For Two, Honeysuckle Rose, African Ripples, Viper's Drag and Alligator Crawl. There are some good band tracks as well - The Joint Is Jumpin', The Minor Drag (made up in the back of a cab on the way to recording session), I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby and The Shiek of Araby.

Where to read more

The best book I've read on Fats' life is by his son, Maurice, and it's simply called Fats Waller. The link takes you to the Amazon page for the paperback version but they've got it in hardback as well.

Fats Waller Links

More details about Fats Waller can be found at the following sites:

Red Hot Jazz - provides a potted history of Fats with an extensive discography and an impressive collection of sound samples for Real Player.

Al Levy's Resort Hotel provides a biography, discography and midi files of Fats, and many more players besides.