Fats Waller

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star in the jazz and swing eras, he toured internationally, achieving critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=Tyle/> He died from pneumonia, aged 39.

Early life

Thomas Wright Waller was born in New York City on May 21, 1904, the seventh child of eleven (five of whom survived childhood). His parents were Adeline Waller (Template:Nee), a musician, and Edward Martin Waller, a Baptist lay preacher and teamster; they originated from rural Virginia but moved to New York after marrying at the age of 16 in the hope of better employment, housing and education prospects.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="EncycWorldBio">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=grove-2024>Template:Cite web</ref> Thomas Waller started playing the piano at the age of six, and later played the reed organ at his father's open-air services. He also studied the double bass and violin, paying for music lessons by working in a grocery store.<ref name="EncycWorldBio"/><ref name=grove-2024/> From an early age he proved adept at playing by ear, and was inspired by hearing Ignacy Jan Paderewski perform at Carnegie Hall. The nickname "Fats" dates from around this time, on account of his being overweight.Template:Sfn

Waller's mother Adeline developed diabetes, which made her weak; consequently the family moved to an apartment with fewer stairs, in central Harlem. The post-war period saw Harlem become populated with bars and clubs which featured live music, fuelling Waller's artistic aspirations.Template:Sfn Waller attended DeWitt Clinton High School for a short period of time,Template:Efn but left to pursue his ambition to become a professional musician.Template:Sfn He briefly worked polishing jewel boxes and delivering illicit alcoholic drinks during prohibition, with the wages allowing him to afford piano lessons,Template:Sfn and at the age of 15 he became an organist at the Lincoln Theatre,<ref name="EncycAfAmMus">Template:Cite book</ref> where he earned $32 a week.<ref name="EncycWorldBio"/> This position allowed him to practise his stagecraft and improvisation.Template:Sfn

Edward Waller disapproved of his son's career in music due to his strict religious beliefs, which was a continual source of tension between them. Waller's mother Adeline, who encouraged his aspirations, acted as a mediating influence,Template:Sfn but she died on November 10, 1920, from a stroke due to her diabetes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Shortly thereafter Waller moved out to live with a friend, who also knew pianist James P. Johnson,Template:Sfn a leading figure of the burgeoning Harlem stride style.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The two first met when Waller was aged 16,<ref name="EncycAfAmMus"/> and Johnson began to teach Waller piano and introduce him to important figures on the Harlem music scene such as Eubie Blake, Willie Gant, Cliff Jackson, Duke Ellington and Willie "the Lion" Smith, bringing him to rent parties where they would perform.Template:Sfn Johnson continued to be a friend and mentor throughout Waller's life.<ref name="EncycAfAmMus"/>

Career

1920s

In 1921 Waller was invited to accompany the vaudeville group Liza and Her Shufflin' Six on a tour of the northeast of the U.S., having impressed Liza with his organ playing at the Lincoln Theatre.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn While in Boston he met Count Basie, who asked for organ lessonsTemplate:Sndthese took place back in New York, in the Lincoln.Template:Sfn After his return Waller played his first rent party, having improved dramatically from practise and his lessons with James P. Johnson,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and he continued to perform at these, as well as undertake short-term contracts at nightclubs and cabarets.Template:Sfn Waller's steady job at the Lincoln Theatre transferred to the Lafayette Theatre after a change of management.Template:Sfn

Via his friend Clarence Williams, a Tin Pan Alley music publisher, Waller became involved with the new recording label Okeh Records. He was originally slated to accompany Sara Martin in "Sugar Blues", but failed to attend the recording session; Williams played instead, which launched his performing career.Template:Sfn Williams convinced Fred Hager, the head of artists and repertoire for Okeh, to try Waller again,Template:Sfn and his first recordings were "Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues" in October 1922.Template:Sfn In December he accompanied Martin in "Mama's Got the Blues" and "Last Go Round Blues".Template:Sfn James P. Johnson got Waller work recording piano rolls for QRS, the first of which was "Got to Cool My Doggies Now", recorded in March 1923.Template:Sfn In the summer of that year Waller began composing original pieces, his first being "Wildcat Blues", with lyrics by Williams. The pair collaborated on over 70 songs during the subsequent five years, including "Squeeze Me".Template:Sfn

Waller continued to accompany blues singers in recordings, play rent parties, and perform at nightclubs, gaining exposure.Template:Sfn During this period he met Andy Razaf, a lyricist with whom he collaborated extensively, and who encouraged him to sing as well as play the piano.Template:Sfn He met J. C. Johnson in 1923, and began collaborating with him as well.Template:Sfn Waller became known for his prolific output of catchy songs, although did not copyright any of them, instead selling them outright to publishers or performing them without getting them published. In 1926 he composed for two revues with Spencer Williams.Template:Sfn

File:Misbehave.jpg

The published sheet music to "Ain't Misbehavin'"

In 1926, Waller began his association with the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor) after being contacted by Ralph Peer. On November 17, 1926, he recorded "St. Louis Blues" and his composition "Lenox Avenue Blues", his first solo recordings,Template:Sfn and on December 1, 1927, he recorded "Red Hot Dan" with Thomas Morris, the first recording of Waller singing.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

1929 saw the composition of some of Waller's most highly-regarded songs, such as "Ain't Misbehavin'" (for the revue Hot Chocolates), "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling", "Honeysuckle Rose" (for the revue Load of Coal), and "Black and Blue".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn To avoid having to pay more in child support to Edith, whom he had divorced in 1923, Waller sold the rights for twenty of his songs (including "Ain't Misbehavin'") to Irving Mills for $500. This was a small fraction of their value.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As a consequence he earned only the musician's share of the royalties from the subsequent recordings.Template:Sfn

1930s

Waller's radio career began in December 1930, when he featured on a new show for CBS playing the piano and, unusually until this point, singing.Template:Sfn Joe Davis, who had become Waller's publisher and manager after the sale of his material to Irving Mills, began to market Waller as a singer as well as a pianist, and he recorded the solo songs "I'm Crazy about My Baby" and "Draggin' My Heart Around" on March 31, 1931.Template:Sfn

Waller began to play regularly at the Hot Feet Club, where he developed his storytelling asides and style as a raconteur: "the cocked eye brow, the finger punctuating the air for emphasis, and eyes rolling heavenward whenever he said something blue".Template:Sfn In the summer of 1931 he visited Paris with Spencer Williams, playing in the city's nightclubs and enjoying the much lower levels of racial discrimination and absence of prohibition.Template:Sfn Davis appointed Marty Bloom as Waller's manager after Waller's return,Template:Sfn but Bloom resigned the position shortly thereafter and it was taken by Phil Ponce, who was experienced in showbusiness and had established and managed the Ponce Sisters.Template:Sfn

Ponce decided to focus on Waller's radio career, and secured a two-year contract with WLW in Cincinnati, where he was given his own program, "Fats Waller's Rhythm Club".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Waller also played for their show "Moon River", but was not credited due to his own show's "raucous and comedic reputation".Template:Sfn After the contract ended in late 1933, Waller moved back to New York.Template:Sfn A sequence of CBS radio performances in March and April of 1934 provided extensive publicity,Template:Sfn and led to his own regular show, "The Rhythm Club", as well as regular appearances on other CBS programs.Template:Sfn

This radio success led to RCA Victor offering a recording contract, assuming that the records would at least sell well in the black community, but they unexpectedly proved to have wide appeal, and became bestsellers.Template:Sfn Victor arranged for tours for Waller and a group of musicians as the Fats Waller Band in 1935, and while back in New York during breaks between fixtures the group recorded a number of songs, the most popular of which was "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter".Template:Sfn Part of the tour involved promoting the release of the film Hooray for Love, in which Waller had appeared earlier that year, and the success of this publicity activity led to him featuring in King of Burlesque.Template:Sfn

The band continued to tour and record over the next few years, but Waller's drinking became heavier and his behavior more erratic, and interest from promoters declined after a racially-motivated boycott led to poorly-attended events in South Carolina and Florida in 1937.Template:Sfn Ed Kirkeby had taken over as manager in 1935 due to Ponce's ill health, and he attempted to revive domestic interest in Waller by arranging a tour of Britain and Scandinavia in 1938, where jazz was increasing in popularity.Template:Sfn The tour was a great success, with Waller recording for HMV and appearing on the new medium of television in addition to his live performances, but it was curtailed due to the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany.Template:Sfn Waller had been developing his interest in composition and classical music, inspired by George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F. He began to incorporate more classical themes into his music, and took up the violin.Template:Sfn While in London he composed the impressionist London Suite, representing different areas of the city he had visited, and this was recorded by HMV.Template:Sfn

1940s

File:Stormy Weather (1943 film poster).jpg

Poster for Stormy Weather (1943)

The tour in Europe revived Waller's career in the US. He was in high demand as an accompanist on recordings, but the Victor contract was exclusive, so he was credited as "Maurice Waller", his son's name. Victor marketed Waller as a comic performer, with songs such as "You Run Your Mouth, I'll Run My Business".Template:Sfn In 1941 he recorded four SoundiesTemplate:Sndshort musical films of "Ain't MisbehavinTemplate:'", "Honeysuckle Rose," "Your Feet's Too Big," and "The Joint Is JumpinTemplate:'".<ref>MacGillivray, Scott and Okuda, Ted, The Soundies Book. New York: iUniverse, 2007, p. 275. Template:ISBN</ref> He toured the US, often staging surprise concerts to entertain the troops at the local military post.Template:Sfn

Waller's interest in more "serious" music continued, and on January 14, 1942 he staged a concert in Carnegie Hall in an attempt to make audiences take jazz more seriously.Template:Sfn The concert was received well by the audience, although at least one critic gave it a mixed review,Template:Sfn possibly because Waller had become drunk during the interval.Template:Sfn

Irving Mills had become a film producer, and in early 1943 engaged Waller to perform songs including "Ain't Misbehavin'" (which he owned the rights to) in Stormy Weather.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Upon returning to New York, he began to compose for the musical Early to Bed, which premiered in Boston on May 24, 1943. It received positive reviews, and was staged at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway on June 17.Template:Sfn Waller was the first black composer to write a Broadway show for a white cast.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Compositions

Waller is believed to have composed many songs in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums,<ref name="Tyle">Template:Cite web</ref> attributed to another composer and lyricist.Template:Sfn

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.<ref name="Williams">Template:Cite book</ref> Biographer Barry Singer offered circumstantial evidence 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 1929Template:Sndhe 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).<ref name="Tyle" /> 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.<ref name="Tyle" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed Jazz historian Paul S. Machlin commented that the Singer conjecture has "considerable [historical] justification".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:Sfn Maurice Waller wrote that his father objected to hearing "On the Sunny Side of the Street" on the radio.Template:Sfn

Personal life

In 1920, Waller married Edith Hatch,Template:Sfn and the couple moved in with Edith's parents as they were unable to afford their own home. Edith's parents disapproved of Waller's career as a musician, considering it unfit for a newly-married man.Template:Sfn They found their own apartment,Template:Sfn and Edith gave birth to a son, Thomas Waller Jr., in 1921.Template:Sfn She was unhappy being married to a working musician, with its financial insecurity and unsociable hours, and felt that she and their son deserved more of Waller's time and attention.Template:Sfn In 1923 they divorced, with an agreement for Waller to pay $35 per week in child support and alimony.Template:Sfn Waller persistently failed to pay this, prompting Edith to take him to court several times, and he spent time in jail on Welfare Island.Template:Sfn His will left her the minimum amount allowed by law, with the stipulation that this should be reduced to nothing in the event that the law change to permit this between the time of writing and his death.Template:Sfn

Waller married Anita Rutherford, whom he knew in childhood and met again while playing at the Lincoln Theatre, in 1926.Template:Sfn They had a son, Maurice Thomas Waller, born on September 10, 1927.Template:Sfn In 1928, Waller and Rutherford had their second son, Ronald Waller.Template:Sfn

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.<ref>Greene, Bryan, "This Green and Pleasant Land", in Poverty and Race, p. 3.</ref>

Death

Waller's health began to decline in 1939 or 1940, with heavy alcohol drinking, working late hours, and excessive food consumption being contributing factors (he reportedly weighed about Template:Convert at the time of his death).Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He contracted influenza while playing a series of events at the Zanzibar Room in Hollywood in October 1943, but disregarded a doctor's recommendation to go to hospital and stop drinking.Template:Sfn

Waller died of pneumonia in the early morning of December 15, 1943, while returning to New York on the Santa Fe Chief, as the train was stopped at Kansas City Union Station.Template:Sfn His funeral took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the church his parents had joined after first moving to the city from Virginia. More than 4,200 people were estimated to have attended, which prompted Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who delivered the eulogy, to observe that Waller "always played to a packed house".Template:Sfn Afterwards he was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over Harlem from an airplane piloted by a World War I and Spanish Civil War pilot known as the "Black Ace".Template:Sfn

Influence

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 Harry Gibson. Waller tipped him handsomely and then hired him to be his relief pianist during his own performances.

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."<ref>Schacter, James D. Piano Man: The Story of Ralph Sutton, Chicago, IL: Jaynar Press, p. 12.</ref>

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.<ref>Uhl, Jim. "For Conrad Janis, Acting and Jazz Share the Spotlight," The Mississippi Rag, pp. 1–9, Sept. 2002, Minneapolis, MN.</ref>

A Broadway musical showcasing Waller tunes entitled Ain't Misbehavin' was produced in 1978 and featured Nell Carter, Andre de Shields, Armelia McQueen, Ken Page, and Charlaine Woodard. (The show and Nell Carter won Tony Awards.) The show opened at the Longacre Theatre and ran for more than 1600 performances. It was revived on Broadway in 1988 at the Ambassador Theatre with the original Broadway Cast. Performed by five African-American actors, the show included such songs as "Honeysuckle Rose," "This Joint Is JumpinTemplate:'", and "Ain't Misbehavin'."

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Recognition and awards

Year Inducted	Title
1970	Songwriters Hall of Fame
1989	Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame
1993	Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
2005	Jazz at Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
2008	Gennett Records Walk of Fame

Waller's recordings were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy Award established in 1973 to honour recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

Grammy Hall of Fame Awards<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Year Recorded	Title	Genre	Label	Year Inducted	Notes
1929	"Ain't Misbehavin'"	Jazz (single)	Victor	1984	Listed in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004.
1934	"Honeysuckle Rose"	Jazz (single)	Victor	1999

Selected works

Recordings

Waller features in hundreds of recordings.Template:Sfn JSP Records released a complete collection of the known extant recordings:

• 1922-29 - The Complete Recorded Works Vol. 1: Messin' Around With The Blues (4xCD) (JSP, 2007)
• 1930-34 - The Complete Recorded Works Vol. 2: A Handful Of Keys (4xCD) (JSP, 2006)
• 1934-36 - The Complete Recorded Works Vol. 3: Rhythm And Romance (4xCD) (JSP, 2007)
• 1936-38 - The Complete Recorded Works Vol. 4: New York, Chicago & Hollywood (4xCD) (JSP, 2007)
• 1938-40 - The Complete Recorded Works Vol. 5: New York, London & Chicago (4xCD) (JSP, 2008)
• 1940-43 - The Complete Recorded Works Vol. 6: New York, Chicago & Hollywood (4xCD) (JSP, 2008)

Instrumental

Piano solo

Source:<ref name=grove-2001>Template:Cite web</ref>

Title	Year
"Hog Maw Stomp"	1924
"Alligator Crawl" (renamed "House Party Stomp")	1925
"Old Folks Shuffle"	1926
"The Digah's Stomp"	1928
"Gladyse"	1929
"Valentine Stomp"	1929
"Handful of Keys"	1930
"Numb Fumblin'"	1930
"Viper's Drag"	1930
"African Ripples"	1931
"Smashing Thirds"	1931
"Clothes Line Ballet"	1934
"Functionizin'"	1935
"Bach Up to Me"	1936
"Black Raspberry Jam"	1936
"Fractious Fingering"	1936
"Lounging at the Waldorf"	1936
"Paswonky"	1936
"London Suite"	1939
"Jitterbug Waltz"	1942

Organ solo

Source:<ref name=grove-2001/>

Title	Year
"Fats Waller Stomp"	1927
"Lenox Avenue Blues"	1927
"Messin' Around with the Blues"	1927
"Sloppy Water Blues"	1927
"Soothin' Syrup Stomp"	1927

Songs

Source:<ref name=grove-2001/>

Title	Year	Lyricist(s)	Collaborator
"Wild Cat Blues"	1923		Clarence Williams
"Squeeze Me"	1923	Andy Razaf
"Anybody Here Want to Try my Cabbage"	1924	Andy Razaf
"In Harlem's Araby"	1924	Jo Trent
"Georgia Bo-Bo"	1926	Jo Trent
"Come On and Stomp, Stomp, Stomp"	1927	C. Smith, Irving Mills
"I'm Goin' Huntin'"	1927		J. C. Johnson
"Ain't Misbehavin'"	1929	Andy Razaf
"My Feelin's are Hurt"	1929	Andy Razaf
"Blue Turning Grey over You"	1929	Andy Razaf
"Honeysuckle Rose"	1929	Andy Razaf
"My Fate is in Your Hands"	1929	Andy Razaf
"Sweet Savannah Sue"	1929	Russell Brooks, Andy Razaf
"What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue"	1929	Andy Razaf	Russell Brooks
"Zonky"	1929	Andy Razaf
"I'm Crazy 'Bout my Baby and My Baby's Crazy 'Bout Me"	1931	Alex Hill
"How Can You Face Me"	1932	Andy Razaf
"Keepin' Out of Mischief Now"	1932	Andy Razaf
"Strange as it Seems"	1932	Andy Razaf
"Ain't Cha Glad"	1933	Andy Razaf
You're Breakin' my Heart"	1933	Spencer Williams
"Stealin' Apples"	1936	Andy Razaf
"Joint is Jumpin'"	1938	Andy Razaf
"Spider and the Fly"	1938	Andy Razaf, J. C. Johnson
"You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It"	1939	Spencer Williams
"Old Grand Dad"	1940
"All That Meat and no Potatoes"	1941	Ed Kirkeby
"Slightly Less Than Wonderful"	1943	George F. Marion

Stage

Source:<ref name=grove-2001/>

Title	City	Location	Date
Keep Shufflin'	Philadelphia	Gibson's Theatre	February 13, 1928
Connie’s Hot Chocolates	New York	Connie's Inn	May 1929
Fireworks of 1930	New York	Lafayette Theatre	June 28, 1930
Hello 1931!	New York	The Harlem Alhambra	December 29, 1930
Early to Bed	Boston	Shubert Theatre	May 24, 1943

Film

Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Title	Director	Year
Hooray for Love	Walter Lang	1935
King of Burlesque	Sidney Lanfield	1936
Soundies shorts	Warren Murray	1941
Stormy Weather	Andrew L. Stone	1943

See also

• List of ragtime composers
• Black and tan clubs
• Cotton Club
• A Jam Session at Victor (1937 jam session in which Waller participated)

Further reading

• Taylor, Stephen (2006). Fats Waller on the Air: The Radio Broadcasts & Discography. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. Template:ISBN.

External links

• Fats Waller piano rollography
• Red Hot Jazz, a selection of Fats Waller's Recordings
• Fats Waller Forever Template:Webarchive, a digital exhibit of Fats Waller's musical career
• Fats Waller Template:Webarchive at Music of the United States of America (MUSA)
• Fats Waller memorabilia
• [[[:Template:AllMusic]] AllMusic]
• Fats Waller recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.