Biography
A descendant of Madagascar’s royal family, Andy Razaf brought aristocratic refinement to his lyric writing. Throughout the formative decades of American popular music he supplied words, and occasionally both words and music, for numerous landmark songs and stage productions. He furnished the lyrics for the shows Keep Shufflin, Hot Chocolates, and Blackbirds of 1930, each regarded as a significant achievement of the 1920s and 1930s. Razaf teamed repeatedly with Fats Waller, resulting in such enduring successes as Honeysuckle Rose, Ain’t Misbehavin, How Can You Face Me, and The Joint Is Jumpin. Additional partnerships linked him with Don Redman, Paul Denniker, James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, and William Weldon. For Phil Harris he supplied the lyrics of the major novelty hit That’s What I Like About the South. He also added words to the instrumentals Reefer Man, Knock Me a Kiss, and Christopher Columbus, the last of which Waller transformed into a novelty success. Recording occasionally under the pseudonym Tommy Thompson, Razaf delivered vocal performances of Back in Your Own Backyard and Nobody Knows How Much I Love You, accompanied at the piano by Waller. A stroke later left him an invalid for much of his life, yet his collaborations with Waller and others continue to appear on numerous CD reissues.
Albums