Fats Waller

Fats Waller ranked among jazz’s supreme pianists while simultaneously ranking among its most explosively humorous performers, a dual identity that frequently caused one side to overshadow the other. Despite his considerable bulk, his touch remained remarkably buoyant and supple; operating in the stride idiom pioneered by James P. Johnson, he generated ferocious swing through an indefatigable left hand that poured out octaves and tenths in unbroken, rapid succession. He was also the first to integrate both pipe organ and Hammond organ into jazz performance, christening the former the “God box”; on either instrument he transferred his buoyant rhythmic feel to the foot pedals and crisp right-hand articulation while continually varying timbres through registration changes. As both composer and improviser he maintained an unflagging melodic imagination, enriching the jazz canon with exuberant yet oddly tender pieces such as “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “Blue Turning Grey Over You,” and the remarkable “Jitterbug Waltz.”

Throughout his life and afterward, however, the public chiefly recognized Waller for his expansive comic persona and droll vocals, which he applied even to inferior material that Victor Records required him to record with his agile ensemble, Fats Waller & His Rhythm. Regardless of whether the tune was a timeless standard or the feeblest Tin Pan Alley trifle, nearly every side reveals an appealing blend of rowdy wit, propulsive rhythm, and superlative piano work. Virtually all of his studio recordings now appear on RCA’s intermittently issued series The Complete Fats Waller, which began on LP in 1975 and remained active into the 1990s.

Thomas “Fats” Waller grew up in Harlem, where his father served as a Baptist lay preacher and his mother performed on piano and organ. He began piano studies at age six and played in a school orchestra directed by Edgar Sampson, later of Chick Webb renown. Following his mother’s death when he was fourteen, he moved in with pianist Russell Brooks, through whom he met and received instruction from James P. Johnson; he also took classical lessons from Carl Bohm and the renowned pianist Leopold Godowsky. After cutting his first record for Okeh in 1922—“Birmingham Blues”/“Muscle Shoals Blues”—he accompanied numerous blues singers and served as house pianist and organist at rent parties, movie theaters, and nightclubs. During the early and middle 1920s he gained notice as a composer, forging a highly productive partnership with lyricist Andy Razaf that yielded three late-decade Broadway productions: Keep Shufflin’, Load of Coal, and Hot Chocolates.

Waller commenced recording for Victor in 1926; among his earliest important releases for the label were a set of outstanding 1929 solo piano performances of his own works, including “Handful of Keys” and “Smashing Thirds.” Upon signing an exclusive Victor contract in 1934, he launched the extended, high-output series of discs with His Rhythm that brought widespread celebrity and generated several hits such as “Your Feet’s Too Big,” “The Joint Is Jumpin’,” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” Film appearances began in 1935 with Hooray for Love and King of Burlesque, while radio broadcasts, which had started as early as 1923, continued regularly. In 1938 he toured Europe, recorded on organ in London for HMV, and participated in one of the earliest television transmissions. Returning to London the next spring, he documented his most ambitious work, “London Suite” for piano and percussion, before undertaking a broad European itinerary that was ultimately aborted by fears of imminent war with Germany. Although aware of the era’s big-band vogue, Waller’s own attempts to lead large ensembles proved short-lived.

Throughout the 1940s his American touring intensified; he supplied songs for the musical Early to Bed, continued appearing in motion pictures—including a notable sequence in Stormy Weather featuring an all-star band with Benny Carter, Slam Stewart, and Zutty Singleton—and maintained a steady flow of recordings while consuming food and drink in prodigious amounts. Prolonged alimony disputes, combined with excessive indulgence and, quite possibly, the strain of not being fully respected as a serious artist, gradually undermined his health. After falling ill during an engagement at Hollywood’s Zanzibar Room in December 1943, he boarded the Santa Fe Chief for the journey back to New York; he succumbed to pneumonia aboard the train during a stop at Union Station in Kansas City.

Although Waller, like many comedians, harbored classical aspirations and wished to emulate George Gershwin by writing concert works, the racial constraints of the first half of the twentieth century rendered such ambitions improbable. Nevertheless, his influence proved enduring: pianists from Count Basie, who studied with Waller, through Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, and Dave Brubeck, along with innumerable others, absorbed and extended his legacy.