Everything about Fats Waller totally explained
Fats Waller (born
Thomas Wright Waller on
May 21,
1904 —
December 15,
1943) was an
American jazz pianist,
organist,
composer and
comedic entertainer.
A skilled pianist -- widely recognized as a master of
stride piano -- Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in his homeland and in Europe. Waller was also a prolific songwriter, with many songs he wrote or co-wrote still known to modern audiences, such as "
Honeysuckle Rose", "
Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer
Oscar Levant dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz" in a favorable comparison to Russian pianist
Vladimir Horowitz. A prolific composer of novelty swing tunes in the 1920s and 30s, Waller sold many of his compositions for relatively small sums, and as they became hits, other songwriters had already claimed them as their own. Thus many standards are alternatively, controversially attributed to Waller.
Biography
He was born in New York City on 10th Avenue to a
Baptist minister father. In 1888, when the Waller family migrated from Virginia to New York City they chose Waverly Place in Greenwich Village in order to belong to the Abyssinian Baptist Church. When the church moved uptown to
Harlem the family followed and settled eventually at 107 West 134th street. His weight of nearly 300 pounds (136 kg) and perpetual drinking habit are believed to have contributed to his premature death.
Musical contributions
An excellent and much copied jazz pianist, Waller is considered one of the very best to have played in the stride style. With a touch that varied from subtle and extremely light to very powerful, he was a master of dynamics and tension and release. However, it was his singing, songwriting, and lovable, roguish stage personality that sold his hundreds of recordings for
RCA Victor, in a day when much of society didn't recognize jazz as "serious" music. He played with many performers, from
Gene Austin to Erskine Tate to
Adelaide Hall, but his greatest success came with his own five- or six-piece
combo, "Fats Waller and his Rhythm". Fats Waller was such an impressive and talented pianist that he came to the attention of the rich and famous—- sometimes whether he wanted to or not. Waller was in
Chicago in 1926 and, upon leaving the building where he was performing, he was kidnapped by four men, who bundled him into a car and drove off. The car later pulled up outside the Hawthorne Inn, owned by infamous gangster
Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, to find a party in full swing. With a gun against his back, Waller was pushed towards a piano, whereupon the gangsters demanded he start playing. A terrified Waller suddenly realized he was the "surprise guest" at Al Capone's birthday party. Soon comforted by the fact that he wouldn't die, Waller played, according to rumor, for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash given to him by Capone himself and by party-goers as tips.
|-
! Year Recorded
! Title
! Genre
! Label
! Year Inducted
! Notes
|- align=center
| 1934
|
Honeysuckle Rose
| Jazz (Single)
| Victor
| 1999
|- align=center
| 1929
|
Ain't Misbehavin'
| Jazz (Single)
| Victor
| 1984
|
Listed in the National Recording Registryby the
Library of Congress in
2004.
|- align=center
|}
Revival and posthumous awards
A
Broadway musical revue showcasing Waller tunes entitled
Ain't Misbehavin' was produced in
1978. (The show and a star of the show,
Nell Carter, won
Tony Awards for the show.) The show opened at the
Longacre Theatre and ran for over 1600 performances. It was revived on Broadway in
1988. Performed by five African American actors, it included such songs as "
Honeysuckle Rose", "This Joint Is Jumpin'", and "
Ain't Misbehavin'".
Waller's music is featured in the 2008 movie "
Be Kind Rewind".
Inductions
Popular culture
- Referenced in the 1979 movie The Muppet Movie.
- Referenced in Robert Pinsky's poem "History of My Heart."
- An Episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway had Wayne Brady perform as Fats Waller doing the ad-libbed safari-themed song "Lion Nibblin' On My Toes".
- His organ music is prominently featured in the David Lynch cult hit, Eraserhead.
- A part of Alligator Crawl is featured during the "Intermission" sequences of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- The 2008 film Be Kind Rewind features a young man who believes Fats Waller was born in the video shop where he works. Despite eventually discovering the story to be false, he brings his neighbors together to make a film celebrating the spirit of Fats and of their community.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fats Waller'.
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