Release Date: 09 January 2003
Label: Naxos - Jazz Legends / Naxos Jazz Legends
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943269220
Genres: Jazz
Description
FATS WALLER Vol.2The Original 1939 Associated TranscriptionsAlthough a few devout incense-wavers at the altar of Jazzstill carp at his humour the boisterous Fats Waller remains one of the mostpopular of all the great jazz performers, admired even by those who are nototherwise fans of such music. Seldom obtrusively virtuosic, his delivery is sofluent, so uninhibited that we tend to take his technical skill for granted -his ebullience which carries all before it has brought jazz to a widerfraternity, assuring Fats a place in the Hall of Fame along-side Armstrong,Ellington, Bechet and very few others. Individuality was his keynote anddespite accusations of commercialism, this colossal pianist, organist,vocalist, songwriter and comic never forgot that he was also an entertainer.The Cheshire cat grin, the antics, the sarcasm and self-mockery were all partof an act that never undermined the power of an awesome left hand.Thomas 'Fats' Waller was born in Waverley, New York on 21May 1904 but as both of Tom's parents were natives of Virginia he also had theSouth in his soul. Edward Martin Waller, his father, a preacher at the HarlemAbyssinian Baptist Church hoped vainly that his son might follow in hisfootsteps; his mother, Adeline, sang and was both a skilled pianist and churchorganist. As a child Tom was close to his mother and sang hymns to heraccompaniment at the harmonium, which by the age of five he had also mastered.As a teenager already dubbed 'Fats', a rotund young Thomas Waller played violinand piano in the orchestra of Public School 89. At the same time, amidpronouncements of 'Devil's music' from his over-zealous father, he avidlydevoured the latest ragtime and the Harlem stride rhythms popularised by Willie'The Lion' Smith (1897-1973) and his own preceptor James P. Johnson(1894-1955).After a spell as an organist and pianist at various New Yorksilent-movie theatres, during the mid-1920s Fats first unleashed his outgoing,larger-than-life personality upon an audience as a vaudevillepianist-entertainer. Leading a trio in Philadelphia, he also worked withErskine Tate in Chicago and appeared and made records with the FletcherHenderson and Ted Lewis orchestras in New York. His work as a composer whichhad already begun around 1922 produced an intermittent trickle ofcharacteristic piano solos - by the mid-1930s these included \Viper's Drag,"Handful Of Keys", "African Ripples", "Clothesline Ballet", B Flat Blues,"Zonky", "Alligator Crawl", "Russian Fantasy" and several others which wouldremain unpublished for the duration of his lifetime. Although he recordedprolifically from 1922 on, he was not particularly well-known outside New York- but by 1931 radio had remedied that.In terms of composition, from the late 1920s he alsodelivered a more commercially-inspired stream of fine songs, mostly incollaboration with Spencer Williams (1889-1965), Clarence Williams (1898-1965)and Andy Razaf (1895-1973). With Razaf as his collaborator he first found famewith the
Tracklisting
Various
Waller, Fats
Waller, Fats
Venuti, Joe
Vaughan
Various Artists
Various
Various
