Waller, Fats (1904–43) US jazz and blues pianist and composer, b. Thomas Waller. He wrote many successful tunes, including “Honeysuckle Rose” and “Ain't Misbehavin'”.

Fats Waller 1904–1943

Musician, composer, singer, entertainer

At a Glance…

Selected discocraphy

Sources

Fats Waller has been called one of the most entertaining and vivacious singers, composers, and pianists in jazz history. Popular in his own lifetime and still today, he was a prolific songwriter—he wrote more than 450 songs—and also made more than 500 records. TCSN.net said of Waller, “The spirited personality of the man was so powerful that he was able to easily transmit it even through the narrow boundaries of a record groove.”

Born Thomas Wright Waller on May 21, 1904, in New York City, Waller was an early comer to music, singing in his church choir and picking up his first bits of organ playing from his mother. Waller’s parents, Adeline Lockett and Edward Martin Waller, had twelve children—only six of whom made it to adulthood—and were deeply religious. Waller’s father was a preacher at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and his mother helped out at the church, and played the organ there on Sundays. Because of this, Waller and his siblings were raised with the integrity and values that were necessary for them to survive the rowdy Harlem streets.

Waller attended Public School 89 in Harlem where he quickly became involved in the school’s music program.

There he learned to play bass and violin, and it wasn’t long before he was playing piano in the school’s orchestra. He gained some important performance experience while taking part in marches and concerts, and these became the precursor to a very entertaining career.

Waller’s father may have wished his son would follow in his footsteps, but by the age of 15, Fats Waller was already working as a professional organist at the Lincoln Theater. This was his first paying job, according to Jass.com, “playing organ background music for silent films.” He took over the job from a woman named Mazie Mullins who is said to have helped inspire Waller early on to improve and perfect his organ playing skills.

Waller’s mother died when he was 14 and he went to live with a family friend, Russell Brooks. According to GetMusic.com it was around this time that he met one of his most beneficial teachers, James P. Johnson. Johnson was a well-known pianist famous for his stride tickler style of piano playing. Stride piano, according to ClassicJazz.about.com is a style where the “left hand jumps from a bass note to a chord that is played on the upbeat.” Equally important to this style of playing is “the dazzling improvisational embellishments by the

At a Glance…

Born on May 21, 1904, in New York, NY; died of pneumonia on December 15, 1943, in Kansas City, MO; son of Adeline Lockett and Edward Martin Waller; married Edith Hatchet (divorced 1924); children: Thomas; married Anita Rutherford; children: Maurice and Ronald. Education: Attended Julliard.

Career: Lincoln Theater, organist; pianist at various block parties and clubs, including Leroy’s Caberet; toured with vaudeville group, “Liza and Her Shufflin’ Six;” hosted WLW Radio show; film appearances: Hooray for Love, 1935; King of Burlesque, 1935; Ain’t Misbehaving’ 1941; and Stormy Weather, 1943.

Awards: Down Beat Hall of Fame, 1968.

right hand known in the business as “tricks,” or “fast-moving flourishes that break up or ornament the melody line,” according to Atlantic Monthly. Anyone listening to Waller’s piano music can immediately recognize these elements in his playing, and it was when he was but 15 years old that he began practicing them.

Studying under Johnson opened a new world to Waller. Not only did Johnson help him get a job at Leroy’s Cabaret on 135th Street in New York, but he also introduced him to many famous musicians, including Luckey Roberts, Willie Grant, Duke Ellington, Stephen Henderson, Eubie Blake, and Willie “the Lion” Smith. At this time Waller also started playing in clubs and at block parties with other up and coming Harlem musicians, and it was at one of these block parties that he met his first wife, Edith Hatchet. They lived quietly and happily for a little while until Waller was offered a position with a vaudeville group called “Liza and Her Shufflin’ Six.” He went on tour with them—very successfully—and it was while he was on tour that he met Bill “Count” Basie. Waller and Basie became good friends and Waller eventually ended up teaching Basie how to play the organ, something that Basie, too, became famous for later on in his career. Fats also studied under Leopold Godowsky in Vienna and Carl Bohn in New York, both famous pianists at the time.

Edith and Fats had a son, Thomas Waller, Jr., but despite this and protestations from his wife, Waller continued to tour and play music at clubs and parties. He loved his music far too much to abandon it, so in 1923 Edith divorced Waller. One of the great tragedies of early Jazz music came later when Waller was jailed for not paying alimony to Edith. To get out of his imprisonment Waller was forced to sell some of his popular songs for a fraction of their real worth, and because of this, experts believe that some songs regarded as the property of other musicians were actually Waller originals. Unfortunately, the world will never know. In the 1930s Waller married his second wife, Anita Rutherford. They had two sons: Maurice and Ronald.

In the meantime, Waller’s career was really beginning to take off. He had recorded his first songs, “Birmingham Blues” and “Muscles Shoals Blues,” in 1922, and in 1926 his first pipe organ recordings were done. And then on December 1, 1927, Waller made his singing debut with the Ted Lewis Band singing “I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby.” Although not his first intention, it was his singing paired with his fantastic piano playing abilities that made Waller a national celebrity. According to Get Music, he was an “exuberantly funny entertainer,” and people enjoyed hearing his amusing vocal interpretations. Experts have commented that this is why he hasn’t always been taken as a serious musician, but no one hearing his improvisational piano could believe that he did not have great musical ability.

It was during this time period that he wrote the score for the Broadway show Hot Chocolates with lyrics supplied by his friend Andy Razaf. One of Waller’s most famous songs, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” comes from that show. Waller also teamed up with Razaf for two more Broadway shows: Keep Shufflin and Load of Coal.

In 1932 Waller went to Cincinnati and joined the artist staff of the WLW radio station. There he instituted the famous Fats Waller Rhythm Club. The first recordings of the Fats Waller Rhythm Club, on May 16, 1934, marked a new trend in jazz, one that frightened the radio personnel. According to TCSN.com, “Waller had definite strong feelings about allowing room for creativity and inventiveness by his groups and was averse to using written arrangements preferring instead to talk things over with his musicians, with mutually agreed upon routines and solo spots.” This was unheard of. Before this, musicians had practiced heavily before going on the air, but despite qualms from the radio staff, Fats and his Rhythm Club became a national sensation with their looser, although technically accurate, improvisational style.

From here on out, Fats Waller became a household name. He appeared in four films: Hooray for Love, King of Burlesque, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Stormy Weather. He made several tours of Europe, playing everywhere, even on the cathedral organs of Notre Dame. He accompanied Florence Hills and Bessie Smith, both well-known singers. And he collaborated with many other talented musicians, including Alberta Hunter, Sidney Bechet, Jack Teagarden, and Fletcher Henderson. In 1942 he gave a jazz concert in Carnegie Hall that, although receiving bad reviews because Waller seemed a trifle stiff and uncomfortable, was a monumental occasion in the life of the young preacher’s son from Harlem.

In 1943, in the prime of Waller’s career, he died. He was on a train back from Hollywood that had stopped in Kansas City, Missouri when he was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. It was a rather unglamorous end to the man who brought the world songs like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Blue Turning Grey Over You,” and “Jitterbug Waltz.” But his legacy lives on. One of the most popular and technically-gifted musicians of his day, Waller’s talent has stood the test of time.

Selected discocraphy

Fats Waller in London, 1922.

Fats at the Organ, 1923.

Fats Waller and His Buddies, 1927.

You Rascal You, 1929.

Jugglin’ Jive of Fats Waller and His Orchestra, 1938.

Fine Arabian Stuff, 1939.

Last Testament: His Final Recordings, 1943.

Sources

Periodicals

Atlantic Monthly, March 2000.

Online

http://www.users.yknet.yk.ca

http://www.infozine.com

http://www.worldbook.com

http://www.getmusic.com

http://freepress.org

http://alevy.com

http://www.jazzbymail.com

http://www.tcsn.net

http://www.theatreorgans.com

http://www.redhotjazz.com

http://encarta.msn.com

http://www.downbeat.com

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org

http://www.britannica.com

http://www.duke.edu

http://www.jazzpromo.com

http://classicjazz.about.com

http://jass.com

—Catherine Victoria Donaldson