May 21: Jazz pianist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer Fats Waller was born on this date in 1904...

... he died on December 15, 1943 when he was 39 years-old.

Thomas Wright Waller Fats Waller started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to the organ of his father's church four years later. At the age of fourteen he was playing the organ at Harlem's Lincoln Theater and within twelve months he had composed his first rag. Waller's first piano solos, "Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues," were recorded in October 1922 when he was only 18 years old.

He was a skilled pianist, and master of stride piano, having been the prize pupil and later friend and colleague of the greatest of the stride pianists, James P. Johnson. Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in the U.S. and Europe. He was also a prolific songwriter and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as "Honeysuckle Rose," "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Squeeze Me." Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz."

Waller composed many novelty swing tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for paltry amounts. When the compositions became hits, other songwriters claimed them as their own. Many standards are alternatively and sometimes controversially attributed to Waller.

The anonymous sleeve notes on the 1960 RCA (UK) album Handful of Keys state that Waller copyrighted over 400 new tunes, many of which co-written with his closest collaborator Andy Razaf. After Waller's death in 1943, Razaf described his partner as "the soul of melody... a man who made the piano sing... both big in body and in mind... known for his generosity... a bubbling bundle of joy."

 

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Gene Sedric, a clarinetist who played with Waller on some of his 1930s recordings, is quoted in these same sleeve notes recalling Waller's recording technique with considerable admiration. "Fats was the most relaxed man I ever saw in a studio," he said, 'and so he made everybody else relaxed. After a balance had been taken, we'd just need one take to make a side, unless it was a kind of difficult number."
He played with many performers, from Nat Shilkret and 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."

In 1926, Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by gangster Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing. Gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the "surprise guest" at Al Capone's birthday party, and took comfort that the gangsters didn't intend to kill him.

According to rumor, Waller played for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips.

Waller wrote "Squeeze Me" (1919), "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "Ain't Misbehavin'" (1929), "Blue Turning Grey Over You," "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" (1929), "Honeysuckle Rose" (1929), and "Jitterbug Waltz" (1942). He collaborated with the Tin Pan Alley lyricist Andy Razaf. He composed stride piano display pieces such as "Handful of Keys," "Valentine Stomp" and "Viper's Drag."

He enjoyed success touring the U.K. and Ireland in the 1930s. He appeared in one of the first BBC Television broadcasts. While in Britain, Waller also recorded a number of songs for EMI on their Compton Theatre organ located in their Abbey Road Studios in St John's Wood.

He appeared in several feature films and short subject films, most notably Stormy Weather in 1943, which was released  just months before his death. For the hit Broadway show, "Hot Chocolates," he and Razaf wrote "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue" (1929), which became a hit for Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong.

Waller performed Bach organ pieces for small groups on occasion. Waller influenced many pre-bop jazz pianists; Count Basie and Erroll Garner have both reanimated his hit songs (notably, "Ain't Misbehavin'"). In addition to his playing, Waller was known for his many quips during his performances.

Waller contracted pneumonia and died on a cross country train trip near Kansas City, Missouri on December 15, 1943. Upon arrival at Kansas City, word of Waller's death immediately spread throughout the station and onto another train headed west.

A Broadway musical revue showcasing Waller tunes entitled Ain't Misbehavin' was produced in 1978. 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'."

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