Fats Waller
From Harlem Renaissance
The Life of Thomas Fats Waller
Fats Waller was a musician during the Harlem Renaissance (see Main Page).Main Page Born in New York, May 21, 1904, he was one of the great stride pianists of the twenties and known to be king of stride piano. He first began as an organ player because his dad was a preacher. He soon after won a talent contest in 1918 by playing James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout". Later on, Fats decided to learn piano.
As Fats Waller grew up learning organ and piano he first started his career in 1922 and he played for rent parties, movie theaters and he also accompanied Vaudeville acts as well. In 1922 he had a recording debut as a soloist for Okeh and in 1927 Fats had made many recordings as an accompanist for several blues players. Fats Waller played with his old piano teacher, James P. Johnson, and wrote songs for James' show "Keep Shufflin." The young Fats Waller was later known as one of the legendary kings of Harlem stride piano. Fats Waller was known to perform in the [1] Connie's Inn(Harlem night spot) with his jazz group.
Connie's Inn was originally founded by Fats' parents, and was later turn into an area for broadways and jazz bands, here is where Fats Waller became a big hit.
The Fletcher Orchestra did many songs that Fats Waller made when he began to end his career at Connie's Inn when it started to only do Broadways. The Fletcher Orchestra played songs like the "Whiteman Stomp" that Fats Waller made and he began a partnership now with instead of his old piano teacher, James Johnson, a man named Andy Razaf instead and together they made songs like the "Honeysuckle Rose", which became very famous thereafter. Because of such a big hit, Razaf and Waller made many more songs, like Hot Chocolate with the very famous Louis Armstrong on trumpet in 1929. Not only was Fats a great musician but one of the finest Jazz composers of his time. An example such as "Ain't Misbehavin" was known to be inroduced by Louis Armstrong and had showed up again in 1978 on Broadway revue composed by Fats with the music.
They also made the song "Aint Misbehaven" that became so fashionable that the song in itself brought almost absolute fame to the Waller-Razaf collaboration. Waller and Razaf also cooperated with James P. Johnson and made a musical out of "Keep Shufflin," a show that Fats Waller had made music for with Johnson. Some of his accomplishments included some appearances with the famous blues singer Bessie Smith a little after he wrote the music to the show, "Keep Shufflin." Fats Waller began to have his unique kind of jazz and its stride to the music. It was a mix of ragtime, classical, blues, and boogie-woogie. When he was at a party, he played piano and impressed everyone there.
An executer of Victor Records was so impressed that he arranged a recording rehearsal with the company. Fats Waller began an arrangement with the record company which he was in until his death in 1943. For then on, most of the records that Fats Waller put out were under the name of "Fats Waller and His Rhythm." This group had six musicians that worked with him very often, including the semi-famous Zutty Singleton See Zutty[2] From thereafter he performed famously on radios, nightclubs, and other things. In the early 40s he went on a train from Kansas City and unexpectedly died of Pneumonia at only 39. See this video of the song "Ain't Misbehaven:" [3]
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His Music
Fats Waller was in many bands and played many songs. He had his own songs and also played for silent movies and TV shows. Because he played in so many things, he had a lot of songs for only a 25 year career. Here are some of the songs he made: [4] Aint Misbehavin [5] This Joint is Jumpin [6] Your Feet Are Too Big [7] By the Light of The Moon [8] Honeysuckle Rose You might notice in these videos his shouts he made aside during his music performance or comic effects at times can prove his sense of comedy. Fats Waller a master of stride music, along with James Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith. Including his pieces of his stride with Johnson tradition his stride performances and music included Handful of Keys, Smashing Thirds, Numb Fumblin, Valentine Stomp, Viper’s Drag, Alligator Crawl and Clothes Line Ballet clearly illustrated and represented his expressive style. was a descendant of ragtime its difference being that swing is much more elaborate. Swing took much more technique as well, which was what Fats Waller knew best. The use of rhythm that he had perfected and created in his own style of playing was in classic stride tradition. His career as an organist and pianist made him famous because of not only his singing but his musical perfection. A technique that Fats Waller commonly used was having an instrument, usually a bass, keeping to the beat of it. He would also have his left hand keeping the beat with the bass and the other playing, this was a common use for many swing musicians. His contributions was an important and as for a big thing in his life. For one he was known as the "king of stride." Not only was technique important to Fats Waller "It is my contention, and always has been, that the thing that makes a tune click is the melody." was what he said, because melody was just as important, if not more important than technique for Fats Waller. But technique was still important to him. He developed a use of comic effects spoken or shouted aside, showed at times during his shows he could make a genuine sense of comedy; more often, however, he used his wit to draw subtle but unmistakable attention to the vapidity of the material he was expected to record.
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Quotes Said by Him
"This is so nice it must be illegal."
"So easy when you don't know how."
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Defined Vocabulary Words:
accompanist: Someone that either sings or plays at a musical accompaniment.
fashionable: Someone that can be conforming to the fashion and fits well with it, where you can also be more observant. William W and Nikita R
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
URL's:
Miller and Gallup, Owen and James. "Thomas "Fats" Waller (1904-1943)". <http://www.redhotjazz.com/fats.html>.Mike DonovanFailteFarm@att.netlp with the recordings on this page.
"Fats Waller Forever". Institute of Jazz Studies Dana Library, Rutgers University Libraries. 2002 <http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/fw/fatsmain.htm>.
"Biographies Life and times of the great ones". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. <http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_waller_fats.htm>.""Fats" Waller (Thomas Waller)".
Licencing agreements are signed with ASCAP, BMI and the FOX AGENCY. <http://alevy.com/waller.htm>.
Fats Waller (Thomas Waller)". Licencing agreements are signed with ASCAP, . <http://www.palomar.edu/dsps/actc/mla/mlainternet.html>.
"Fats Waller Quotes." http://thinkexist.com/quotes/fats_waller/
Article:
"Waller, Fats". ALYN SHIPTON (1), BILL DOBBINS (2). 2007 <http://www.grovemusic.com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/shared/views/article.html?section=music.48692.2&authstatuscode=202>.
Books:
Giovanni, Nikki. Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance.
Boston, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003.
Wintz D., Cary. Harlem Speaks A living of the Harlem Renaissance. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2007.
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