Fats Waller
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star in the jazz and swing eras, he toured internationally, achieving critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin' and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999, respectively.
Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf. 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". It is likely that he composed many more popular songs than he has been credited with. When in financial difficulties, he had a habit of selling songs to other writers and performers who claimed them as their own. He died from pneumonia, aged 39.
Early life
Thomas Wright Waller was born in New York City on May 21, 1904, the seventh child of eleven. His parents were Adeline Waller, a musician, and Edward Martin Waller, a Baptist lay preacher and teamster; they originated from rural Virginia but moved to New York after marrying at the age of 16 in the hope of better employment, housing and education prospects. Thomas Waller started playing the piano at the age of six, and later played the reed organ at his father's open-air services. He also studied the double bass and violin, paying for music lessons by working in a grocery store. From an early age he proved adept at playing by ear, and was inspired by hearing Ignacy Jan Paderewski perform at Carnegie Hall. The nickname "Fats" dates from around this time, on account of his being overweight.Waller's mother Adeline developed diabetes, which made her weak; consequently the family moved to an apartment with fewer stairs, in central Harlem. The post-war period saw Harlem become populated with bars and clubs which featured live music, fueling Waller's artistic aspirations. Waller attended DeWitt Clinton High School for a short period of time, but left to pursue his ambition to become a professional musician. He briefly worked polishing jewel boxes and delivering illicit alcoholic drinks during prohibition, with the wages allowing him to afford piano lessons, and at the age of 15 he became an organist at the Lincoln Theatre, where he earned $32 a week. This position allowed him to practice his stagecraft and improvisation.
Edward Waller disapproved of his son's career in music due to his strict religious beliefs, which was a continual source of tension between them. Waller's mother Adeline, who encouraged his aspirations, acted as a mediating influence, but she died on November 10, 1920, from a stroke due to her diabetes. Shortly thereafter Waller moved out to live with a friend, who also knew pianist James P. Johnson, a leading figure of the burgeoning Harlem stride style. The two first met when Waller was aged 16, and Johnson began to teach Waller piano and introduce him to important figures on the Harlem music scene such as Eubie Blake, Willie Gant, Cliff Jackson, Duke Ellington and Willie "the Lion" Smith, bringing him to rent parties where they would perform. Johnson continued to be a friend and mentor throughout Waller's life.
Career
1920s
In 1921 Waller was invited to accompany the vaudeville group Liza and Her Shufflin' Six on a tour of the northeast of the U.S., having impressed Liza with his organ playing at the Lincoln Theatre. While in Boston he met Count Basie, who asked for organ lessonsthese took place back in New York, in the Lincoln. After his return Waller played his first rent party, having improved dramatically from practice and his lessons with James P. Johnson, and he continued to perform at these, as well as undertake short-term contracts at nightclubs and cabarets. Waller's steady job at the Lincoln Theatre transferred to the Lafayette Theatre after a change of management.Via his friend Clarence Williams, a Tin Pan Alley music publisher, Waller became involved with the new recording label Okeh Records. He was originally slated to accompany Sara Martin in "Sugar Blues", but failed to attend the recording session; Williams played instead, which launched his performing career. Williams convinced Fred Hager, the head of artists and repertoire for Okeh, to try Waller again, and his first recordings were "Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues" in October 1922. In December he accompanied Martin in "Mama's Got the Blues" and "Last Go Round Blues". James P. Johnson got Waller work recording piano rolls for QRS, the first of which was "Got to Cool My Doggies Now", recorded in March 1923. In the summer of that year Waller began composing original pieces, his first being "Wildcat Blues", with lyrics by Williams. The pair collaborated on over 70 songs during the subsequent five years, including "Squeeze Me".
Waller continued to accompany blues singers in recordings, play rent parties, and perform at nightclubs, gaining exposure. During this period he met Andy Razaf, a lyricist with whom he collaborated extensively, and who encouraged him to sing as well as play the piano. He met J. C. Johnson in 1923, and began collaborating with him as well. Waller became known for his prolific output of catchy songs, although did not copyright any of them, instead selling them outright to publishers or performing them without getting them published. In 1926 he composed for two revues with Spencer Williams.
In 1926, Waller began his association with the Victor Talking Machine Company after being contacted by Ralph Peer. On November 17, 1926, he recorded "St. Louis Blues" and his composition "Lenox Avenue Blues", his first solo recordings, and on December 1, 1927, he recorded "Red Hot Dan" with Thomas Morris, the first recording of Waller singing.
1929 saw the composition of some of Waller's most highly-regarded songs, such as "Ain't Misbehavin', "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling", "Honeysuckle Rose", and "Black and Blue". To avoid having to pay more in child support to Edith, whom he had divorced in 1923, Waller sold the rights for twenty of his songs to Irving Mills for $500. This was a small fraction of their value. As a consequence he earned only the musician's share of the royalties from the subsequent recordings.
1930s
Waller's radio career began in December 1930, when he featured on a new show for CBS playing the piano and, unusually until this point, singing. Joe Davis, who had become Waller's publisher and manager after the sale of his material to Irving Mills, began to market Waller as a singer as well as a pianist, and he recorded the solo songs "I'm Crazy about My Baby" and "Draggin' My Heart Around" on March 31, 1931.Waller began to play regularly at the Hot Feet Club, where he developed his storytelling asides and style as a raconteur: "the cocked eye brow, the finger punctuating the air for emphasis, and eyes rolling heavenward whenever he said something blue". In the summer of 1931 he visited Paris with Spencer Williams, playing in the city's nightclubs and enjoying the much lower levels of racial discrimination and absence of prohibition. Davis appointed Marty Bloom as Waller's manager after Waller's return, but Bloom resigned the position shortly thereafter and it was taken by Phil Ponce, who was experienced in showbusiness and had established and managed the Ponce Sisters.
Ponce decided to focus on Waller's radio career, and secured a two-year contract with WLW in Cincinnati, where he was given his own program, "Fats Waller's Rhythm Club". Waller also played for their show "Moon River", but was not credited due to his own show's "raucous and comedic reputation". After the contract ended in late 1933, Waller moved back to New York. A sequence of CBS radio performances in March and April of 1934 provided extensive publicity, and led to his own regular show, "The Rhythm Club", as well as regular appearances on other CBS programs.
This radio success led to RCA Victor offering a recording contract, assuming that the records would at least sell well in the black community, but they unexpectedly proved to have wide appeal, and became bestsellers. Victor arranged for tours for Waller and a group of musicians as the Fats Waller Band in 1935, and while back in New York during breaks between fixtures the group recorded a number of songs, the most popular of which was "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter". Part of the tour involved promoting the release of the film Hooray for Love, in which Waller had appeared earlier that year, and the success of this publicity activity led to him featuring in King of Burlesque.
The band continued to tour and record over the next few years, but Waller's drinking became heavier and his behavior more erratic, and interest from promoters declined after a racially-motivated boycott led to poorly-attended events in South Carolina and Florida in 1937. Ed Kirkeby had taken over as manager in 1935 due to Ponce's ill health, and he attempted to revive domestic interest in Waller by arranging a tour of Britain and Scandinavia in 1938, where jazz was increasing in popularity. The tour was a great success, with Waller recording for HMV and appearing on the new medium of television in addition to his live performances, but it was curtailed due to the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany. Waller had been developing his interest in composition and classical music, inspired by George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F. He began to incorporate more classical themes into his music, and took up the violin. While in London he composed the impressionist London Suite, representing different areas of the city he had visited, and this was recorded by HMV.