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Fats Waller
Originally published in 1977, this full story of his life and career is generally recognized as the best work ever written on Fats Waller, the famous stride pianist known for his humorous performance style and for composing such jazz classics as Ain't Misbehavin'.
235 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 21, 2019
Although some bias is to be expected due to the fact that this book is co-written by Fats' son (a pianist and composer in his own right), it contains some great anecdotes from those who were close to Fats. There appears to be no sugarcoating of Waller's extreme behavior, yet his great abilities as a musician and entertainer shine through. Waller longed to produce work on the level of Gershwin and the reader is left with a sense of regret over what might have been had he lived longer.
May 21, 2022
Gives you more than it promises. The biography isn't just a personal look into the life of Fats Waller, but a look into the whole 20's and 30's scene.
How did all those (now) world famous musicians make it as jazz/stride artists in these early days? Turns out even exceptional pianists can't make an easy living.
Between playing your ass off in the competitive Harlem "rent parties", haunting cabarets nightly, coming up with background music for theater crowds, creating piano rolls, writing dozens of songs for revues and other productions, showing up to studio dates, and contributing to radio broadcasts.......Fats was a BUSY man who had to constantly be on the look out for some cash (or 'trash' as he calls it).
It doesn't help that he's getting kidnapped by the mafia, chased down constantly for alimony, and climbing trees to avoid prohibition raids (one of which Willie "The Lion" Smith couldn't believe Fats got up there before him).
I absolutely loved reading all the anecdotal tales Maurice Waller, and others in the industry, had about his father. Some of the most suprising/interesting highlights for me:
1) Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton actually could have been on a record together (as an old style versus new swing playing concept) if Morton showed up for the studio date.
2) Just how much music Fats gave us away for extremely quick cash and literally....... hamburgers. Decades of royalty money wasted on some extremely famous tunes (even "Ain't Misbehavin") just for some booze trash.
3) Fats Waller taught Count Basie everything he knows about how to play the organ. In general, I had no clue Fats thought of the organ as his primary instrument. I guess this makes sense seeing as he was so eager to learn it as a kid he'd sneak through the churches basement window when no one was around.
4) Fats had such a fun time in jail he didn't want to leave (to the dismay of all his music and industry friends going around collecting bail money).
5) There was a privately commisioned, and never released, record made in 1929 by a Scottish man who wanted to play bagpipes with Wallers quickly assembled group. Somewhere in Scotland, in somebodies great grandpas house, is this entirely original mash of sounds.
6) The fact that Waller and Andy Razaf could literally sit down, and in a matter of 20 minutes, churn out the music and lyrics for a new song (and a boatload of standards were made this way) is borderline supernatural. I understand, and it's totally deserved, why Fats called Andy "the goose who laid the golden eggs".
7) An 18 year old Art Tatum absolutely obliterated a whole generation of older masters in a play-off (James P, Willie Smith, etc). Not so suprising but the level of talent in a single dingy basement of any place in Harlem that happened to have a piano is incredible. The mutual respect among all the musicians is great to see.
Let me leave off with a quote by the French jazz critic Hugues Panassie, who perfectly sums up why Fats was the purest distillation of the jazz age and a great man in any regard:
"I found almost as much pleasure as watching him as in listening to him. His appearance when he played was a complete reflection of his style. The body leaned slightly backwards, a half smile on his lips which seemed to say 'I'm really enjoying myself; wait a bit, now listen to that, not bad, eh?'. He rested his hands on the piano and hardly moved them at all, his fingers alone seeking out the necessary notes.
He only raised his hands a very little from the keyboard. Thus the incredible power of his playing proceeds not so much from the rapidity of his attack as from its heaviness. Its force is not nervous at all, but muscular. Instead of bringing his impetus from a height to strike the keys brutally, rather Fats attacks them very closely, and seems to want to bury them in the piano.
He lived music constantly but thought on it never, and it was only by questioning him that one had the oppurtunity to hear him make some exceedingly intelligent observations.
In reality, he loved life in all its aspects, he loved to laugh, he lived to drink......and couldn't he drink! I have never known a man able to imbibe so much at one time.
In everything he did can be recognized an indomitable vitality, an easy force sure of itself, a joy in living which really does you good. That is why all the jazz musicians liked so much to play with him, to feel behind him the rock-like support, voluminous, unchanging. As in addition to all this Fats was a grand creator, an admirable piano technician and had the greatest possible swing, it is no exaggeration to say that he was one of the four or five great personalities in jazz music."
How did all those (now) world famous musicians make it as jazz/stride artists in these early days? Turns out even exceptional pianists can't make an easy living.
Between playing your ass off in the competitive Harlem "rent parties", haunting cabarets nightly, coming up with background music for theater crowds, creating piano rolls, writing dozens of songs for revues and other productions, showing up to studio dates, and contributing to radio broadcasts.......Fats was a BUSY man who had to constantly be on the look out for some cash (or 'trash' as he calls it).
It doesn't help that he's getting kidnapped by the mafia, chased down constantly for alimony, and climbing trees to avoid prohibition raids (one of which Willie "The Lion" Smith couldn't believe Fats got up there before him).
I absolutely loved reading all the anecdotal tales Maurice Waller, and others in the industry, had about his father. Some of the most suprising/interesting highlights for me:
1) Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton actually could have been on a record together (as an old style versus new swing playing concept) if Morton showed up for the studio date.
2) Just how much music Fats gave us away for extremely quick cash and literally....... hamburgers. Decades of royalty money wasted on some extremely famous tunes (even "Ain't Misbehavin") just for some booze trash.
3) Fats Waller taught Count Basie everything he knows about how to play the organ. In general, I had no clue Fats thought of the organ as his primary instrument. I guess this makes sense seeing as he was so eager to learn it as a kid he'd sneak through the churches basement window when no one was around.
4) Fats had such a fun time in jail he didn't want to leave (to the dismay of all his music and industry friends going around collecting bail money).
5) There was a privately commisioned, and never released, record made in 1929 by a Scottish man who wanted to play bagpipes with Wallers quickly assembled group. Somewhere in Scotland, in somebodies great grandpas house, is this entirely original mash of sounds.
6) The fact that Waller and Andy Razaf could literally sit down, and in a matter of 20 minutes, churn out the music and lyrics for a new song (and a boatload of standards were made this way) is borderline supernatural. I understand, and it's totally deserved, why Fats called Andy "the goose who laid the golden eggs".
7) An 18 year old Art Tatum absolutely obliterated a whole generation of older masters in a play-off (James P, Willie Smith, etc). Not so suprising but the level of talent in a single dingy basement of any place in Harlem that happened to have a piano is incredible. The mutual respect among all the musicians is great to see.
Let me leave off with a quote by the French jazz critic Hugues Panassie, who perfectly sums up why Fats was the purest distillation of the jazz age and a great man in any regard:
"I found almost as much pleasure as watching him as in listening to him. His appearance when he played was a complete reflection of his style. The body leaned slightly backwards, a half smile on his lips which seemed to say 'I'm really enjoying myself; wait a bit, now listen to that, not bad, eh?'. He rested his hands on the piano and hardly moved them at all, his fingers alone seeking out the necessary notes.
He only raised his hands a very little from the keyboard. Thus the incredible power of his playing proceeds not so much from the rapidity of his attack as from its heaviness. Its force is not nervous at all, but muscular. Instead of bringing his impetus from a height to strike the keys brutally, rather Fats attacks them very closely, and seems to want to bury them in the piano.
He lived music constantly but thought on it never, and it was only by questioning him that one had the oppurtunity to hear him make some exceedingly intelligent observations.
In reality, he loved life in all its aspects, he loved to laugh, he lived to drink......and couldn't he drink! I have never known a man able to imbibe so much at one time.
In everything he did can be recognized an indomitable vitality, an easy force sure of itself, a joy in living which really does you good. That is why all the jazz musicians liked so much to play with him, to feel behind him the rock-like support, voluminous, unchanging. As in addition to all this Fats was a grand creator, an admirable piano technician and had the greatest possible swing, it is no exaggeration to say that he was one of the four or five great personalities in jazz music."
February 6, 2018
It was a charming life, Fats Waller's. But his son as a reporter on his life leaves a lot to be desired, if you judged, on writing quality alone. Still, Waller comes across as an exuberant, charming, rakish man; a character. He was a great artist. His son did not have the skill to probe deeply but his brief account has merit and passages of real interest.
January 30, 2020
A great look into the Harlem Jazz Scene of the early twentieth century
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