The Real Fats Waller: Volume 1 (1922-1924)

Jazz pianist virtuoso, organist, composer and grand entertainer, Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller was born on May 21, 1904 in Harlem, New York. He became one of the most popular and influential performers of his era and a master of stride piano playing, finding critical and commercial success in both the United States and abroad, particularly in Europe. Waller was also a prolific songwriter, with many of his own compositions becoming huge commercial successes such as "Ain't Misbehaving'" & "Honeysuckle Rose" with his longtime lyricist & partner Andy Razaf. Let alone anything else, his technique and attention to decorative detail on the keys influenced countless jazz pianists including Art Tatum, Count Basie, and Thelonious Monk.
Waller came from a very musical family-his grandfather was an accomplished violinist and his mother was the organist of his family’s church. His first exposure to music was in the form of church hymns and organ music, an instrument he was taught to play by his mother and the church musical director. When he was a young boy his mother hired a piano tutor where he eventually learned how to read and write music for himself. His father hoped that he would follow a religious calling on the organ rather than a career in jazz, but his love of jazz proved too become to great (fortunately enough.) In 1920 his mother, Adeline Waller, passed away and Waller moved in with the family of his piano tutor, Russell Brooks. While living with Brooks, Waller would later on run into James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith, two of the greatest stride pianists of the era. Both men saw Waller’s potential as a born showman, with Johnson deciding to take Waller under his wing and teaching him the stride style of piano playing, greatly advancing his level of musical education.
By the age of 15, Waller was playing the organ at a Harlem silent movie theatre for $23 a week. In 1922, Waller made his recording debut as a soloist for the Okeh record label and in 1923 he began his journey of recording a number of piano rolls for the QRS Company (many of which are featured within this very video.) As soon as 1926 had come around the corner, Waller's career had taken off when he signed in with the RCA Victor Label. From there, he would record many sides and scored an abundance of hits with RCA such as “Jitterbug Waltz,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “The Joint is Jumpin‘,” becoming one of the most popular jazz & stride pianist of the time, despite the notion that jazz was not a “serious” form of music. Around this point, it had even been said that Waller surpassed his former mentor James P. Johnson in both skill & efficiency when it came to pouncing on the keys.
Waller’s other accomplishments include vaudeville appearances with the famous blues singer Bessie Smith, soon after which he wrote the music to the Broadway show “Keep Shufflin'.” In 1927, Waller met the poet and lyricist Andy Razaf where the two would go on to produce major hit songs & singles as well as collaborate on several musicals, the most of popular of which, "Hot Chocolates" would bring them great critical and commercial success from their partnership. By the early 1940s Waller was already earning himself a comfortable living as an entertainer, where he would go one to write the first non-black musical for Broadway by an African American called "Early to Bed," becoming a great hit during it's 1943 premiere. Yet due to it's showcasing in the midst of a musicians' strike against American recording companies, there was no cast album-not even recordings of single songs that actually remain from the show itself.
Biography is continued in the pinned comment below.
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Timestamps: / "[QRS ####]" = Piano Roll Catalog #
0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:32 - Wild Cat Blues (1922)
0:02:45 - Birmingham Blues (1922)
0:05:56 - Muscle Shoals Blues (1922)
0:09:19 - Got to Cool My Doggies Now (1923) [QRS 2149]
0:13:10 - Laughin' Cryin' Blues (1923) [QRS 2213]
0:17:08 - Your Time Now (1923) [QRS 2245]
0:20:59 - Snake Hips (1923) [QRS 2256]
0:24:16 - Taint Nobody's Bizz-ness if I Do (1923) [QRS 2270]
0:27:50 - Papa Better Watch Your Step (1923) [QRS 2286]
0:30:43 - Haitian Blues (1923) [QRS 2304]
0:34:51 - Mama's Got the Blues (1923) [QRS 2322]
0:38:35 - Midnight Blues (1923) [QRS 2331]
0:42:20 - Last Go Round Blues (1923) [QRS 2363]
0:46:10 - You Can't Do What My Last Man Did (1924) [QRS 2444]
0:48:58 - The Clearing House Blues (1924) [QRS 2661]
0:53:39 - Jail House Blues (1924) [QRS 2661]
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Music composed & performed by Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller via original recordings & recorded QRS piano rolls.
This video is solely for the purposes of compiling and sharing the music of Fats Waller and in no way or means is being used for monetary purposes.

[@themajesticgeorge]

*Continued biography from the description:*
Despite his hit Broadway work being lost within the fabrics of history, Waller would still find himself appearing as an musician, comedian & actor in major films throughout the remainder of career such as his biggest debut on screen being his role in the popular 1943 film "Stormy Weather." Even outside the scopes of appearing on screen, Waller had continued to entertain the nation far & wide with his voice alone, appearing on radio talk shows & broadcasts as early as 1938 and far off into the 40s.
Finding major success in his acts of mixing comedical riffs & comments in between his performances, often at his audience, Waller was always known to be the life of the party, said to light up any room as soon as he steps a foot through the doorway. Yet with the his lavish lifestyle of partying also came it’s woes such as excessive drinking and sleepless nights of performing for any crowd be it strangers at a parlor or friends back at home. With his health only continuing to deteriorate due to both of those factors including his sheer size and weight of 285 pounds, contracting influenza by late November of 1943 would prove to be Waller’s final blow.
Passing his last hours on the Santa Fe Chief, eastbound from the Zanzibar Club in L.A., he had already been laid up for weeks with the virus. You know that if people partying around the grand piano in the Club Car knew Fats was aboard, he’d have been summoned to perform, so it’s possible he didn’t get to his berth until he’d sweated out a set surrounded by the revelers while the train braved a blizzard, the winter winds of the plains howling outside. As the Chief pounded into Kansas City’s Union Station on the morning of December 15, 1943, Waller’s manager, Ed Kirkeby, found the big man in his berth, unconscious and unresponsive. The coroner’s statement reports that “Acute left influenzal bronchopneumonia” was “the immediate cause of death” with the place of death given as Union Station. To die in Kansas City’s Union Station? As Fats was known to say, “One never knows, do one?”
With his death ending a roughly 25 year professional career for the 39 year old entertainer, a formal funeral was shortly held afterwards back in his very own New York City at Abyssinian Baptist Church. With a guest turnout of roughly 4,200 people, many had simply filled the streets to hear the program take place from a loudspeaker, with Waller’s body being cremated in the end & said to be privately spread across Harlem. From rags to riches & widespread face across borders and seas, Fats Waller continues to lighten up the world to this day through his comical recordings, filmed acts, and truly what one can call a dazzling legacy for all to witness.

[@robertmoye7565]

A great collection by this immortal genius of the ivories. Thank you.

[@themajesticgeorge]

@@robertmoye7565 Indeed it is! Although he is gone, his work, life, and soul continues to span generations. 🌟

[@synthetic_paul]

So great that these exist and we can hear good quality recordings of his playing. I sure hope the virtuosos of today are stashing away MIDI files for future generations.

[@themajesticgeorge]

It sure is! Come to think of it, some of these tunes turn 100 years old this year with some already past that. 😳😳 Crazy to think about how long ago it truly was. I'm sure the virtuosos of todays time have already begun on creating a treasure trove of their music. 😋

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Thanks for sharing this! However it is generally agreed by piano roll collectors, researchers, and stridepiano aficionados that the first track "Wild Cat Blues" while certainly a Fats Waller composition, is not a handplayed roll played by him. This roll appears never to have been originally issued as an 88-note home player piano roll in the original era. Instead, it came out on an A-roll (coin piano roll) labeled as by the Automatic Music Roll Co. of Chicago (Seeburg's roll sales outlet) with the roll actually made by the Clark Orchestra Roll Co. of DeKalb, Illinois. As well as adapting QRS home player piano roll arrangements for coin-op use, Clark also issued many tunes on coin op rolls that never appeared on home piano rolls, at least in those arrangements. These were their own in-house proprietary arrangements and were usually the work of Mr P. M. Keast, although other arrangers like Mr Marion Wright and others also occasionally did some. Mr Keast's work for Clark started at their founding in 1920, and continued until he left in 1924 to join the Capitol Roll & Record Co of Chicago. So this could have been arranged by him or by Mr. Wright or someone else. The source of most of the arrangement seems to be the original published score of "Wild Cat Blues" which Clarence Williams published as a piano solo in 1923. So although a Waller composition and a nice roll arrangement, it's not his roll. Thanks for putting this compilation together!

[@andrewbarrett1537]

*the reason we hear the roll played on the late Mike Montgomery's foot pumped Steinway 65/88-note upright player piano, is because, like some other hot "A" rolls with no other known 88-note equivalents, this roll was copied and recut not only in its native 10-tune "A" roll format for coin piano collectors, but also the individual tunes on the roll were translated from the original 6-holes-per-inch 58-note "A" roll format to the 9-holes-per-inch 88-note home player piano roll format (with only 58 of the notes being used of course) and these rolls sold and distributed to collectors of ragtime, blues and jazz piano rolls in the 1970s-2000s. Some of the various modern small roll companies who have done these sorts of re-releases include Richard Riley ("Jazz Classics" roll label); Mike & Fred Schwimmer (no special label, but B&W photocopy of the roll label on the new recut roll); Rob DeLand ("BluesTone Music Rolls"); Larry Norman ("RollerTunes Recuts"); Ed Gaida ("Fozlum's Place"); Frank & Amanda Himpsl ("Phantom Fingers"); Jan Myers ("RagDaddy's Recuts") and others.

[@themajesticgeorge]

@@andrewbarrett1537 Huh, that is actually quite a history "Wild Cat Blues" as tied up into it. Thank you for sharing information about it's roll down below, it is always great to learn different things on piano works and how they vary, including those who had actually performed/cut them! 😉
And of course! It was a pleasure to put the video together. 😌

[@timstadlmueller58]

I've been listening to Fats Waller for a very long time, and this may be the best collection of his music I've ever heard. Thank you so much for putting this together.

[@themajesticgeorge]

Of course, Timothy! I've always loved Waller & figured it was about time to put his music together for everyone to enjoy! ✨🌟🎹

[@theragtimevirtuoso8534]

Wow, you have Fats Waller in your collection too? That's awesome! I'll give all of these a listen. For now, my favorite is Haitian Blues :)

[@themajesticgeorge]

I most certainly do! :D
Was looking forward to expanding on my planned videos of jazz & stride and putting them into action. 😌
And oooo, Haitian Blues is a real great selection! Love how casual & peppy it is, a perfect balance I dare say.

[@Petey_Ouspensky]

Thanks.

[@themajesticgeorge]

Of course, my pleasure. 😌

[@Daviej5700]

Wonderful!

[@themajesticgeorge]

Thank you Remco for pointing out that mistake with Laughin' Cryin' Blues, lol. Hope I didn't mix up any more rolls when I went back to fix it, lol.

[@itsRemco]

Anytime bro hahah

[@so_511]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@maurizioghezzer4302]

❤️