Fats Waller

"Fats Waller", by Maurice Waller and Anthony Calabrese, Foreword by Michael Lipskin, 1977, 235 pages. Trade paperback.

• Foreword by Michael Lipskin (9 pages);
• 12 chapters;
• 22 page listing of Recording Dates and Personnel;
• 4 page listing of Fats Waller's Published Songs;
• 4 page listing of Fats Waller's Unpublished Songs;
• 1 page listing of Fats Waller's Piano Rolls (22 tracks);
• 12 pages of Song Arrangements: sheet music for 3 songs:
  1. ain't misbehavin'
  2. anita - Fats' 2nd wife, mother of 2 of his 3 kids. Beautiful tune, in my list.
  3. got religion in my soul - apparently unpublished? Antitheist hackles raised?!?!? Never before with Fats ?!?!? But. Fats dad was a deacon, Fats was religious in principle, but statisically, not so much so. Still, Don't gimme dat ol time religion, it ain't NOWAY good enough for me.
• 4 pages of 2 column Index.

I have been a Fats Waller fan for over 50 years. I was turned on to Fats in 1970 by Del Hilgartner, founder, leader, keyboard player, lead vocalist, blues harpist for Blue-Eyed Boy, Mr. Death, 5 piece rock band. I was lead guitarist, 1st harmony vocalist.

I 1st posted about My Fats Waller Project 2021-03-09. I have used that post as a status page that is updated every time I add a Fats song. Started with 14, up to 42 now, woo-hoo!

Here is my Fats Waller playlist on YouTube, the 42 Fats songs I have recorded (as of 2024-10-08).

I started a post "A Tale of Two Guitarists" (Al Casey & James Smith) over on my Jaz Dumoz Music Blog. Conventional wisdom is that Al Casey was the guitarist for Fats Waller & His Rhythm for its whole lifetime, 1934-1942. But, in my project, I went through the track listing for the 3 RCA Victor Vintage Fats albums I bought in 1970, and in ~1/3, 1935-08-02 thru 1936-02-01 the guitarist is James Smith. Horribly unsearchable name, no web page, no pix for James Smith?

Anyway, while trying to figure out the chronology of these 2 guitarists, I thought, "I should read a bio of Fats." So, I did, yay!

This book is an easy read, & very informative. This review/precis will be a list of the things I enjoyed the most, in no particular, I think, vaguely chronological order.

• Fats was born 1905-05-21, in NYC, and grew up in Harlem.

• Fats got his start professionally playing organ or piano in theaters for silent movies. He would learn how to play songs by playing them on a player piano slow and moving his fingers to match the depressed keys. Between 1923 & 1927 Fats recorded 22 piano rolls. I've had an album with 13 of these for years.

  Fats had formal piano lessons as a child, and as an adult had lessons from a classical pianist. [Couldn't find the name scanning the index - I miss my eBook!]

  Rent parties were also an early source of income. These typically had several pianists who would put on a "cutting contest", trying to outplay each other. George Gershwin (1898-1937) liked to go to rent parties. He and Fats became lifelong friends.

• Fats 1st met & played with Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) in 1923. Fats 19 YO, Louis 22. They became fast friends, and were always looking for chances to play together. It seemed like a lot of these happened in Chicago where Louis was based at the time.

• In Chicago, in 1926, Fats was kidnapped by minions of Al Capone & taken to play at Capone's birthday party.

  Frightened, Dad began to pound the keyboard with somewhat less than his usual gusto, but when he saw the enthusiastic response from Scarface and his buddies, he really began to swing it. In fact he swung it so hard, Capone kept him there several days, shoving hundred dollar bills into his pocket whenever he played a request, and filling his glass with vintage champagne whenever Dad (frequently) emptied it. After the birthday party was over, three days later, the thugs returned him to Chicago several thousand dollars richer.

• Also in Chicago, in 1930, outside the theater where Fats was playing, his wife Anita was almost kidnapped by thugs mistaking her for a showgirl. A doorman told them who she was & ran them off, but, gawdam, that was total PTSD shit for poor Anita. :(
  Fats wrote this song for her, the mother of 2 of his children: Anita.

• Fats also had a son by his 1st wife Edith, who divorced him after 2 years over his musician's lifestyle. Per Maurice, Fats frequently got "amnesia" with regard to his alimony payments when he was on the road. Fats was jailed a couple of times for getting behind on alimony payments, once being fetched back to New York from Chicago.

• Over the last decade or so, I had created a "genealogy" of jazz pianists:

  Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941) ⇒
  Fats Waller (1904-1943) ⇒
  Art Tatum (1909-1956) ⇒
  Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)

  OK, 1st, Jelly Roll ⇒ Fats:

  Fats was mostly NYC, Morton was mostly New Orleans. Per the book they never met. They were supposed to play on a bill together in 1930, to display contrasting styles, but Morton was a no-show. So, no.

  Fats' predecessor, his mentor, was James P. Johnson, (1894-1955), generally considered the father of Harlem stride piano, which was perfected by his greatest student, Fats Waller.

  
  Johnson also acted as a father figure to Fats, whose father, a trucker & a church deacon, was initially dismissive of Fats' music. & Johnson's wife Lil was a mother figure to Fats, whose mother died when he was 15 YO.
  [I bought 11 tracks, 1921-1926, of Johnson's music on Amazon, for $10.39! Nice!]

  Other early influences:

  • Willie "The Lion" Smith, 1893-1973. Another early stride giant - Del also pointed me at him, but I just recently bought some tracks, &, I far prefer Fats. After being originally unimpressed with Fats, The Lion helped him find some of his first gigs and was a lifelong friend;

  • Clarence Williams (1893/1898-1965) - "an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher." He encouraged Fats to start recording & publishing his music, and in the summer of 1923, his band recorded several songs written by Fats, so Fats' 1st composing credits. 19 YO.

    Wow, from the Wikipedia article:

    Two of his 1924 recording bands, "The Red Onion Jazz Babies" and "Clarence Williams' Blue Five" featured cornetist Armstrong and soprano saxophonist Bechet, two of the most important early jazz soloists, in their only recordings together before the 1940s.

    What a lineup! Armstrong & Bechet! !!! ??? !!!

  • Andy Razaf (1895-1973). Fats' most well-known & prolific collaborator. He composed the lyrics to some of Fats' biggest hits. From Wikipedia:

    Razaf was born in Washington, D.C., United States. His birth name was Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo. He was the son of Henri Razafinkarefo, nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of the Imerina kingdom in Madagascar, and Jennie Razafinkarefo (née Waller), the daughter of John L. Waller, the first African American consul to Imerina. The French invasion of Madagascar (1894-95) left his father dead, and forced his pregnant 15-year-old mother to escape to the United States, where he was born in 1895.

    Man, was european colonialism some of the worst shit in all of history, or what? I am a francophile, but WTF could make them think they had the right to invade Madagascar?!?!?

    Gawd, I love that name! 7 syllables, 1, 6 syllables! It just rolls off of the tongue! Seriously, speak it out loud.

    Andy was a poet, his name is a poem, & I believe that poetry works much better when spoken aloud.

    Andy saw Fats win a piano contest in 1923. He approached Fats, they hit it off, and a great songwriting duo was created!

  • Spencer Williams (1889-1965) "was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer." It's interesting to me that with the popularity of "cutting contests", multiple pianists would frequently work together.

  • J.C. Johnson (1896-1981) was a pianist & songwriter who collaborated with Andy Razaf as well as Fats.

  Back to my genealogy, Jelly Roll ⇒ Fats: No way.

  But the next, Fats ⇒ Art Tatum, largely correct!

  Art arrived in NYC in 1932 from Toledo OH, as the accompanist of singer Adelaide Hall (1901-1993). [Note, just ordered on Amazon "Centenary Celebration" by Adelaide Hall, 52 tracks, $12.12, FTW!] People told Fats he had to check out the new kid. Fats did & was greatly impressed. So he recruited James P. Johnson & Willie "The Lion" Smith to join him in a cutting party with the new kid. In 1932, Art is 23 YO, Fats is 28, James P. 38, Willie 39. [The book says Art is 18???]

  James P. and Dad were eager to do battle with Tatum at the piano, so they searched for a club with a suitable instrument, eventually chosing Morgan's, a small Harlem bar. ...

  Pop urged Art to take the stool and show off his stuff. Art played the main theme of Vincent Youmans' big hit, 'Tea for Two', and introduced his inventive harmonies, slightly altering the melodic line. Good, but not very impressive. Then it happened. Tatum's left hand worked a strong, regular beat while his right hand played dazzling arpeggios in chords loaded with flatted fifths and ninths. Both his hands then raced toward each other in skips and runs that seemed impossible to master. They crossed each other. Tatum played the main theme again and soared to an exciting climax.

  [Art Tatum is the king of the arpeggio! Make sure and follow the links to the 2 songs he did. Unbelievable virtuosity.]

  Reuben Harris looked around at the open-mouthed faces of Harlem's Waller, Willie "The Lion", and James P. Jimmy took the stool and played "Carolina Shout" as if his hands were possessed by a demon. But it wasn't good enough. Next Dad toook over and played his own specialty, "Handful of Keys." The crowd cheered when their hometown boy finished, but it appeared as Tatum still had a slight lead. Tatum followed Dad and had the place jumping with "Tiger Rag". James P. had one last trick up his sleeve, his brilliant version of Chopin's "Revolutionary Etude". Dad told me he never heard Jimmy play so remarkably, but the performance fell short. Tatum was the undisputed king. In comradeship the four threw their arms affectionately around each other and Tatum was duly toasted.

  James P. remembered the occasion and commented, "When Tatum played 'Tea for Two' that night I guess that was the first time I ever heard it really played."

  [Note, I added the links to the videos of the songs mentioned. Kind of fun, to reproduce the songs as they were played that night. Sadly, I could find no recording of James P. Johnaon playing Chopin's "Revolutionary Etude", so I included some rando's version. Imagining this song being played by the father of Harlem stride piano is left as exercise to the reader!]

  Art was quoted saying that the biggest influence on his style was Fats. He learned as Fats did, from piano rolls of James P. Johnson - and Fats.

  There are several stories of the times Fats paid respects to The King, Art Tatum.

  Back to my genealogy, Art => Oscar : Peterson was a Canadian, born in Montreal, which is a jazz city. [Here I am sitting with Oscar Peterson at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, ON, Canada, 2021-08-19.]

  
  Plus he was a later generation, born 16 years after Art. Reading through his Wikipedia article, I was thinking this would be a dead end, but, starting the section titled "Musical styles & influnces":

  Peterson was influenced by Teddy Wilson [(1912-1986)], Nat King Cole [(1919-1965)], James P. Johnson, and Art Tatum, to whom many compared Peterson in later years. After his father played a record of Tatum's "Tiger Rag", he was intimidated and disillusioned, quitting the piano for several weeks. "Tatum scared me to death," said Peterson, adding that he was "never cocky again" about his ability at the piano. Tatum was a model for Peterson's musicianship during the 1940s and 1950s. Tatum and Peterson became good friends, although Peterson was always shy about being compared to Tatum and rarely played the piano in Tatum's presence.

  Wow! So in addition to blowing away Fats, The Lion, and James P., Art Tatum also blew away the next generation, Oscar Peterson.

• Fats really didn't like boogie woogie. I am defining that as playing dominant 7th or 9th chords & adding 6s over the 5s, & maybe also adding 3's over the 1, or maybe playing scales - a staple of rock-n-roll & blues shuffles. Here's a random sample from YouTube! Not bad!

  Here's Fats' words from a New York Times interview shortly before his death:

  "That's music," he said after he had finished [playing "Tea for Two"]. "Subdued and not blantant. None of this boogie woogie stuff that's just monotonous. Boogie woogie is all right if you want to beat your brains out for 5 minutes. But for more than that you got to have melody. Jimmy Johnson taught me that. You got to hang onto the melody and never let it get boresome."

  Interesting, "Up Jumped You With Love", the last song Fats sang on a recording with His Rhythm, 1942-07-13, has an instrumental break & last verse that are very boogie woogie. I worked up the song a few months ago & noted how odd that was. I cannot immediately recall any other song where Fats plays boogie woogie licks like in this song.

  So the choice is between playing boogie woogie I IV Vdom7 or playing 'Rhythm' (I got rhythm) - I vi ii Vdom7. Also, boogie woogie is the flat tire beat, which is triplets. You go to a blues festival, 1/3 of the songs will be flat tire beat shuffles.

• Una Mae Carlisle (1915-1956) was quite a character. I 1st came across her name on the UCSB DAHR - Discography of American Historical Recordings - page for Fats Waller and His Rhythm. She is listed on the recording of "i can't give you anything but love", 1939-11-03:

  Una Mae Carlisle; Fats Waller and his Rhythm
  Jazz/dance band, with female-male vocal duet (take 1); with male vocal solo (take 2)

  Fats' manager decided that for Fats to get national airplay, he should move to Cincinnati OH & play on WLW, 1 of the strongest radio stations in the USA. After a demo or 2, Fats was given a 2 year contract. The Waller family moved to Cincinnati, OH late in 1932. The regular show gave Fats a chance to grow confident in his singing, and to start his smart-alec patter when he found the lyrics just a bit too trite. The show lasted through 1933.

  Meanwhile, Una Mae Carlisle was growing up (17 YO in 1932) in Xenia, OH - near Dayton, not far from Cincy. She was a piano prodigy, performing publicly since she was 3 YO. She won a vocal contest & impressed Fats into inviting her to come to Cincy to play in his 1932 Xmas programs. She was still in high school, her parents were against it, but sent a sister along to chaperone. It didn't go well.

  In short order Una Mae became Dad's shadow. Everywhere he was, she was close behind. Pop taught her to drink and to stay up late and party. Their relationship soon went far beyond the protégé-master level. Una Mae moved into a boarding house just across the street from where we were living, and when Christmas vacation ended, she refused to return to Xenia or school. Her mother came to town to fetch her but, after Una Mae carried on, vehemently, Mrs. Carlisle returned home without her. The only consession Una Mae would agree to was to move across town to live with friends. If Mrs. Carlisle was unhappy, my mother [Anita] was no more pleased with the turn of events. And when Una Mae became a regular on the show, Mom started talking about how she'd prefer to go back to New York and place me in a Harlem school. [And shortly thereafter did so.]

  Fats' show was a monster hit, so they decided to take it on the road for the summer. Meanwhile, I think Una Mae was just a bit too intense for Fats - damn, Una Mae was close to a force of nature, what a talented woman! - & he was trying to figure out how to dump her. They bought a car together to drive to a gig in Louisville (80 miles SW of Cincy), Fats leaves without her, she takes the train & finds him, & that was a scene - Una Mae stepping in front of the car.

  She eventually went her own way &, per her Wikipedia page, had a great career.

  • Her 1941 song "Walkin' By The River" made her "the first black woman to have a composition appear on a Billboard chart".
  • She had her own radio show, The Una Mae Carlisle Radio Show on WJZ-ABC, making her the "first black American to host a national radio show".

  I've only been able to find 5 tracks of her music on Amazon, "Una Mae Carlisle And Her Jam Band", 1944. Oh, another 8 on Apple. She also has 2 numbers in this incredibly good/bad movie, "Boarding House Blues" (1948). This movie will get its own post.

  Here's an incredibly detailed & good article about her. I lifted this photo & caption from there.

  

  She appears in the book 1 more time, in London in 1938. Fats was there with a big (24 pc) band, & had bought the whole band tickets to a benefit concert, & was supposed to deliver them to the band at the stage door. On his way there he runs into Una Mae, who was living & performing in London at the time.

  She told him that she had been feeling very poorly and they began to talk.

  Fats spent the rest of the day with her. His bandmates did talk their way into the benefit concert.

  She died in November, 1956, only 40y 10m old. She outlasted Fats, tho, who only lived to 39y 7m. But they both beat George Gershwin, who died at 38y 10m. The good die young. :(

• After Cincinnati, Fats moved back to Harlem to be reunited with his family. He was hired by WCBS in NYC.

  Columbia had Dad working regularly, appearing on many programs, particularly "Harlem Serenade". He was a name now, recognized all over the country, and Victor was ready to deal. Pop was offered a Victor recording contract wihch guaranteed him three percent on all records, plus a one hundred dollar advance for each selection, whether it was issued or not.

  Fats put together his band carefully. The guitar player, Al Casey (1915-2005), was an 18 YO high schooler, a cousin of The Southern Suns, with whom Fats had worked. More on him below.

  On 1934-05-16, Fats Waller and his Rhythm recorded their 1st 4 tracks. From then to their final recording date 1942-07-13, per the DAHR database, they recorded 307 tracks. A handful of tracks with other vocalists:

  1. With Herman Autrey 1935-08-20, "Loafin' time";
  2. With Dorothea Driver 1937-10-07. "Call me 'Darling'". Googling this woman's name returns only this record in the DAHR database. No record of this recording. I worked the song up anyway, as part of my 1937-10-97 project - I have recorded the other 6 songs from this recording session, once I record CMD I will create a blog post about these 7 songs. I luv the DAHR database. There are a couple of other Fats Waller and His Rhythm sessions where I'm doing most of the songs, so it seems appropriate to fill those out & post about them. Nice 1/2 set lists. On my TODO.
  3. With Una Mae Carlisle, 1939-11-03, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love". See above. I just found this video of hers from 1946, "T'ain't Yours". She is 31 YO, saucy, sassy, confident, joyful, goddam, how alluring! Playful, like Fats! & I luv her bad teeth! & her piano solo makes you remember, she was a protégé of Fats Waller! But, gawdam, dat rook rike trouble to me!!!

     She is referenced as "the 'Walkin by the river' girl", so here's that tune. Nice, going in the list!

  4. With the Deep River Boys, a gospel/barbershop quartet, 1942-07-13, Fats Waller & His Rhythm recorded their final 4 tracks:
     1. By the light of the silvery moon, w the Deep River Boys.
     2. Swing out to victory
     3. Up jumped you with love. The last song Fats sung with His Rhythm. Already mentioned, + & - now.
     4. Romance a la mode, w the Deep River Boys. In the list, will get to it soon. Oh boy, a "romance as food" song, I can pair it with "you're my dish" and "you go to my head".

  For most of this period, Fats was RCA Victor's top recording artist. Fats sold well with white people as well as blacks. Here's a pic from YouTube, I can't get over the faces of the people. Adulation? Worship? Love?

  

• Al Casey (1915-2005) was the guitarist at the creation of Fats Waller and his Rhythm, 1934-05-16. He was from Louisville, KY (like me, yay!!!) & met Fats when he was still in high school at DeWitt Clinton in NYC. Fats told him to finish school - he could play on the recording sessions in NYC & tour with them in the summer.

  Oddly, for several of my early favorites, he was not the guitarist. The guitarist was James Smith, who is completely lost in internet anonymity. Per the appendix of this book, he played for Fats in recordings from 6 sessions, 1935-06-24 to 1936-02-01 - 41 tracks. Al is back 1936-04-08.

• Fats made 4 "soundies" (primordial music videos) in 1941. They are all so excellent, although I've never been a fan of "your feet's too big". Al Casey gets some screen time. I posted at 1 point I thought he might be James Smith - when I thought the video had been recorded in 1935-36 as some of the songs 1st were. The book sez, the 4 soundies were recorded in 1941.

  These are all so fun, I'm going to inline them all here.

  ain't misbehavin'

  I've been trying to identify the 5 dancers that appear in these. So far, 2 names, Paulene Myers & Vivian Brown. I don't think that the woman who sings in this one is Myra Johnson. I think Myra Johnson is the larger woman who appears in "the joint is jumpin".

  honeysuckle rose

  Al Casey gets some good screen time for his tasty solo. I have worked that solo up pretty much note for note.

  the joint is jumpin'

  This is such a fun song, when I recorded it I could not play it fast as Fats and his Rhythm.

  I'm pretty sure the woman who comes in with 2 attendants & sings at 1:22 is Myra Johnson. I grabbed a screen shot:

  
  In the summer of 1935, she & Fats were both playing Atlantic City. He liked her act & tried to get her to join his band. She didn't particularly want to work with another lead singer, but Fats talked her into it, and they developed some great duets, including 1 of my favs "two sleepy people". She toured with Fats on and off.

  The woman wrongly identified as Myra Johnson in "ain't misbehavin'" doesn't enter until 2:29 after the line "what is that that just walked in? Just look at the way it's twitchin'!" Some fine twitchin' indeed!

  I cannot get a name for this woman, who sings a lead on "ain't misbehavin'", which should give her a cred, yes? She is the star of this & "honeysuckle rose".

  LOL, I love the drummer, Slick Jones, in this one!

  your feet's too big
• As of 1936, Walter Winchell became a Fats fan and gave him lots of press.

  Winchell took a shine to my father and ofter referred to him as his favorite songwriter.

• Fats & Andy Razaf wrote the smash hit all-black musical "Hot Chocolates" in 1929.

• Fats was big in Europe, particularly England & Scotland. He recorded his London Suite in 1938. He also backed Adelaide Hall on organ on a couple of tracks, which I have, yay!

• 1942-01-14, Fats played Carnegie Hall, a lifelong dream. The 1st 1/2 of the program went well, but in the intermission, so many of his buds showed up backstage to toast his success, that Fats surprisingly drank too much & pretty much pooched the 2nd 1/2 of the concert. The reviews were scathing.

• In 1943, Broadway producer Richard Kollmar hired Waller to play a comic performer in the 1943 musical Early to Bed. When his classsical composer quit over artistic differences, Kollmar realized he had the perfect composer for the piece in Fats. But composing, performing, & gin proved to be to much for Fats, so his role became composer only. This was the 1st Broadway musical written for white folks by a black composer.

  [Boomer trivia, Richard Kollmar's wife was Dorothy Kilgallen, of "What's My Line" for decades. Small world ...]

• Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller died in Kansas City, on a train headed back to NYC, 1943-12-15, 39 years old, of pneumonia, probably assisted by Fats heavy drinking.

OK, done. 1 thing I will say about the book in general - it needed more dates. I spent too much time trying to figure out when a particular anecdote was taking place. I also really, really missed the features of an eBook.

I guess I'm kind of going whole hog here: I have 3 more Fats books on order:

1. "Ain't Misbehavin': The Story Of Fats Waller", by Ed Kirkeby (1891-1978), 1975, 276 pages. Kirkeby was Fats' manager, but he also was a musician and lyricist. He is credited as a collaborator for several songs, including "Up Jumped You With Love", the last song Fats sang on a recording with His Rhythm, 1942-07-13.
2. "Ain't Misbehavin'", by Thomas Fats Waller (Composer), 1983, 104 pages. It looks like this was published as a companion to the 1978 Broadway musical "Ain't Misbehavin'". 24 songs, not sure if it is just lyrics or charts too. I currently have only 1 Fats song that I think does not have the right lyrics: "Thief in the Night", the bridge.
3. "Fats Waller", subtitled "THE CHEERFUL LITTLE EARFUL", by Alyn Shipton, 2005, 194 pages. [Just arrived today, 2024-10-03.] "Alyn Shipton presents jazz radio programs for the BBC and is a critic for The Times in London. He is the author of several books on music, as well as a music publisher and editor."

Since Art Tatum & Una Mae Carlisle both tried to take over this post, I think we'll be seeing more of them in the future. I've stumbled across so many interesting (mostly female) singers from this period, I may do that as a post.