The Real Fats Waller: Volume 3 (1927-1929)

Although primarily known for his masterful skills & strength at Stride, a particular virture Waller is often left unaccounted for (or in common cases, forgotten altogether) is his groundbreaking work as a mastermind organist. Having been exposed to the massive instrument at an early age through his family's religous background at church, it would not be long until Waller learned how to tame the beast and make it bend to his will. Fond of church hymns & spirituals, the syncopated rhythms Harlem had to offer would also catch his attention and help him become the first musican to succesfully record jazz on a pipe organ- and if anything more, to actually make one swing! (Considering alone how pipe organs lack any percussive elements as that of a piano, this makes playing jazz on an organ a challenging maneuver from the start!)
Following through with his instictive passion, Waller would go on to record an astonishing 73 sides on a variety of pipe organs from 1926 up to 1939, most of which (the early batch) are featured here! Apart from more of his most notable organ performances, Volume 3 also takes a quick peek into 1929, one of Waller's most developmental years where he would produce a few major hits to kickstart his career such as "Ain't Misbehavin'" & "Handful of Keys." (Both of which unfortunately, cannot be featured in this video or any in the future as per copyright restrictions [RUclips CR Bot more specifically])
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Biography: 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. As soon as 1926 had come around the corner, Waller's career had taken off when he signed in with the RCA Victor Label.
Biography is continued in the pinned comment below.
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Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Savannah Blues (1927) [w/ Morris' Hot Babies]
0:03:19 - Hog Maw Stomp (1927)
0:06:35 - Loveless Love (1927)
0:09:52 - Stompin' the Bug (1927)
0:13:17 - Sugar (1927)
0:16:30 - Beale Street Blues (1927)
0:19:46 - Won't You Take Me Home? (1927) [w/ MHB]
0:22:42 - He's Gone Away (1927) [w/ MHB]
0:25:30 - I Ain't Got Nobody (1927)
0:28:46 - Geechee (1927) [w/ MHB]
0:32:05 - Willow Tree (1928) [w/ Lousiana Sugar Babes]
0:35:39 - Thou Swell (1928) [w/ LSB]
0:38:49 - Sweet Savannah Sue (1929)
0:41:58 - I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling (1929)
0:44:58 - Valentine Stomp (1929)
0:48:20 - Waitin' at the End of the Road (1929)
0:51:52 - Baby, Oh Where Can You Be? (1929)
0:55:17 - Tanglefoot (1929)
0:58:35 - That's All (1929)
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Music composed/arranged by Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller, and performed via the original Victor TMC recordings.
This video is solely for the purposes of compiling and sharing the music of Thomas Waller and in no way or means is being used for monetary purposes.

[@themajesticgeorge]

*Continued biography from description:*
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.
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.

[@johnhowieson3559]

You’re wonderful Fats; I so wish we could simply bring you back with a miracle! 😁

[@barrygordon5323]

As far as fats surpassing j p Johnson in stride piano,all I can say is they were both giants that did certain things different,,,true fats generally had I think a harder swinging rhythm,and was a smootherr pianist,on the other hand,jp had a more creative and complex musical mind and more interesting basses...fats was better composer of songs but j p was a much better writer of rags and formal compositions....frankly I don't like desecting great musicians....as I said they were both giants and I've idolized them both close to 65 years,and I've played stride for at least that long. They were both top of the line,,

[@themajesticgeorge]

That is a fair statement to make, I even recall Johnson noting out how Waller's left hand from the time they spent together was often his weakness/biggest struggle. I do agree that Johnson was more of a fine tuned composer in a more formal regard, something of a status Waller had dreamed of throughout most- if not all his life. Of course, not to say that Waller himself wasn't a fine tuned composer himself, yet more so in the entertainment snd "pop media" aspects. It's always intresting (or at least to me) to breakdown the components of different musicians, so no need to sweat on it! ✌🏾