Fats Waller, 1904-1943                

It is fair to say that no jazz artist, not even Louis Armstrong, was able to touch on America’s funny bone and yet maintain musical integrity as did Thomas “Fats” Waller. He was a master pianist, the first jazz organist, composer of numerous hit songs, band leader, radio performer, and scene-stealer in several Hollywood films. He was beloved by a host of fans around the world through his many recordings and several tours in Britain and the Continent.

Fats was born to deeply religious parents, his father being a church deacon. In his mid-teens, Tom, in grief over his mother’s death, left home and roomed with friends. This led in time to an acquaintance with the celebrated Harlem “stride” pianist James P. Johnson, who would shortly become his mentor and teacher, introducing him to the world of night clubs, entertainers, and theater, as well as instilling in Tom’s receptive mind the elements of jazz piano. Soon he would be accepted as a junior member of an elite group of players who performed at the so-called “rent parties” or “parlor socials” unique to black communities as a way of raising rent money.  
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It would be 1926 before the young pianist entered the Gennett studio in Long Island City, New York. Released on both Gennett and Champion, his recordings were labeled “Negro Spiritual, piano acc., Thos. Waller.” His piano may be heard behind the duo of Alta Browne and Bertha Powell. Eight days later he backed the Elkins Negro Ensemble. These were non-jazz backings, but his support of singer Caroline Johnson, made the same day, was in his developing jazz style.

He was a participant in more than one pioneering recording session where black and white jazzmen played together. He was among the first black entertainers to have a sustaining radio show, in both New York and Cincinnati. And when he finally signed a long-term contract with RCA Victor, in the early 1930s, nation-wide recognition was already evident. The Swing Era had begun, and Fats, with a small but vital little band behind his masterful keyboard work and comic, often slyly mocking  vocals, rode the wave of popularity for years. At the outset, his records outsold even those of Benny Goodman!

At his premature and unexpected death from pneumonia aboard a train returning him from Los Angeles to his New York home at Christmastime, a world at war took time to mourn a  jazz immortal whose early Gennett accompaniments were forecasts of so much that was yet to come.

Author:Duncan Schiedt

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