Thomas "Fats" Waller
| Fats Waller | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Thomas Wright Waller |
| Born |
May 21, 1904 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 15, 1943 (aged 39) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Genres | Dixieland, jazz, swing, stride, ragtime |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instruments | Piano, vocals, organ |
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999.
Waller was the youngest of 11 children (five of whom survived childhood) born to Adeline Locket Waller and the Reverend Edward Martin Waller in New York City. He started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to playing the organ at his father's church four years later. His mother instructed him when he was a youth. At the age of 14 he was playing the organ at the Lincoln Theater, in Harlem, and within 12 months he had composed his first rag. Waller's first piano solos ("Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues") were recorded in October 1922, when he was 18 years old.
He was the prize pupil and later the friend and colleague of the stride pianist James P. Johnson.
Against the opposition of his father, a clergyman, Waller became a professional pianist at the age of 15, working in cabarets and theaters. In 1918 he won a talent contest playing Johnson's "Carolina Shout", a song he learned from watching a player piano play it.
Waller became one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe. He was also a prolific songwriter, and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz". Waller is believed to have composed many novelty tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums, attributed to another composer and lyricist.
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