‘Ain't Misbehavin'’ — ABOUT FATS WALLER

Gargantuan is the word that most precisely describes Fats Waller. He was in every way immense and prodigious. His appetites and talents were large and inexhaustible. His friend and teacher, James P. Johnson, once said, "Some little people have music in them, but Fats, he was all music, and you know how big he was." He was 5 feet 10 ½ inches tall and weighed 285 pounds.

Thomas Wright Waller grew up in the exciting musical atmosphere of Harlem in the teens and 20's. His parents were deeply religious, and Fats started out playing the organ in the Abyssinian Baptist Church and studying classical piano technique. He also began working with Harlem stride-piano masters like James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith, although his father insisted that jazz was "music from the devil's workshop." Soon he was accompanying the silent pictures at the Lincoln Theater on 135th Street and making his reputation at uptown rent parties - those all night affairs so fondly remembered in "The Joint is Jumpin'".

When he was still in his early 20's Fats began his collaboration with lyricist Andy Razaf; they scored their first success in 1928 with Keep Shufflin'. The next year was miraculous: Fats - only 25 years old - and Razaf wrote the score for the Broadway hit Hot Chocolates (which included "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Black and Blue") as well as "Honeysuckle Rose," "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling," and a host of other distinguished tunes.

Fats also widened his audience by appearing regularly on WLW in Cincinnati, a radio station that at that time could be heard throughout the country. It was there, in 1932 and 1933, that he formed the band known simply as Rhythm, with which he achieved his greatest success. With some changes in personnel, the group appeared in three feature films - Hooray for Love, The King of Burlesque, and Stormy Weather - and numerous short subjects. Fats' musicianship was highly regarded, especially in Europe, where jazz was probably taken more seriously than in the United States. His overseas tours in 1938 and 1939 were triumphs, and in 1942 he gave a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. And he never lost his love for the classics - his organ performances of Bach are legendary. The success of Fats Waller's records, movies, radio appearances and tours made him one of the first American superstars.

As a musician, Fats raised the art of stride piano to its highest level and in so doing became one the originators of swing music.

He was probably the greatest combination of musician and comedian that America had ever produced. As a composer, pianist and singer, he wove comedy and music together so well that his songs are as fresh and funny today as they were [70 years] ago. (Murray Horowitz from "Ain't Misbehavin'" album liner notes)

THE FATS WALLER TIMELINE:

1904 — May 21, Thomas Wright Waller born in New York City to Edward and Adeline Waller.

1910 — After Waller shows interest in a neighbor's piano, his family acquires one. He starts lessons with a Miss Perry, a local Harlem teacher.

1919 — Plays in his first band at a streetcorner party. Meets his first wife, Edith Hatch. After becoming friendly with Maizie Mullins, the organist at Harlem's Lincoln Theater, Waller is occasionally allowed to play the music at intermission. Later, he assumes responsibility for the organ accompaniment to the theater's live vaudeville show.

1920 — Leaves home and moves in with the family of a friend, Russell Brooks. Discovers some piano rolls cut by James P. Johnson. By alternately starting and stopping the piano mechanism, teaches himself Johnson's technique, placing his fingers on those keys that have been activated by the mechanism. Later begins to study stride piano seriously with Johnson. Marries Edith Hatch.

1921 — First son, Thomas Waller, Jr., is born. Goes on tour as piano player with the vaudeville troupe "Liza and Her Shufflin' Six." On tour, meets Count Basie, and later gives Basie organ lessons at the Lincoln Theater. Waller plays his first rent party.

1923 — Edith Waller seeks and obtains a divorce. Waller wins a piano competition at the Roosevelt Theater in New York with his version of James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout."

1924 — Waller, as "Ali-baba, the Egyptian Wonder, " plays the Kentucky Club, a Harlem nightclub, with Duke Ellington's band.

1925 — Travels with Louis Armstrong to play in Chicago.

1926 — Marries Anita Rutherford. With Spencer Williams, writes the scores for Tan Topics and Junior Blackbird, two all-black revues.

1927 — Maurice Thomas Waller is born to Fats and Anita.

1928 — Ronald Waller, second son to Fats and Anita, is born. Waller, with Andy Razaf, writes the score to the show, Keep Shufflin'.

1929 — Writes the score to the Broadway show Hot Chocolates, with Andy Razaf.

1930 — Secures his own radio show, "Paramount on Parade."

1931 — Plays on radio show "Radio Roundup," and works at the Hotfeet Club in Greenwich Village.

1932 — Travels to Paris to play with jazz great Spencer Williams. Moves to Cincinnati, Ohio, to work for radio station WLW. Is given his own program, "Fats Waller's Rhythm Club." Also plays organ on a program of his own called "Moon River," aired late at night, but receives no credit from the station as the performer on the program.

1935 — Travels to Hollywood to be filmed for brief appearances in two films, King of Burlesque, starring Warner Baxter and Alice Faye, and Hooray For Love, starring Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

1938 — Makes a second European trip, playing in London with the Mills Brothers. He also tours the Continent and Scandinavia (July-October).

1939 — Makes his last European sojourn, touring England, the Continent, and Scandinavia. In one instance, he is reputed narrowly to have avoided a confrontation with Nazi troops.

1942 — On January 14, presents a concert at Carnegie Hall.

1943 — Writes music for the Broadway show, Early to Bed. Travels to Hollywood to make the film, Stormy Weather, starring Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers, and Katherine Dunham. Returns to Hollywood in the fall for an engagement at the Zanzibar Room. Becomes ill during the engagement, and on the night of December 14, dies of pneumonia aboard the passenger train Santa Fe Chief en route to New York.