Artist
American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer (born 21 May 1904 in Harlem, New York, USA - died 15 December 1943 in a Santa-Fé-Express near Kansas City, Missouri, USA (bronchial pneumonia).
Note: Credits that either are the real surname alone (or misspellings thereof) or include the real forename (or its initial) belong to the real name profile Thomas Waller.
One of the most popular jazz performers of his era.
Thomas Wright Waller was the youngest of four children born to Adaline Locket Waller and the Reverend Edward Martin Waller. He started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to the organ of his father's church four years later. At the age of fourteen he was playing the organ at Harlem's Lincoln Theater and within twelve months he had composed his first rag. Waller's first piano solos ("Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues") were recorded on October 1922 in Race Records when he was 18 years old.
He was the prize pupil, and later friend and colleague, of stride pianist James P. Johnson. Fats Waller was the son of a preacher and learned to play the organ in church with his mother. Overcoming opposition from his clergyman father, Waller became a professional pianist at 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 contracted pneumonia and died on a cross country train trip near Kansas City, Missouri on December 15, 1943, after making a final recording session with an interracial group in Detroit that included white trumpeter Don Hirleman. He was on his way back to Hollywood for more film work, after the smash success of "Stormy Weather". Coincidentally, as the train with the body of Waller stopped in Kansas City, so stopped a train with his dear friend Louis Armstrong on board.
Thomas "Fats" Waller was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Tracks
1
Until The Real Things Comes Along
2
I'm Coming Virginia
3
Reminiscing Through England No. 2 Pt. 2
4
Blues Is Bad No. 1
5
Saxophone Doodle
6
Organ Tests
7
Short Time
8
Gathering
10
I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby
11
Liza
12
Lost Love
13
Blues Is Bad No. 2
14
Speak To Me
15
Martinique
16
Smooth Velvet
17
Two Hands Fightin'
18
That Does It
19
Untitled {Early To Bed]
20
Nylon
21
Early To Bed
22
Onion Time
23
Jump No. 1
24
The Ladies Who Sing With A Band
25
Martinique
27
St. Louis Blues
28
Hallelujah!
Releases
Labels
Sounds Of Yester Year, Ristic Records
Countries
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland