May 25, 2008 - Thomas Waller

My Influences:

Thomas "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 - Dec. 14, 1943)
piano, voice, song writing machine


So, we should all know by now that I very much enjoy the lighter side of life. We should also know that I enjoy and respect finely tuned skills and refined talent.
Logically, it follows that if these characteristics are fashioned together and presented with great ease and clarity that I would be quite moved.
I am.
Fats Waller is just plain awesome! His ability on the piano (and/or organ) is stellar. His musical sensibilities match my tastes (light-hearted and silly but charming and, even meaningful.) His performances, live and recorded, are done with ease and grace as well as great levity and happiness. He wrote great songs, seemingly (and, even according to some accounts), without effort. (He wrote what I would guess to be one of the very most popular tunes in the last 100 years of American history, "Ain't Misbehavin'." Every now and again, when I find myself forced in front of one of those television machines, I'll spy a commercial featuring that tune and stand in awe - it was written in 1929 and it's STILL being used as popular music!)

Fats Waller was music. Fats Waller was music delivered in a dearly heart-felt manner; he gave his gifts with a smile on his face and in his heart ... and, I'm not exactly sure you could say which smile was bigger. I do know that you can feel that smile in his heart on the recordings he left us.

Friends, I hope you'll take at least a few minutes to review your study notes on Fats Waller this week. His birthday was last week (May 21) but that's no reason not to spend just a few minutes enjoying the fruits of his labor and, it certainly won't be a strain on your ears or your heart.
I'm not including biographical info on the man because there is TONS of it out here on the world-wide-inter-web-information-net-highway. I'll throw some links below to get you started. (Plus, I went overboard on bio info last week on the coolest of bassists.)

Thanks for the music, Mr. Waller! Thanks for the great spirit with which you gave it to us, as well!

Your links:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/fats.html
http://www.fatswaller.org/
http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/fw/fatsmain.htm
YouTube search:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fats+waller&search_type=

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"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

~Abraham Lincoln