Seventh in a series: Gentiles and the American songbook
Cultural importance and history
Thomas “Fats” Waller was jazz music’s first great organist and perhaps its greatest stride pianist. Stride piano, exceedingly popular in the first quarter of the 20th century, has the trademark of an oom-pah beat from the left hand (“striding”) and syncopation from the right-hand. Before Art Tatum, there was James P. Johnson and Waller. The concert pianist Oscar Levant called Waller “the black Horowitz.” He was one of the few authentic jazz musicians, along with his friends Louie Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman, to become commercially successful and popular with the public. His teaming with Andy Rasaf produced some of the most popular songs between 1925 and 1935. In his short life of 39 years, he mastered all the forms of American entertainment. At his death, Waller was at the height of his popularity.
He began playing the piano at 6 years old and soon moved to the organ in his family’s church, which at the time was Abyssian Baptist Church in Harlem pastored by Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. It was during the time at Abyssian Baptist that the church organist taught him to play and appreciate the music of J. S. Bach. At 14 (1918) he was already weighing 200 pounds and nicknamed “Fats.” He also started playing the organ at Harlem’s famous Lincoln Theater (which his father called “house of Satan”) and winning a talent contest playing a James P. Johnson song which he learned by watching a player-piano “play” the song. At 15 (1919) he wrote his first rag time song (“the devil’s music” according to his father) and he got his first paying musical job playing the organ at a Harlem movie theater to accompany silent films. In 1920 he moved out of his family’s home into the home of pianist Russell B.T. Brooks where he met James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith, the two reigning kings of stride performers. Johnson began to teach him stride piano techniques, as well as the music of 19th century impressionists Claude Dubussy and Maurice Ravel. Waller claims to have studied with Julliard composers Leopold Godowsky and Carl Bohm but there is not corroborating evidence of this.
He made his first recording in 1922 when he was 18 years old. In 1926 he wrote his first show tune and in l928 he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a piano soloist when he was 24 years old. In l929 he collaborated with poet and lyricist and future friend, Andy Rasaf, to write the score for the Broadway hit Ain’t Misbehavin’ which produced the song “Ain’t Misbehavin’” which in turn propelled Cab Calloway first, and then Louis Armstrong into fame. In l923 he began his radio broadcasting at WHN in New York City which lasted until his death in 1943. His radio work required him to talk and banter between songs. This practice developed his verbal skills as a comedian and commentator of music styles. All his professional life he received criticism from true jazz believers, that he was too commercial and pandering to Whitey. Indeed, Ted Gioia wrote that Waller excelled at “playing Falstaff to his generation” and Barry Singer wrote of Waller’s “clownish persona and ludicrous song material.” Part of that was due to his size: 5/11 and 300 pounds but part of that was due to his Louis Armstrong mugging for his adoring largely White audience. An interesting story at this point may illustrate the tension Waller, Rasaf, Armstrong, et al felt during this period. The Broadway show Ain’t Misbehavin’ was named Hot Chocolates while it ran as a stage show in Harlem. As was usual during those days, the show was bankrolled by mobsters, in this case, Dutch Schultz, a particularly vicious Jewish gangster. As the story goes, Schultz came up to Andy Rasaf, the lyricist for the show, and wanted a funny number telling the story of a “colored girl” who can’t get a man because she is too “colored.” It was to be an interracial lament. Rasaf grinningly replied that he couldn’t possibly write such lyrics for a commercial production. Barry Singer relates, “Schultz responded in characteristic raging fashion by pinning Rasaf to the nearest wall with a gun. You’ll write it, he more or less rasped, or you’ll never write anything again.” The resulting song (Waller/Rasaf) called “Black and Blue” was sung to an overwhelmingly Black audience in attendance at the Connie’s Inn 1929 show. Rasaf pitched it as an interracial song but Louie Armstrong recorded it later that year by dropping a verse thus making it a straight Black lament and that is what it is seen to be today. Twenty years later, Ralph Ellison in his novel Invisible Man treats the Armstrong version as an anthem of release. Some have said it is the first racial protest song and others have dismissed it as a Harlem show piece.
At a party in l934 at the home of George Gershwin he so impressed a record executive that he began a recording career which lasted until l943. In 1935 he began appearing in Hollywood movies, which included Stormy Weather in l943. In 1938 and l939 he toured Europe and recorded his “London Suite” of classical music. In l942 he was the first jazz musician to have a solo concert in Carnegie Hall. It is stated on a l960 record jacket that he copyrighted over 400 tunes. All of this frenetic activity, especially in the last five years of his life took its physical toll on him. In l978, a Broadway show of his music entitled Ain’t Misbehavin’ won a Tony, an Obie, a New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and a Grammy. Finally, in l993 he was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
My favorite Waller song: “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
Religious and moral background
Waller’s family moved to New York from Virginia in l888. His grandfather was an accomplished violist. His parents Edward and Adeline were serious Christians. Edward was chairman of the Board of Deacons and Superintendent of Sunday School as well as a lay street preacher at Abyssian Baptist Church in Harlem during Rev. Adam Clayton Powell’s early years. Adeline was the organist for the church. However, due to dissatisfaction with the leadership and direction of the church, the Wallers left Abyssian Baptist and helped form a new Pentecostal congregation called Greater Refuge Temple in Harlem in 1919. The Wallers threw themselves into the new congregation, Edward continuing as a street preacher. It is claimed that when Fats was around 5 years old he was playing the harmonica to accompany the street preaching of his dad (1909). His mother tried to teach him organ and piano but he preferred to play by “ear.” His adored mother died in 1920 of diabetes and in a disagreement with his father, who wanted Fats to follow him into the pastorate Fats moved out of the house at age 16 into the home of a childhood friend and neighbor, Russ Brooks. Rev. Waller approved the move, thinking it was good for both father and son. As Fats got more involved in the world of jazz music the estrangement from his father (and mother before her death) became more pronounced. They thought jazz words and music were degenerate and demoralizing and not appropriate for godly people. Fats was beginning to taste the debauched life of the Harlem music scene in the 1920 as he went whoring and boozing and partying. All this living large led him to his 300 pound frame, a Black Al Dubin. During this time of “living high on the hog” he met Edith Hatchett, who was from a devout Christian family in Harlem. The senior Wallers approved of Edith and the 17 year old Fats married her in l921 soon after his mother’s death. His marriage to the religious Edith may have been a reaction to his mother’s death, but in any case, Fats continued his profligate ways and satyristic lifestyle. Even with the announcement of the premature coming of his son in l921, Thomas, Jr., Fats was not to be slowed down. In l923 Edith and Fats finally had enough of each other and divorced with alimony expected from the fat piano player. Failure to pay landed Waller in jail several times in the next two decades as he spent his money on prostitutes and liquor. Never one to miss an opportunity to get drunk or party, Waller met 16 year old Anita Rutherford and married her in l926. She gave birth to their first son, Maurice, in l927. In l929 their second son, Ronald, was born. Still carousing, 29 year old Fats met 14 year old Una Mae Carlisle in 1932 and “brought her along the road to maturity in his own way” (Ed Kirkeby). Fats continued to perform for church concerts and benefits during the l930s. However, during this decade and remainder of his life, his alcoholism led to irresponsible conduct and no-shows which was affecting his career, driving him to Europe for engagements during the late 30s and early 40s.
Waller died in December 1943, of bronchial pneumonia in Kansas City on a train from Los Angeles to New York City. It is reported that Louie Armstrong, on a train waiting in the Kansas City station, cried all night on receiving the news of Waller’s death. His funeral was held at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and conducted by the congregation’s pastors Adam Clayton Powell, Jr and Benjamin Richardson. Powell would go on to serve 14 terms as a congressman from Harlem and be expelled from congress in l967 for ethics violations. Richardson, an accomplished musician and liberal activist, ended his ministry as a Unitarian pastor. It was estimated that over 5,000 people attended the funeral service and traffic was brought to a standstill for blocks around the church building. Pallbearers at the funeral included James P. Johnson, Andy Razaf and arranger and musician Don Redman.
There is an interesting quote from the Waller biography by his long time manager, Ed Kirkeby, as a summation of Waller’s spiritual worldview: “Despite all this dissipation, Fats did have his more spiritual moments. Outstanding in the memories of his bandsmen were countless times when, in the dressing-room between shows, Fats would read to them from the Bible. A confirmed student of the Good Book, which he had read since childhood, he could quote long passages and was adept at translating the Old Testament meanings into everyday terms. The imprint of his Christian upbringing never left him, and rather than using it to cloak his more worldly habits, the reverse is probably nearer the truth. Fats always insisted that his children went to Sunday School and, when asked why he didn’t go himself, he said simply that he didn’t think the life he led in the entertainment world qualified him for proper church attendance.”
From all reports, Waller came from godly folk with a pious heritage and a weak theological worldview. Unfortunately, Fats was not given the theological foundation upon which to rest his God-given gifts and talents and to build his musical career. His potential to be a great witness for the Jesus of his family was squandered by sinful living, self-serving character and a defective understanding of Christianity. It would be wonderful to think of Waller (and Andy Rasaf who also had Christian roots) enjoying the glory of the risen Christ in heaven but their lifestyles leave much room for doubt.
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