Word: waller
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cooked up some good ones before. Among them: Ain't Misbehavin', I've Got a Feelin' I'm Fallin', Keepin' Out of Mischief Now. Waller has collaborated with many a lyricist. Some of his best results he turned out with Andy Razaf, his favorite poet next to Longfellow.* During one rewarding session in retreat at Anbury Park, N.J., the two men turned out Zonky, My Fate Is in Your Hands and Honeysuckle Rose in two hours. Razaf had enticed Waller into his mother's Asbury Park home for a productive session away...
Keeping Tom Waller away from bars is a difficult feat. His capacity for both food & drink is vast. A Waller breakfast may include six pork chops. It is when he is seated at the piano that he most relishes a steady supply of gin. When his right-hand man, brother-in-law Louis Rutherford, enters with a tray of glasses, Tom will cry, "Ah, here's the man with the dream wagon! I want it to hit me around my edges and get to every pound...
...Early Days. That requires a lot of alcohol: Waller is 5 ft. 10 and weighs over 270 lb. That mass helps to account for the great strength of his basses, and makes his playing look as magisterial as it sounds. Whether he plays a stomping Dinah or lazy variations on When My Baby Smiles at Me, no other pianist gives quite his impression of commanding ease. Musicians he plays with sense it instantly, ease up themselves...
...steady job on the organ in Harlem's Lincoln Theater. He made Q.R.S. piano rolls, records with blues-singer Bessie Smith and Sarah Martin. The late Arnold Rothstein backed Waller's first show, Keep Shufflin'. On records Waller began to sing as well as play, and in his expressive mouth the inane words of a popular song often came in for very searching satirical treatment. In 1929, in collaboration with Guitarist Eddie Condon and a small but vital ensemble, he made one of the greatest jazz records of all time: The Minor Drag and Harlem Fuss...
Once a dewy-eyed young thing stopped Fats and inquired, "Mr. Waller, what is swing?" Said he: "Lady...