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Fats Waller (1904 - 1943) was an influential composer, jazz pianist, singer, organist, and comedic entertainer. His contributions to the Harlem stride style helped build the groundwork for modern jazz-piano. (Harlem stride piano is a jazz piano style that was developed in the large cities of the East Coast, mainly New York, during the 1920s and 1930s.)
Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, achieving great success in the United States and in Europe. He was also a prolific songwriter, and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as Honeysuckle Rose, Ain't Misbehavin', and Squeeze Me. Waller performed Bach organ pieces on occasion; and in 1926 and 1927, he recorded a series of pipe-organ solo records, the first time syncopated jazz compositions were performed on a full-sized church organ.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Waller sold many of his tunes for relatively small sums. When the compositions became hits, other songwriters claimed them as their own. Several standards have been controversially attributed to Waller.
A Broadway musical revue showcasing Waller tunes entitled Ain't Misbehavin' was produced in 1978. (The show and one of its stars, Nell Carter, won Tony Awards.) The show ran for more than 1600 performances, and then returned to Broadway in 1988.
His compositions Ain't Misbehavin' and Honeysuckle Rose were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999, and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. Fats Waller was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1989, into the Jazz at Lincoln Center Hall of Fame in 2005, and into the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in 2008.
Alligator Crawl, composed by Waller in 1934, is one of the few vintage jazz piano solos to incorporate both stride and boogie-woogie left-hand.
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Alligator Crawl
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