Fats Waller Ain't Misbehavin Stride Piano Sheet Music , Sheet Music Library (PDF)

Thomas Fats Waller Ain’t Misbehavin Stride piano sheet music, Noten, partitura, partition

Thomas Fats Waller

Born into a poor, religious and large family, Fats Waller’s father (New York, May 21, 1904 – Kansas City, December 15, 1943), was an evangelical preacher and his mother a piano player, and He was raised on songs, religious hymns, Bible reading and piano lessons. Despite his father’s attempts to keep him away from jazz, at the age of fifteen he was already playing the organ and piano in a Harlem movie theater to accompany the films.

Shortly afterwards, and after winning a competition for new pianists, he met the great James P. Johnson, the main representative at the time of the so-called “Harlem stride piano” school, who offered him his protection and accepted him as a disciple.

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Married when he was barely eighteen years old, at that age he already knew all the secrets of the piano and obtained a contract at “Leroy’s”, one of the best clubs in Harlem. In 1924 his first songs were recorded on solo piano and he achieved his first famous composition: “Squezze Me.” From the great success he obtained, his reputation as an inexhaustible, fruitful and magnificent composer grew to be one of the most brilliant figures on the Harlem musical scene.

In the second half of the twenties, his musical activity was even more intense, first in Chicago, where he played with Erskine Tate’s orchestra and then in 1927 he wrote music for the musical revue “Keep Shufflin” where he performed in a duet with the great James P. Johnson. The organizers of that show and given the resounding success, commissioned him to write the music for another show: “Hot Chocolates”, in which Louis Armstrong would participate. Two of those songs were destined to be absolute jazz classics: “Black and Blue” and “Ain’t Misbehavin.”

With the arrival of the Depression of ’29, Fats Waller went to Paris in the company of his friend, the composer, Spencer Williams, to try to improve his income but he had to borrow money to pay for his return to New York. Things changed almost miraculously upon his return, as he was offered a series of national radio programs for WLW under the title “Fats Waller’s Rhythm Club.”

That was the beginning of his luckiest period and album recordings, performances and concerts took place continuously under the name “Fats Waller and his Rhythm”, generally a quintet, which between 1934 and 1943, recorded more than four hundred songs. , in an absolutely wonderful and unique musical fertility in the world of jazz. During those extraordinary years, Waller played in concert halls, in small venues and also in variety shows, as a member of the Don Donaldson or Charlie Turner orchestras, or surrounded by his favorite musicians, the saxophonist, Gene Sedric, the trumpeter, Herman Autrey and guitarist, Al Casey.

Success also led him to Hollywood where he participated in several films and in 1938 and 1939, to Europe, specifically to England and Scandinavia. In London, Fats Waller recorded a very famous series of organ spirituals for the “His Master’s Voice” label and in a few days composed the “London Suite”, which consists of six movements dedicated to as many neighborhoods of the British capital.

On January 14, 1942, the guitarist, Eddie Condon, organized a concert in his honor, to which Waller appeared dressed in tails, but drunk as a drunk in front of three thousand people. The concert was a disaster and it was the beginning of the end. The doctors advised him to give up drinking – he always had a bottle of whiskey on his piano while he played, which he inevitably drank before finishing his performance – and he underwent alcohol detoxification treatment that never worked.

In 1943 he traveled to Hollywood to participate in the film “Stormy Weather”, a musical performed only by blacks and produced by 20th Century Fox and directed by Andrew Stone. Along with Waller, Benny Carter, Slam Stewart and Zutty Zingleton participated. His role was a success and with the audience in his pocket he was preparing to spend Christmas that year at home, but after a painful train trip in which the heating broke down, pneumonia ended his life while he was sleeping. He was only 39 years old, and he had left more than five hundred compositions written and recorded.

Fats Waller’s musical heritage is enormous. He composed hundreds of songs, recorded countless albums, entertained millions of people, introduced the organ into jazz, and as a pianist, he managed to reconcile opposing factors: in his muscular and virile touch, his relentless rhythm and his perfectly defined phrases there is also room for tenderness, feeling, grace and delicacy.

His influence on other pianists is notable and many later generations based themselves on his music to make jazz, among them: Count Basie, Art Tatum, Mary Lou Williams, Joe Sullivan and Erroll Garner. America always presented him as a jester and it is true that behind that sarcastic mimicry, behind his comic gestures and clown soul, there was an artist of extraordinary talent.