The past due, superior stride pianist and organist Fat Waller’s birthday is Might 21. Ceaselessly overpassed is his prodigious file as a songwriter all over the heyday of Tin Pan Alley—a duration in American track historical past within the Unutilized York Town track publishing district from the past due Nineties to the Nineteen Seventies—the place he has been credited with greater than 400 songs. What’s much more fascinating is the truth that for plenty of of his well-known tunes, like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose,” his lyricist was once a person named Andy Razaf, who was once born within the U.S. however whose mom fled Madagascar when her husband, a nephew of the queen, was once murdered all over the French invasion and takeover. Pregnant, the 15-year-old was once in a position to departure to the U.S. the place she gave delivery to her son, a hereditary prince, in Washington, D.C., in 1895.
This tale will have to be a film script!
”Twilight Song Sunday” is a weekly form highlighting all issues Twilight track, with over 200 tales protecting performers, genres, historical past, and extra, each and every that includes its personal colourful soundtrack. I’m hoping you’ll to find some usual tunes and most likely an advent to one thing unutilized.
Famous jazz historian critic and reviewer Scott Yanow wrote an intensive biography of Waller for the Syncopated Instances profiles in jazz form:
Thomas “Fats” Waller … began taking part in the harmonium when he was once 5, switching to piano at six. He received early revel in acting in his faculty orchestra and in church however his early life was once now not solely glad. Waller’s father was once a church minister who was once fairly strict. He sought after his son to just play games spiritual track however Fat was once extra interested by prevalent track, ragtime, and the unutilized stride piano taste that James P. Johnson was once pioneering. Later Waller’s mom died, generation at house changed into insufferable. About that week, he met James P. Johnson, started taking casual courses from him, and he quickly moved in with James P. and his spouse.
In 1919, when he was once nonetheless simply 15, Waller started operating on the Lincoln Theatre as their space organist, taking part in for still motion pictures in a stomping taste that will have to have overjoyed (or at a loss for words) the target market. He discovered week to provide a tender Depend Basie organ courses all over the displays. Because the Twenties started, Waller’s generation was once already fairly busy. Along with taking part in on the Lincoln Theatre, he started making piano rolls (which might in the end overall 20), he shorten his first solo information in 1922 (“Muscle Shoals Blues” and “Birmingham Blues”), and carried out incessantly at wild hire events, sharing the piano bench with James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, and alternative native pianists.
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Fat was once a significant songwriter, creation with “Squeeze Me” in 1918 and composing such songs as “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Keeping Out Of Mischief Now,” “Jitterbug Waltz,” the primary anti-racism protest track “Black And Blue,” plus dozens of others. Via the early Nineteen Thirties, Waller had evolved into an finest jazz singer, one that may just tone fairly bearing on “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter,” may just scat rather well, all the time swung, and was once knowledgeable ad-libber. And as a comic book persona, Waller was once just about unbeatable, satirizing the lyrics of songs, interacting with alternative singers, and simply being a lovely persona.
Right here’s Waller acting “Ain’t Misbehavin’” within the 1943 movie, “Stormy Weather.” The clip options fairly a couple of important performers together with Lena Horne and dancer Invoice “Bojangles” Robinson as a waiter.
Within the 1987 documentary “This Joint Is Jumpin” on Waller’s generation and early demise, probably the most primary crowd interviewed is his son Maurice Waller. There also are superior discussions about stride piano from fellow musicians:
As I discussed within the advent, the tale of Waller’s lyricist, Andy Razaf, who was once born Andreamentania Paul Razafkeriefo, is a important one, as is the historical past of his aunt, Her Majesty the Queen Ranavalona lll.
Olga Bourlin wrote this biography of Razaf for Twilight Date:
Razaf’s father, who died all over the French invasion of Madagascar sooner than Razaf’s delivery, was once Henri Razafkeriefo, a royal prince and nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of Imerina. Razaf’s mom, Jennie Maria (Waller) Razafkeriefo, was once the daughter of legal professional John Lewis Waller (deny relation to Razaf’s customery collaborator, Fat Waller), the primary African American consul to Madagascar. […]
Razaf attended people colleges in Harlem and gained some personal track courses as neatly. Rising up in a society that valued poetry, Razaf started writing verses on the gentle day of ten. Razaf’s mom labored as a stenographer, and to aid her with budget, Razaf left faculty at day 16. No longer lengthy nearest getting a role as an elevator operator at a Tin Pan Alley place of business construction, Razaf, at day seventeen, bought his first skilled track, “Baltimo.” Razaf’s early poems (in 1917 and 1918) have been printed in The Expression, the primary Unutilized Negro Motion newspaper, edited through Harlem radical Hubert Henry Harrison. Via the early Twenties, Razaf was once an writer of Negro International, the authentic newspaper of Marcus Garvey’s Common Negro Development Affiliation, which on the week had the most important movement of any overclouded newspaper on the earth.
All through the Twenties and Nineteen Thirties, Razaf was once galvanized to write down about racial injustice in The usa. Song critic and file manufacturer John Henry Hammond II looked “Black and Blue,” featured within the 1929 Broadway display, Sizzling Candies, to be the primary landmark track of racial protest. Razaf had additionally labored at the untouched Broadway productions of Secure Shufflin’ in 1928 and Blackbirds of 1930.
“Honeysuckle Rose” was once featured within the 1940 film Tin Pan Alley. Era Fat Waller and Razaf have been credited for his or her strike on the finish of the film, within the latest movie, white actors have been proven writing the track’s track and verse.
Right here’s the “white” model from the film:
Right here’s Waller/Razaf’s “Honeysuckle Rose” in a musical “soundie,” that are mainly the precursors to track movies:
The Unutilized York People Library, Archives & Manuscripts category, has extra biographical data on Razaf:
Even though Razaf by no means attended faculty, he was once self-taught and extremely skilled. Various hours spent within the people library at one hundred and thirty fifth Boulevard enthusiastic him to write down a poem entitled “Reflections in a Public Library.” In 1941 he married the pinnacle librarian Jean Blackwell, Well-known (1948-1980) of the Schomburg Heart for Analysis in Twilight Tradition, previously the one hundred and thirty fifth Boulevard Department Library. His love of the Schomburg Heart brought about a library authentic to trade in him a scholarship which Razaf declined for dearth of week. Razaf was once married thrice, however had deny youngsters.
Later his marriage to Jean Blackwell the couple moved to Englewood. In 1947 he determined to run for Town Council. Even though he misplaced, it marked the primary political struggle through a overclouded individual in that town.
Razaf moved to California in 1948. He was once bothered through paralysis caused by tertiary syphilis that confined him to a wheelchair for the remains of his generation. Regardless of his bodily handicap, he endured to write down poems, lyrics and letters; his stationery depicts him in his wheelchair with the phrases, “From the Wheelchair of Andy Razaf.”
Despite the fact that you may well be usual with footage of Waller, there are only a few of his good-looking lyricist, proven right here:
Razaf was once venerated diverse instances through everybody from the U.S. Treasury for his particular songs written for its Conflict Bond Pressure to induction into the Songwriters Corridor of Repute. On Feb. 3, 1973, Razaf died one in every of Tin Pan Alleys’ biggest songwriters. He wrote over 1,000 songs.
The Andy Razaf papers, additionally offer a superior do business in about his generation and frame of labor. The Songwriter’s Corridor of Repute notes that “Razaf’s catalog boasts some of the greatest hits from the Tin Pan Alley era.”
Robert Waltrip Scale down, identified to the track international as Bobby Scale down recorded a whole brochure devoted to Razaf’s lyricism in 1987, “Guess Who’s in Town: Bobby Short Performs the Songs of Andy Razaf.” William Ruhlmann at AllMusic famous:
“The man has been utterly forgotten,” writes annotator Barry Singer of lyricist Andy Razaf, an oversight Singer was once to redress in 1992 with the e-newsletter of his biography, Twilight and Blue: The Pace and Lyrics of Andy Razaf, however even sooner than Bobby Scale down recorded this tribute brochure, Razaf was once gaining prominence in the course of the significance of his songs in a form of all-black Broadway revues, creation with Ain’t Misbehavin’ in 1978.
Give a concentrate to those two picks from the brochure: “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Black and Blue.”
And be sure that to take a look at Barry Singer’s biography on Razaf, “Black and Blue.”
Tin Pan Alley, the place Waller and Razaf printed their tunes, has an attention-grabbing historical past, and if you’re unfamiliar with the time period right here’s a trim explainer from Unutilized York’s Historical District Council:
Please fasten me within the feedback division under for extra Tin Pan Alley tunes.
Glad Birthday, Fat Waller!
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