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Fats Waller Returns to New York
A new take on a classic jazz musician
Musician Fats Waller
There are few art forms that accurately depict New York City as acutely as jazz; the lively, constantly shifting, modern yet soulful and searingly human sound of the musical genre seems to completely capture New York in a way that is both celebratory and almost challenging of the massive metropolis. In the vast pantheon of New York Jazz Musicians, there were few as proficient at jazz as Fats Waller. Born Thomas Wright Waller and starting at Lincoln Theater in Harlem at the age of fourteen, he quickly went on to achieve great creative, (if often anonymous) success, writing over four hundred compositions, including “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling.” Fats lived up to his eclectic name in a larger-than-life career; at one point, he was kidnapped and forced to perform as a surprise guest of the gangster Al Capone! In the 1930s, he formed his own brand and toured extensively in America and England. Since his death in 1943, he has been increasingly posthumously celebrated as a major contributor to a beloved and classic art form.
On the weekend of April 16–17, at the Rose Theater, Waller will return to the city where he began in a new performance at Lincoln Center: “Hall of Fame: The Music of Fats Waller.” A pre-concert festival will begin at 6:30 PM featuring food, beverages, and live performances supplied by the Harlem Arts Center, the Jazz Museum in Harlem, Harlem Brewery and Spoonbread Restaurant among others. The main performance will be directed by Andy Farber, who will host a pre-concert discussion on Fats Waller beginning at 7 PM, while the show proper will begin at 8 PM, and will include an assortment of favorites composed by Waller. Musicians performing will include Andy Farber on saxophone, Ehud Asherie on piano, Ben Wolfe on bass, Doug Wamble guitar, Alvester Garnett on drums, and additional performers Dan Block on clarinet and saxophone, Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet, and vocalists Carla Cook and Allan Harris.
The new performance is sure to faithfully recreate and deconstruct the popular works of Fats Waller, and should be enjoyable both for long-time jazz aficionados as well as new inductees to the genre’s fandom. For more information and tickets to “Hall of Fame: The Music of Fats Waller” at Rose Theater in Lincoln Center, please visit www.jalc.org.