Theatre organist and pianist Thomas "Fats" Waller piano roll

[RobinPratt]

I think the "as played by" came much later than the original issue of these rolls.

[Yaledmot]

@RobinPratt I will defer to the experts. Until I hear otherwise from them, it is not JLC.

[RobinPratt]

@Yaledmot - I roughly estimate to have heard over 50,000 piano rolls in the past 60 years. I hear lots of JLC "tricks" in there. It is a nice roll recording, albeit "arranged" by the roll company. 

However, you may be right.

Have a great holiday!

[RobinPratt]

Great recording, but sounds more like J. Lawrence Cook, QRS's house pianist who could imitate all kinds of pianistic styles.

[Yaledmot]

@RobinPratt (Part 1) Could be, but not in this case. A dead give-away for the QRS J.L.C. knock offs was the label that read: "As played by "Fats" Waller." I am not interested in the knock-offs and will not post them regardless of how good J.L.C. is. When J.L.C. is being himself, he is great.

[Yaledmot]

@RobinPratt (Part 2) The faking of Waller was little more than a publicity stunt allowed by QRS and supposedly it flattered Waller who did not raise a stink about the knock-offs. Anytime you buy a roll that says "as played by..." you can bet it is a knock off.

[Yaledmot]

@RobinPratt (Part 3) The late KO Eklund did a very nice rollography on Waller's real-time roll recordings. Having QRS say "Played by "Fats" Waller" and "As played by "Fats" Waller" gives some degree of clarity to the roll purchaser.

[AAErikCO]

@Yaledmot

I can postulate Fats did record some of these rolls, but likely most if not all of them were edited; so that being said they could make it sound like anyone. I seem to recall from the JLC interview he said he was sad knowing that they couldn't capture everything Fats was doing on the piano during recording; technical limitations. But note the pianist was always at the editor's mercy. i.e Do I add marimba effect here or there, yes or no? (Obvious answer is always a H-E-L-L NO! lol)

[Yaledmot]

@AAErikCO ABsolutely so. If you listen to my posting of organist Jesse Crawford playing "Im Forever Blowing Bubbles" on a piano roll. There is no way in creation one person could do all those repetitions "tremolo" without editing help. Still, the Waller style is clearly obvious regardless of what the roll recording equipment of the day could capture.

[05Toamasina1938]

The version By James Blythe is much better

Listening to Fats it is obvious that Clarence Johnson tried to IMITATE him

[Yaledmot]

@05Toamasina1938 Blythe rolls are very hard to find. I prefer to find originals, even if some body and fender work needs to be done to the originals.

[05Toamasina1938]

@Yaledmot

I know

Thanks anyway

[Yaledmot]

@05Toamasina1938 P.S. Anything by Blythe is better.

[AmazingChucklez]

GREAT SOUND on this!!! I can watch the roll going through too!!! Get into to this professionally! This is great! Do ALL Fat's songs, and James P, Johnson rolls too...

Great job on this!!!

Thanks!!!

Chucklez

[aknabea]

Wonderful!

[KawhackitaRag]

I firmly believe that Clarence Johnson may have influenced James P. Johnson and Fats Waller as much as they influenced him. Unfortunately, as my friend Bob Pinsker has told me, recordings, sheet music, and piano rolls are not surefire ways to chronologically trace the development of a music and the influences of musicians upon each other. Enough was not recorded and/or plagiarized back in the day that there is always a bit of speculation about such things.

[KawhackitaRag]

Interestingly, as far as I can tell, Clarence Johnson is not mentioned anywhere in Willie "The Lion" Smith's extensive recollections of New York and/or Chicago, which may mean they had never met. I don't believe James P. Johnson mentions him either, although I don't have a copy of JPJ's interviews to confirm this. Clarence Johnson is not recalled by Jesse Crump, either, although Crump remembered both Clarence Jones and Jimmy Blythe, and said some nice things about them.

[BernatPianoBlues]

thanks for posting this video, i didn't know this song, but it seemed to me to know it so I started to look in my iTunes and found that some parts are close a tune by James P. Johnson, and the intro sounds like Jelly Roll Morton's Shoe Sinner's Drag. Very interesting. Really, this song is much in Johnson's style, isn't it? As other recordings from early 20s, when he was still closer to the style of his teacher, using this kind of barrelhouse bass lines, broken octaves, shuffle-like...

thanks!

[Yaledmot]

And don't forget James Blythe. They may not have all personally known each other, though many did. Via records and piano rolls they all got to "hear" each other and build upon each other's talent.

[BernatPianoBlues]

Yeah, i didn't forget! But I thought nobody would know about him!! The first thing I did when I listen to that was look if I had this song played by James P Johnson or Jimmy Blythe, happy to know people still remember's the virtuoso Blythe!

[Yaledmot]

And from what I have read, Blythe (who was from Chicago) never met James P or Waller. Somewhere on U Toob I ha ve posted a couple of Blythe piano rolls. My favorite is the "I've Got the Yes We Have No Bananas Blues."

[BernatPianoBlues]

i completely agree

[KawhackitaRag]

Jimmy Blythe's friend Clarence Johnson went to New York and very probably met James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and others. He is known to have co-written some songs with Clarence Williams (and Spencer Williams?) and also recorded several sides in New York, accompanying singers Lizzie Miles, Edna Hicks, and Monette Moore.

He also made some piano rolls there for the QRS and Aeolian companies.

[KawhackitaRag]

Before Clarence Johnson left Chicago for New York in 1923, he had made some rolls for the U.S. Music Co. and also many for the Columbia Music Roll Co.

After he returned to Chicago, he resumed where he left off at Columbia (which would soon be renamed the Capitol Roll and Record Co.). A little while later he would record in Chicago with singers Priscilla Stewart and Sodarisa Miller. At some point, he also made some rolls for the Billings Roll Co. in Wisconsin, on their "Staffnote" label.

[Wallerfan]

Duh. I should have written "about Fats's skill at the organ". It's late, as I write this.

[Wallerfan]

Excellent!! This has always been one of my favorite Waller rolls. At the risk of being pedantic, Fats did not say, "The pipe organ is the instrument of my soul. The piano is the instrument of my stomach." A Chicago critic named Ashton Stevens wrote that in a column about Fats's skill at the piano.

[Yaledmot]

It is good to know that. But at least it was *said*/written.

[deancook652]

According to the biography written by his son Maurice, Fats did exactly say "Playing the piano feeds my stomach, playing the organ feeds my soul." Somehow, the quote has been slightly twisted over the years, but the gist is the same.

[allendale1962]

Loved the Roll. I am a big Fats Waller fan. I also play ragtime piano, fats had some influences in my training for the piano. DelWood was also a major factor also! Check out my videos when you can! Sincerely, Allendale1962

[Yaledmot]

Frankly, I think the date of this piano's building is more like 1917 or early 1918. On the piano action, written in pencil is a date something like 11/17/17. I know of other AMICA members who have similar age Beckwith players--also claimed to be from 1902. That is exceptionally early for even a 65n player let alone 88n. As I have said elsewhere, I find the 1902 date highly questionable.

Thanks to the efforts of Art Reblitz, some fairly accurate dating was done on the Seeburg L machines.

[1947Desoto]

I agree with 1917 or 1918. There's a 1916 Straube player piano on youtube that has the same look.

[autopiano]

I think far more likely, that the serial numbers lists that are used to determine the age of pianos these days are inaccurate. It happens quite frequently. There's almost no possibility this piano is from 1902. I'm guessing about 1916. It's in beautiful condition btw - I love your videos.

[Yaledmot]

If it was changed, the piano action, stack, tracker bar was changed as well. All "lifters" are on the key action.

This must have been some sort of delux upright for its day. The sustain is controlled from the roll (you can see the lever moving in some of the videos.) It also has pneumaticly controlled bass soft and treble soft, AND a mandolin action. Every inch of it looks dead original.

[TheHazeyQ]

Thank you so much for posting this! It's gorgeous!

[hotsickle]

I always understood the early player pianos could only play the middle 65 notes of the piano. Yours is obviosly playing the full keyboard. Do you think possibly they upgraded the player mechanism on this piano in the 20's