He liked to say simply that he played “jazz over a funky beat.”

RIP Melvin Sparks

Melvin Sparks (March 22, 1946 – March 13, 2011) was an American soul jazz, hard bop and jazz blues guitarist. He died on March 13, 2011 from complications from diabetes.




Melvin Sparks is the Essential Guitar Player! He’s The Master Of The Groove! The Acid-Jazz Pioneer! The Originator of Soul Jazz, Old School Acid Jazz & BarbecueFunk(FUNKJAZZ)

Over the last thirty years he has played with some of Jazz’s greatest musicians: David "Fathead" Newman, Lou Donaldson, Hank Crawford, Reuben Wilson and John Patton (are amongst the many). During the 1970s, Sparks backed up Lou Donaldson on the Funk-Jazz classics "Everything I Play Is Funky" and "Hot Dog".

Sparks recorded seven albums of his own and played on over 100 other albums. As a session man for Blue Note and Prestige Records, Sparks laid his signature guitar work on many other musician’s albums without ever being in spotlight. It was during this time that Melvin defined the jazz-guitar sound of a generation.

Melvin Sparks is still a much sought-after studio player, both new and old talents seek him out now more than ever. He continues to perform with the greats of this genre such as Leon Spencer Jr., Mike Clark and Idris Mohammed and is now breaking out his legendary guitar wizardry with many younger bands and artists such as Galactic, The Greyboy Allstars, Karl Denson's Tiny Univers, Derek Trucks and Robert Walter's 20th Congress.

Melvin is geared up to show us all what he does better than anyone else. Groove hard and in the pocket. Melvin Sparks has perhaps the most inspiring and soul-energizing guitar chops on this planet or another. He is admired by many performers, and audiences old and young alike, but continues to be a hidden treasure for music fans worldwide. He is Soul-Jazzy and Funky to the core! .

In the player below,

Melvin Sparks Band Live at Muddy River Smokehouse on May 28, 2004






Tr-01 Fire Eater
Tr-02 Alligator Boogaloo
Tr-03 Charlie Brown
Tr-04 Miss Riverside
Tr-05 Hot Dog
Tr-06 Pick up the Pieces
Tr-07 Texas Twister
Tr-08 Give Me the Night
Tr-09 Cherokee

Love In Outer Space

Earlier today,I stumbled upon this cool video for "Love In Outer Space" by Sun Ra.

Happy (Belated) New Year!

It's been nearly a month since my last post.
Please enjoy these jazz performances, as I ease myself back into blogging mode.


"Night in Tunisia"

by The Quintet (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach) at Massey Hall, Toronto 1953




... and the British acid jazz trio Red Snapper playing "Space Sickness"

TDIMH: NOLA Brass Funk Rock

Bonerama Live at Tupelo Music Hall on October 24,2009

"Even in a city that doesn’t play by the rules, New Orleans’ Bonerama is something different. They can evoke vintage funk, classic rock and free improvisation in the same set; maybe even the same song. Bonerama has been repeatedly recognized by Rolling Stone, hailed as “the ultimate in brass balls” (2005) and praised for their “…crushing ensemble riffing, human-feedback shrieks and wah-wah growls” (2007). Bonerama carries the brass-band concept to places unknown; what other brass band could snag an honor for “Best Rock Band” (Big Easy Awards 2007)? As cofounder Mark Mullins puts it, “We thought we could expand what a New Orleans brass band could do. Bands like Dirty Dozen started the “anything goes” concept, bringing in the guitars and the drum kit and using the sousaphone like a bass guitar. We thought we could push things a little further.”

New Orleans’ fertile club scene was directly responsible for Bonerama getting together. Trombonists Mullins and Craig Klein were both members of Harry Connick’s band, where they’d been since 1990. Both were looking to supplement this gig with something a little less structured. “Harry sets the bar pretty high, and you have to play it the same way every night for everyone to follow.”

The big chance came in the summer of ’98, when Mullins had a weekly residency at Tipitina’s in the French Quarter. The club was then turning weekly slots over to some of the city’s favorite musicians, including Allen Toussaint and Cyril Neville; Mullins got charge of Wednesdays. Word got out one week that he and Klein were staging their trombone super-session and everybody they knew wanted to get involved. “It seemed that half the trombone players in town showed up,” Klein recalls. “At the end of the night we had them all onstage, maybe fifteen trombones at once. It sounded like a freight train; a big wall of sound coming right at you.”

Along with his jazz connections, Mullins is Bonerama’s resident rock ‘n’ roller: It was Mullins who instigated the offbeat classic-rock covers that have become a band tradition. Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” was the first nugget to get the treatment and songs by Hendrix, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Allman Brothers Band have since appeared in their set right alongside the funk and jazz-flavored numbers. “There’s definitely something about the guitar and the trombone that are related,” Mullins figures. “You compare the fretboard to the slide; there’s a lot of similarity there.” Indeed, the sounds Mullins makes by playing through a guitar amp and wah-wah pedal may explain why he’s named Jimi Hendrix as one of his favorite trombonists. “It’s great to grab people with the rock songs, and then turn them on to some New Orleans music at the same time,” Klein says.

The buzz on Bonerama grew with hometown acclaim (with the band winning numerous OffBeat Magazine Awards; and Mullins regularly topping OffBeat’s trombone category), lots of roadwork, and three live albums – the first recorded close to home at the Old Point in Algiers; the second on tour in New York and the third album, Bringing It Home, recorded live from New Orleans’ world famous nightclub, Tipitina’s. The Boston Herald called them a “bonehead’s dream”; the Vail (CO) Daily noted that “the sound is fat and wet; sometimes downright lusty.” As hometown music zine OffBeat put it, “That nerdy kid in the band room with the trombone just might have the last laugh after all.”"


www.BoneramaMusic.com

set one (66:11)

01. intro
02. Funky Miracle
03. Bap Bap
04. Hero
05. Big Fine Woman
06. A Deeds Well Done
07. I Want To Ta-Ta You Baby
08. Yer Blues
09. I Don't Mean Nothin'


set two (74:25)

01. I'm Tellin' Ya
02. Bayou Betty
03. Whipping Post
04. Louie's Perch
05. Folsom Prison Blues
06. Down By The Riverside
07. banter/band intros
08. Moby Dick
09. encore intro
10. Blues For Ben

Download

Saxophone Colossus

American jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins celebrates his 80th birthday today.
Born Theodore Walter Rollins in New York City, Sonny has become one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the post-bebop era.
Rollins is recognized by many for the length and quality of his career, one not easily matched in the world of jazz. His melodic sensibilities, playing style and solos have also influenced several generations of musicians.



Sonny is still touring and recording, having outlived most of his contemporaries such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Art Blakey, all performers with whom he recorded.

"Strode Rode" - from the album Saxophone Colossus:



Sonny Rollins — tenor saxophone
Tommy Flanagan — piano
Doug Watkins — bass
Max Roach — drums

Sonny Rollins was elected to the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1973.

Pssst, don't forget to click on the photos!

"Oranj Symphonette Plays Mancini"

"Free Improvisation is a lot of fun for the musicians, but it has a tendency to leave the audience in the dust. However, when your original reference point is as well known as, say, 'The Pink Panther Theme', you don't lose people on the ride. There is a long jazz tradition of re-working popular songs into vehicles for improvisation. This band just gets its material from some unusual sources."- Matt Brubeck

There have been numerous tributes to the music of Henry Mancini, but none have been half as zany as this Oranj Symphonette release from 1996.



Cellist/bassist Matt Brubeck (the band's leader and son of jazz legend Dave Brubeck) met guitarist Joe Gore and Ralph Carney (sax, trombone and slide clarinet) while recording the Tom Waits soundtrack album for the film Night On Earth in the early 1990's.
In 1993 they became a group with the addition of drummer Scott Amendola and began playing in the San Francisco area on a part-time basis the following year with their main purpose being to reinvent Henry Mancini songs. With Pete Scaturro added on organ and Diarmid contributing zither playing and bird calls, the band tears apart a dozen Mancini tunes on their frequently hilarious debut album.

Today's Date In Music History: Banyan

Live at Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco, CA - January 13, 2007

Banyan is an art rock/jazz/punk/improv group, based in Los Angeles, California.
The band is led by drummer Stephen Perkins (Janes Addiction, Porno for Pyros). The core members of the band are Nels Cline (Wilco) on guitar, Willie Waldman on trumpet and Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Dos, Stooges) on bass. Mike Watt also sings on some Banyan songs.
L.A. artist Norton Wisdom paints on a wet-erase board while the band plays, and the imagery he creates interprets the music much in the same way that lyrics might.
Saxophone player Steve Mackay (Stooges) has also joined the group during select live shows.
In liner notes and personal conversations, members of the band cite both Igor Stravinsky and Miles Davis as influences.



1.) Mad as a Hornet 2.) Oh My People 3.) A Million Little Laughs 4.) El Sexxo 5.) Lovin Them Pounds 6.) TV Eye 7.) Om Om Om 8.) Maggot Brain 9.) A Love Supreme 10.) Fun House 11.) New Old Hat
12.) E Ticket Ride 13.) We Are Time

Download full show

More Live Banyan

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The Americana Outlaw Murder Ballad Queen

"Some people have cars, some people have houses
hell some folks are married...but that's all the same to me as long I have my guitar and my songs..."

Texas-based songstress Izzy Cox (aka the “Murder Ballad Queen”) croons in a clear, honeyed soprano that slinks and slides against voodoobilly jazz, bouncy Western swing and honky tonkin’ blues. Her songs reflect a perverse sense of humor and feature a colorful cast of hard-bitten women, from a hoodoovoodoo type of girl who likes switchblades and Colt 45, to a mad woman in the 'Number Nine Ward' with voices in her head telling her she’s dead, to “Belle Gunness,” one of America’s most notorious female serial killers.

A bit of swing, jazz, country and old time --with a dark twist, Cox's songs are influenced by old movie soundtracks, old time bar room blues, and country singers. Her lyrics are like diary entries; stories of serial killers, buckaroo cowboys, and snake handlers.
Izzy had an unusual childhood, for the formative years of her life she would live in both rural Texas, and Montreal.Throughout her moving around she was part of a religious organization where she played in marching bands. At the age of twelve she found the traveling bug, she lived and worked in horse racing tracks, traveled with circuses and took part of many early punk rock mosh pits.

Izzy Cox has dedicated her life to touring & playing music & writing songs about her experiences.

Below you will find an in-studio performance by Izzy Cox & The Naughty Outlaws from KAOS radio.

1) Bad Bad Woman 2) Lazy Feista (Just a Feeling) 3) I Had a Dream Last Night 4) It Must Be Love 5) Electric Chair 6) Hoodoovoodoobilly Gal 7) Alone And Forsaken 8) Fucking And Fighting 9) Man of the Cloth 10) Killer From Hawaii 11) Killing My Own Kind 12) Devil Devil > Belle Gunness

(download mp3)

Bonus Video:

Shotgun Party

Sorry MC, no "sporting equipment", I refer to the fantastic musicians that comprise the old time pickin' band Shotgun Party.

The original Shotgun Party trio, "Two females and one bass slappin' man," met in a little Texas dive bar in 2006. They got their start performing weekly at Austin's own Continental Club. Their original songs are beautiful and timeless drawing influences from early blues, country, bluegrass and depression era swing.

In the player below, you'll find a wonderful set performed live in the KAOS studio for the Smooth & Demented Show from August 2007.



Track Listing:
1) Haunted House Bear
2) More Romantic Than Texas
3) The Builder
4) Operatar
5) Little Heart Tune
6) Holy Needles
7) Yell Out the Chords
8) New Mexico
9) Travelin' On

*Download complete performance*

... and if you like what you hear, be sure not to miss this related post!

"a little bit of Betty Boop, a little bit of bluegrass and an entire zoo of instruments..."

Today's Date In Music History:

The Asylum Street Spankers Live at Cedar Cultural Center Minneapolis, MN - November 22, 2006

They've been called a postmodern jug band and "Hee-Haw for hipsters," among other things. The Asylum Street Spankers combine theatrics, comedy and jaw-dropping musicianship to give their audience a new dimension in live musical entertainment--a fine balance between sin and salvation.
The Asylum Street Spankers began 15 years ago during a booze and hallucinogen-fueled party in Texas. Since then the revolving-door Austin ensemble has performed a unique brand of acoustic music that mixes sounds of the 1920's and 1930's with punk attitude and ribald humor.



Setlist: 1) Monkey Rag 2) Golden Fleece 3) Asylum Street Blues 4) Breathin' 5) Leaf Blower 6) Think About your Troubles 7) You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox 8) banter
9) Smokin' Resin From A Tin Can 10) Wake & Bake 11) Hick Hop 12) Why Do It Right?
13) banter 14) Tight Like That 15) My Favorite Record 16) Winning The War On Drugs
17) The Minor Waltz 18) banter 19) Big Noise At Winnetka
20) Don't Ask No Questions 21) Oh Daddy 22) Stick Magnetic Ribbons On Your SUV
23) If You Love Me (You'll Sleep On The Wet Spot) 24) Wammo's Blues 25) Smokey Dokey 26) Sidekick 27) banter 28) Digga Digga Do 29) crowd/banter 30) BEER

*Download complete show*

Keith Noel Emerson

British keyboard player and composer Keith Emerson was born 65 years ago today. Keith is best known for his work with progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Emerson grew up in the seaside resort of Worthing, West Sussex, England. As a child, he learned western classical music, from which he derived a lot of inspiration to create his own style, combining classical music, jazz, and rock themes.
Emerson became intrigued with the Hammond organ after hearing jazz organist Jack McDuff perform "Rock Candy" and it subsequently became his instrument of choice



The song in preceding video, "Knife Edge", is based on Sinfonietta by Leoš Janáček.Keith Emerson has recorded many pieces based on other composers' works (a list rivaled only by Jimmy Page).

Bonus: here's a link to view ELP Live at California Jam 1974 (53 min.)

Joyful Noise

Today's Date In Music History:

Derek Trucks Band Live at The Paradiso on October 16, 2005

Four years ago today, guitar phenom Derek Trucks led his band through an amazing set at Amsterdam's famed Paradiso in the Netherlands. The performance finds the group covering a variety of musical genres --southern rock, blues, soul, jazz, Eastern music, to name a few.
Derek is the nephew of Butch Trucks (a fellow member of the Allman Brothers Band) and is married to fellow guitar wiz Susan Tedeschi .

This recording is from an FM broadcast on Dutch radio.

• My Favorite Things

• Let's Go Get Stoned

• Crow Jane

• Sahib Teri Bandi

• So Close...So Far Away

• Key To The Highway

• joyful Noise

Download show here.

Miles Davis - Isle of Wight 1970

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Excerpts from the documentary Miles Electric - A Different Kind of Blue

Miles Davis - Trumpet
Gary Bartz - Alto, Soprano saxes
Keith Jarrett - RMI ElectraPiano/organ
Chick Corea - Hohner Electra-Piano
Dave Holland - Bass
Jack DeJohnette - Drums
Airto Moreira - Percussion

"If Bitches Brew was a calling card to a more dense, rock and funk-inflected Miles, the group that followed pushed the limits even further, with a thick and, at times, nearly unfathomable chaos that clearly challenged anyone who thought that Miles had 'sold out.'"-John Kelman

Here's a link to the introduction by Keith Jarrett

"Sheets of Sound"

Jazz Saxophonist and composer John Coltrane was born 83 years ago today.
The phrase “sheets of sound" refers to the tenor saxophonist's cascades of arpeggios.
Coltrane reshaped modern jazz and influenced generations of other musicians.
John Coltrane performed constantly during most of his career. Sadly, John would pass on July 17, 1967.






*

It was 50 years ago today...

The musical Milestone, Kind of Blue was released.

Kind of Blue was released by trumpeter/bandleader Miles Davis on August 17th 1959, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.
The recording sessions for the album took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959
.The sessions featured Davis's ensemble sextet, which included pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

The Houston Hipster: Smokey Wood

"Smokey was shouting blues vocals, pumping kick-ass swing piano, and puffing all the weed that the Lone Star State could supply. He lived the life he sang about - lived it in dingy beer joints and one-lung radio stations far from the networks and international promoters. While a later breed of urban cowboy would make it big in the media, Wood, under a cloud of friendly, fragrant smoke, just faded away into obscurity".

Western swing pianist Smokey Wood was born John Bryce Wood in September 1918 in Harrison, Arkansas, where his father was a railroad engineer and his mother a piano player.
He spent the majority of his childhood in Oklahoma before moving to Houston in 1935 at the age of 17.
Wood set out from Muskogee, OK, bringing his band the Oklahoma Playboys with him. Proudly wearing their jazz influences in a country guise, Wood and his early musical cohorts found it hard to break into Houston's music scene; with influences like Fats Waller (also a favorite of Bob Wills), Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Stephen Foster, Houston's musical powers didn't quite know what to do with the group and generally ignored them.
Times were tough due to the depression and they started to make music in the beer joints out of Houston, earning one dollar a night with some tips extra.

Aside from music, Smokey Wood's greatest love was for the "wacky tobacky", or as it's better known: marijuana.
According to some accounts, Wood was high most of the time and would even smoke on the bandstand when the notion grabbed him.
To further put things in perspective, Wood's love was so big, he usually kept at least a pound or two around for safe keeping and would spare his lean budget by growing some plants of his own.
Smokey was also known as "The Houston Hipster" and his reputation was that of "a pot-smoking, whiskey-drinking, womanizing, fun-loving Western swing guy."
Wood played in a series of bands near the end of the Thirties– most notably the Modern Mountaineers with fellow pothead and ace fiddler J.R. Chatwell.
Smokey Wood would also work part time in a Houston gas station, where the job consisted of filling tanks, wiping windshields, and selling pot in quantity.
He continued performing, but he and Chatwell were booted out of a Bob Wills side project for living the nightlife instead of playing it.
Wood played and recorded sporadically until the end of his life. He moved around a lot, played the carnival circuit, ran a flea market, and mostly raised fighting cocks and grew marijuana until his death in 1975.

Smokey Wood & His Woodchips (1937):
Carry Me Back To Virginny; I'm Sorry; Keep On Truckin'; Lonely Heart Of Mine; Moonlight In Oklahoma; Riding To Glory; Woodchip Blues; Wood's Traveling Blues

Artie Shaw

Born Arthur Arshawsky (May 23, 1910), Artie Shaw helped define the big band and swing music eras. Shaw was a clarinetist considered on par with the great Benny Goodman. He was also famous for his many marriages, including marriages to actresses Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Evelyn Keyes, as well as "Forever Amber" author Kathleen Winsor.
In the 1950's, Artie left music behind to concentrate on literature, authoring two collections of short fictions. He died at his Thousand Oaks, California home at the age of 94.

In the player below:
I Get A Kick Out Of You; Innuendo; Krazy Kay; Love Walked In; Moon Face; Mucho De Nada; Needle nose; No Name Jive; Octoron; Oh, Lady Be Good

Stanley Clarke is 58

Renowned bass guitarist Stanley Clarke celebrates his birthday today.
Born in Philadelphia on June 30, 1951, Stanley Clarke burst onto the jazz scene in the early '70's.
Clarke instantly became recognized for his ferocious dexterity on the bass. He was an expert performing the instrument’s traditional role as a timekeeper, yet he possessed a sense of lyricism and melody inspired by his bass heroes Charles Mingus, and Scott LaFaro, as well as non-bass players like John Coltrane. It was also in the early 1970's, that Stanley teamed with pianist Chick Corea in the group Return To Forever, one of the chief bands that ushered in the evolution of the jazz fusion genre.
Throughout the following decades, Clarke teamed numerous musicians, both on tour and in the studio (including world tours with Jeff Beck, Keith Richards’ New Barbarians).
His creativity has been recognized and rewarded in most every conceivable manner, ranging from gold and platinum records, GRAMMY Awards, Emmy Awards, and winner of virtually every readers and critics poll in existence including being named Rolling Stone’s very first Jazzman of the Year, and bassist winner of Playboy’s Music Award for ten straight years.
Stanley has also composed numerous film and television scores.

Clarke has most recently toured and recorded as part of the bass supergroup SMV, which also featuers Marcus Miller and Flecktone Victor Wooten.

"SMV is a bass supergroup formed in 2008. The group's name comes from the first initials of each of its members, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten. SMV's debut album, Thunder, was released on August 12, 2008, with a supporting world tour beginning the same month." via Jolly Joker (includes dl links)

His High-de-Highness of Ho-de-Ho

Cab Calloway was a legendary figure in American pop culture.An energetic showman, gifted singer and talented actor, Calloway also led one of the greatest bands of the Swing Era.
Through his "party" songs and Hepster's Dictionary, Calloway provided a vast lexicon for the youth subculture that surrounded the swing genre
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was born on Christmas Day 1907 in Rochester (DRINK!), NY.--the family would later move to Baltimore, MD.His middle-class parents had hoped that Cabell would become a lawyer (as his father), but the young Calloway had dreams of being an entertainer,and despite his parents' disapproval of jazz, Calloway began frequenting and eventually performing in many of Baltimore's jazz clubs.It was in one of these clubs, that he met trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who taught him to sing in the scat style.


In 1930, the Cotton Club emerged as a hip new night spot in Harlem, known for its lavish stage shows and talented musicians — most notably Duke Ellington. Calloway's singing and showmanship captured the attention of the owner, and his band was hired to replace the Ellington band.
In 1931, Calloway and his manager, Irving Mills, put together a song that will forever be identified with Calloway: "Minnie the Moocher." That song and "St. James Infirmary Blues" and "The Old Man Of The Mountain" were performed for the Betty Boop animated shorts; Minnie the Moocher, Snow White and The Old Man of the Mountain, respectively. Through rotoscoping, Calloway not only gave his voice to these cartoons but his dance steps as well.

Betty Boop: The Old Man Of The Mountain (1933):

By the late 1930s, Calloway's band was one of the top-grossing acts in jazz, and had become a proving ground for young talents such as Dizzy Gillespie.By the late '40s, however, Calloway's financial mismanagement and gambling caught up with him, and the band broke up.

In his later career Calloway became a popular personality, appearing in a number of films (among them Hi De Ho, in which Cab Calloway plays himself in a plot about jealousy, night clubs, and gangsters) and stage productions that utilized both his acting and singing talents.Many of you may remember him best for his role in 1980's The Blues Brothers.


In May 1994, Calloway suffered a stroke then died six months later on November 18, 1994.

In the player below:
MINNIE THE MOOCHER; Moon at Sea; Old Yazoo; Peckin'; REEFER MAN; She's Tall, She's Tan, She's Terrific; SMOKIN REEFERS; THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE; The Scat Song



... and as an added bonus, here's Cab Calloway's "The Man From Harlem" recorded on November 30, 1932.



This track is eerily similar to Lou Reed's "I'm Waiting for the Man" from The Velvet Underground's 1967 debut album.

That Cat Fats

Last weekend a film was posted over at Pass The Popcorn Please.That film, Tin Pan Alley Cats, -which depicts Fats Waller as a cartoon cat-got me to thinkin' that I should briefly resurrect my old series to pay homage to this great artist.

Fats Waller

Thomas Wright Waller (May 21, 1904 - December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer.
Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era. His songs have become standards of the jazz repertoire.
Fats wrote many songs, among them are "Squeeze Me" (1919), "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now", "Ain't Misbehavin'" (1929), "Blue Turning Grey Over You", "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" (1929), "Honeysuckle Rose" (1929), and "Jitterbug Waltz" (1942). He collaborated with the Tin Pan Alley lyricist Andy Razaf.
Waller also composed stride piano display pieces such as "Handful of Keys", "Valentine Stomp" and "Viper's Drag."
In addition to his virtuosic playing, Waller was known for his many quips during his performances, including:- "One never knows, do one?" ... "No lady, we can't haul your ashes for 25 cents, that's bad business" ... "Mercy!" ... "Well, all right then!" ... "I wonder what the poor people are doing - I'd love to be doing it with them!" ... "Run in and stab me, but don't bruise me!" ... "Wot's da matta wit DAT?!" ... and - of a large lady vocalist - "All that meat and no potatoes!"


The last few years of Waller's life involved frequent recordings and extensive tours of the USA. In early 1943, he returned to Hollywood to make the film Stormy Weather with Lena Horne and Bill Robinson, in which he led an all-star band including Benny Carter and Zutty Singleton.
Fats contracted pneumonia and died on a cross-country train trip near Kansas City, Missouri on December 15, 1943. His ashes were flown and spread over Harlem by the famous World War I aviator known as "The Black Ace".


In the player below; 18th Street Stomp (1926), Baby, Oh Where Can You Be (1929), Blue Black Bottom (1926), Loveless Love (1926), Numb fumbling (1929), Savannah Blues (1926), The Digah's Stomp (Pipe Organ Solo) (1927), Valentine stomp (1929), You Rascal, You! (1929)